What industry leaders would wish for Bitcoin's white paper 12th anniversary

While the crypto community decides whether Bitcoin was born - or merely conceived - 12 years ago, the fact is that Oct. 31, 2008, remains one of the most notable dates in humanity's modern history.

Exactly 12 years ago, Satoshi Nakamoto published what some have described as "a new bible" - Bitcoin's white paper.

Designed as a brand new "Purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash," many see the creation of Bitcoin as a response to a global financial crisis.

Cointelegraph's video team talked to Adam Back, co-founder and CEO of Blockstream, about the birth of Bitcoin.

Although Bitcoin has recently become more appealing than both Jesus and sex, at least among Reddit users, let's not forget that it's only Bitcoin's 12th anniversary and that many great achievements and challenges still lie ahead, though for this real-world saga, we can only hope to know how this story will end and who will emerge as the victor.

"For Bitcoin's birthday, I hope it brings financial freedom to billions of people around the world."

Muneeb Ali, CEO and co-founder at Blockstack PBC:."My wish for the 12th birthday of BTC is that it marks the new chapter for BTC where it starts going from a passive capital to actively deployed capital e.g., used as collateral in financial products. I think that's the next logical step on Bitcoin's path to becoming a reserve currency."

"The 12th anniversary of the Bitcoin white paper, which took nearly two years to reach a point where anyone was even able to buy a pizza with 10,000 Bitcoins, is an astounding example of Bill Gates' mantra that most people overestimate what can be done in a year, but underestimate what can be accomplished in a decade. Today, as Bitcoin passes a market cap of $260 billion, we have further market validation of Satoshi's paradigm and of the global hunger for fair, self-sovereign vehicles for wealth creation and management."

"I'd wish Bitcoin continued success in its adoption and many more years of a healthy, global network powered by the kind and caring miners."

"My wish is that either the European Commission, Switzerland or the United States decide to adopt the Bitcoin blockchain towards a new constitutional right of every citizen who has a decentralized blockchain on-chain wallet with his/her ID. This wallet will also be used by each country when and if they decide to adopt some UBI scheme."