Bitcoin’s original whitepaper reaches its 18th anniversary on October 31, 2026.
Whitepaper date
An archived email from Satoshi Nakamoto dated October 31, 2008 introduced a “fully peer-to-peer” electronic cash system and linked the paper Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.
From proposal to network
The Bitcoin Wiki’s record of the main-network genesis block dates it to January 3, 2009. That milestone marks the chain’s start after the whitepaper’s publication.
Source: BlockBeats flash, Satoshi Nakamoto Institute email archive and Bitcoin Wiki genesis-block record, accessed October 31, 2026.