The Bitcoin White Paper's Birth Date Should Give Us All a Scare

This month marks not only the 10-year anniversary of the publication of Satoshi Nakomoto's now famous white paper, but it also marks a decade since the darkest days of the 2008 financial crisis.

With hindsight, the timing of the release of the bitcoin white paper and launching of the bitcoin network could hardly have been better.

Did Satoshi Nakomoto at the time fully grasp the historical significance and unique opportunity presented in autumn 2008 to kickstart a new financial system and motivate people to use a new currency?

The 2008 financial crisis reached its nadir with the collapse of Lehman Brothers on September 15, just six weeks before Satoshi Nakamoto published the bitcoin paper.

With the passage of time and post-crisis economic recovery, some may have forgotten just how serious the financial crisis was.

The economist Hyman Minsky developed a theoretical framework showing that reoccurring financial crises are an inherent feature of our current financial system.

Bitcoin steadily attracted more use and interest, and a growing group of people began to see that the innovation created by Satoshi's solution to the long bedeviling 'double-spending problem' in computer science could also serve as a cornerstone for creating a new and better financial system.

Regulations enacted in the wake of a crisis are too often easily rolled-back once the waters have calmed, and it can be difficult to sustain over time the momentum of social movements focused around obtuse subjects like financial system reform.

A new blockchain-powered financial infrastructure offers the possibility of long-lasting improvements and changes in the fundamental nature of our financial system.

In addition to computer science, mathematics, cryptography, and economics, we must also be sure to append the often-underemphasized skill of marketing to Satoshi Nakamoto's diversified CV. What we also now know 10 years on, with the millions of rapidly growing users of cryptocurrency, is that for those interested in reforming the financial system Satoshi's invention of bitcoin and blockchain technology has proven to be the ultimate "Treat."