This was the first Bitcoin transaction

Learn the story behind one of the most important moments in the history and evolution of Bitcoin, discover how the first Bitcoin transaction was made and the impact this event had on the world as we know it now.

On January 12, 2009, one of the most important milestones in the history of the Bitcoin: the first bitcoin transaction between Satoshi Nakamoto y Hal Finney. In this first transaction, which meant the beginning of the Bitcoin exchange, Nakamoto sent the entire 10 BTC to Finney. With this, it was clear that Bitcoin was a cryptocurrency with usable technology that would open the door to an unprecedented technological and economic revolution.

But what events led to this moment? What importance and impact has it had in the world?

The start of a revolution

Satoshi Nakamoto had a vision to change the financial world forever with the creation of Bitcoin. The initial engine of this vision was the World Financial Crisis of 2008, which gave an account of the enormous manipulation suffered by the world economy. Thus, and with the aim of creating a new digital, decentralized and private economic system, he undertook the work of creating Bitcoin.

On January 3, the first block was created (genesis block) from blockchain of Bitcoin. However, it was not until January 9, 2009, when Nakamoto would announce on the mailing list Metzdowd's cryptograp hy the launch of the first version of Bitcoin. With this launch, the growth of Bitcoin as an economic system would be unleashed.

By then, Bitcoin was very simple software, which seemed to be the union of several ideas in a rudimentary way. Nakamoto was not an expert programmer, but his skills were enough to start technology like this.

Next, after Nakamoto's presentation of Bitcoin, Hal Finney (a well-known cypherpunk) sent him a congratulatory message for his project. That way, Finney becamein the first person to take a public interest on the idea of ​​Bitcoin.

From this first interaction between Nakamoto and Finney, a constant communication would be born that would later lead us to great surprises.

Satoshi Nakamoto and Hal Finney, starting the bitcoin exchange

As soon as the Bitcoin source code came out, Hal Finney focused his attention on it. His first interventions showed a deep knowledge about the system and explanations that later led to several improvements to the initial software.

Nakamoto received several of these recommendations and comments positively. But apart from this exchange of public messages on the mailing list, Nakamoto and Finney shared personal emails. We see the result of this on January 10, 2009, when Finney wrote the following on his twitter account:

With this terse message a day after the Bitcoin code was released, Finney became the first person after Nakamoto to run Bitcoin software.

Finney's endorsement of Nakamoto became the first Bitcoin transaction on January 11, 2019. That day at 23:00 UTC, Nakamoto would send Finney a total of 10 BTC, thus executing the first Bitcoin transaction in history. We can continue to see the record of that historic transaction in the unalterable history of Bitcoin, under the next TX:

The start of something much bigger

However, this would not be the end of the collaboration between Finney and Nakamoto. Finney would continue in his efforts to support Nakamoto and that directed several observations to improve safety of the network against spam attacks and the dusting attack.

With this, Finney and Nakamoto would become the development duo that would propel Bitcoin on its way to what it is today. In fact, in 2013, Finney wrote on the famous forum Bitcointalk the following:

When Satoshi announced the first release of the software, I jumped on it immediately. I think I was the first person besides Satoshi to run Bitcoin. I mined block 70 something and received the first bitcoin transaction, when Satoshi sent me ten coins as proof. I had an email conversation with Satoshi over the next few days, mostly me reporting bugs and him fixing them.

This made it very clear the strong relationship of Finney and Nakamoto to promote this development. Above all, because they shared the vision that Bitcoin and its technology would be the future of the world economy.

The impact of the first Bitcoin transaction for the world

The milestone reached by Nakamoto and Finney would have big implications. First of all, demonstrated that Bitcoin technology worked. A secure, private, decentralized, censorship-resistant digital money system was in place. All you cypherpunks like David Chaum, Nick Szabo y Wei dai they dreamed came true.

However, it was this individual or group of individuals known as Satoshi Nakamoto who managed to make this dream come true, unattainable until then.

On the other hand, the first Bitcoin transaction, and the fact that it continues to be reflected in the block chain more than ten years after it was made, is irrefutable proof of the security of the system. A digital value exchange system, which It has never stopped working for a single second., immutable, which practically guarantees the immortality and inalterability of the information. Something that no other system to date has achieved.

Ultimately, this first transaction opened the doors to a new world of possibilities. In that first moment, Finney and Nakamoto had the clarity to see part of the future of the system. But today, the underlying technology has evolved to a whole new level and it doesn't seem to stop. Processes like the tokenization to smart contractsThey only open new possibilities for everything that started with a simple transaction.