Bitcoin turns 18. Nine pages that were meant to get rid of middlemen

Friday, 31 October 2008, 2:10 pm New York time. A nine-page document signed “Satoshi Nakamoto” appears on a niche cryptography mailing list: “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”. Today marks exactly 18 years.

Money without a middleman

The idea was simple to describe and hard to build: sending money from hand to hand over the internet, with no bank in the middle. The problem was so-called double spending – a digital coin can be copied and spent twice. Banks solved this by keeping their own ledgers. Satoshi proposed a single public ledger, maintained jointly by thousands of computers, with changes confirmed by proof-of-work.

A curiosity: the document never uses the words “blockchain” or “cryptocurrency”. Nor does it mention the famous 21 million coin limit – that number was written only into the software code.

Why then

Autumn 2008 was the height of the financial crisis: the collapse of Lehman Brothers and bank bailouts paid for by taxpayers. On 3 January 2009 Satoshi launched the first block of the network (the so-called genesis block) and embedded in it a headline from the London “Times”: “Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”. For many, it remains Bitcoin’s shortest manifesto.

Bitcoin after 18 years

• The network has run without interruption since 2009. According to data compiled by bitcoin.pl (as of 30.10.2026), more than 20.1 million BTC are in circulation, about 95.7% of the limit, and the price was around $77,600 (CoinGecko).
• The middlemen came back, through a different door. Most people buy bitcoin on exchanges and keep it there. The anniversary falls two days after the theft of about $6.3 billion from Binance exchange wallets – according to TRM Labs, quoted by bitcoin.pl, the largest in history. The attacker did not break Bitcoin, only the intermediary’s security.
• Regulation arrived. Since 8 October 2025, retail customers in the UK can buy crypto ETNs listed on an FCA-approved exchange. On 30 June 2026 the FCA published final rules for the cryptoasset market: firms can apply for authorisation from 30 September 2026, and the new regime takes effect on 25 October 2027.

What it means for Poles in the UK

• Crypto products are not covered by the FSCS – if an exchange or issuer fails, nobody will refund your money.
• Check that a firm is on the FCA register. Fraudsters often pose as bitcoin “opportunities”, especially on social media.
• Crypto gains in the UK may be subject to Capital Gains Tax – details on the HMRC website.

This article is for information only and is not investment advice.

Sources: S. Nakamoto, “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” (2008); The Block – Bitcoin white paper: 10 years and 10 facts; Cointelegraph – genesis block; bitcoin.pl – 18 years of the Bitcoin whitepaper (31.10.2026); FCA – retail access to crypto ETNs; Latham & Watkins – FCA final rules 2026.