"Then on January 3rd of 2009, about 2 months later, Satoshi Nakamoto turned the system on. He mined the very first block of the Bitcoin blockchain, the genesis block, block zero, the foundation. And every Bitcoin transaction that has ever happened in the 17 years since ultimately traces back to that single block on that single day in January of 2009."

… Just a pseudonym. And it was just nine pages of cold, precise, almost academic pros describing a complete alternative to the financial system that was that exact week collapsing into the laps of the people who were about to be bailed out. It's one of the most extraordinary documents of the 21st century and almost nobody at the time noticed. Then on January 3rd of 2009, about 2 months later, Satoshi Nakamoto turned the system on. He mined the very first block of the Bitcoin blockchain, the genesis block, block zero, the foundation. And every Bitcoin transaction that has ever happened in the 17 years since ultimately traces back to that single block on that single day in January of 2009. And here's where the story becomes legend. Because inside that Genesis block, Satoshi embedded a message. Not in the protocol, not in a comment. He put it inside what's called the Coinbase parameter of the first transaction, which is a field where the miner can put arbitrary data. And the data he put there that has been preserved forever in the im …