Research corpus ConsensusBLC-STUDY-0142

Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System

Publish every spend to a peer network. Let proof-of-work order the history. The longest chain of work is the ledger honest nodes extend. The first spend of a coin in that chain is the one that counts.

Official external source only
Design paper
Official source

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Record

Authors: Satoshi Nakamoto
Date: 2008
Publisher: Satoshi Nakamoto
Version: Source cited by the 2008 study. The study is the reading. This page does not add a second essay.
Document ID: BLC-STUDY-0142
DOI: None recorded
Last reviewed: 1 October 2026
Licence: No licence recorded. Rights status under review.

No hash is published. This build does not store those PDF bytes, so a checksum would be invented. Where a legacy path exists, it points at the Internet Archive copy of the old library.

Direct answer

Where to read

Official source — bitcoin.org
Blockchain Lab study, the canonical readingOriginal commentary. Not a transcription of the paper.

Metadata and commentary only. The reading is the study page.

Full text

Full text is not published on this page. Public availability is not a licence to republish a document. Blockchain Lab has not recorded a licence that permits an HTML transcription, a training set, or a retrieval corpus of the paper. Text on this page is Blockchain Lab's own wording, or a pointer to a study that is also Blockchain Lab's wording.

What changed

A reading of the public paper. Not a copy, not a benchmark, and not a claim about any later network.

Relationships

Canonical readingBitcoin study
Related paperBitcoin Backbone
Related paperHashcash

Cite this record

These citations point at the source document. They are not a licence to copy it.

Author–date

Nakamoto, S. (2008). Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. Satoshi Nakamoto. https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

BibTeX

@techreport{bitcoinnakamoto2008,
  title = {Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System},
  author = {Satoshi Nakamoto},
  year = {2008},
  institution = {Satoshi Nakamoto},
  url = {https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf},
  note = {Rights status: Official external source only. Blockchain Lab record: https://blockchainlab.com/research/corpus/papers/bitcoin-nakamoto}
}

RIS

TY  - RPRT
TI  - Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System
AU  - Satoshi Nakamoto
PY  - 2008
PB  - Satoshi Nakamoto
UR  - https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
N1  - Rights status: Official external source only
ER  -

CSL-JSON

[
  {
    "type": "report",
    "id": "BLC-STUDY-0142",
    "title": "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System",
    "author": [
      {
        "literal": "Satoshi Nakamoto"
      }
    ],
    "issued": {
      "date-parts": [
        [
          2008
        ]
      ]
    },
    "publisher": "Satoshi Nakamoto",
    "URL": "https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf",
    "note": "Rights status: Official external source only. Not a licence to republish the paper."
  }
]

JSON BibTeX file RIS file CSL-JSON

Rights record

Source status: Official source
Use status: Metadata and commentary only. The reading is the study page.
Rights: Official external source only
Training and retrieval: Not permitted from this site. There is no rights-cleared full text to retrieve or to train on.

Rights and licensing Corrections