Learn how the first Bitcoin transaction was

EOn January 12, 2009, one of the most important milestones in the history of the Bitcoin. That day the first bitcoin transaction between Satoshi Nakamoto y Hal Finney. In this first transaction that meant the start of exchanges on Bitcoin, Nakamoto sent the entire 10 BTC to Finney. With this it was clear that Bitcoin was a cryptocurrency with usable technology. One 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 on the world? All this and much more we will see below.

The start of a revolution

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

Although the first block was created on January 3 (genesis block) from blockchain from Bicoin, it wasn’t 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, and rather it seemed the union of several ideas in a rudimentary way. Nakamoto was not an expert programmer, but his skills were enough to start a technology like this.

Next, after the presentation of Bitcoin by Nakamoto, Hal Finney (a well-known cypherpunk) sent him a congratulatory message for his project. That way, Finney became the first interested public for the Bitcoin idea.

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 turned his attention to it. His first interventions showed a deep understanding of the system and explanations that later led to several improvements to the initial software. Nakamoto received several of these recommendations and observations in a positive light. But aside from this exchange of public messages on the mailing list, Nakamoto and Finney shared personal emails with each other. We see the result of this on January 10, 2009, when Finney wrote the following on his twitter account:

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

Finney’s support for Nakamoto became January 11, 2019, the first Bitcoin transaction. 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 historical 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 a development duet 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 took it immediately. I think I was the first person besides Satoshi to execute Bitcoin. I mined block 70 and something, and received the first bitcoin transaction, when Satoshi sent me ten coins as proof. I had an email conversation with Satoshi for the next few days, mostly me reporting bugs and him fixing them.

This made it very clear the strong relationship between Finney and Nakamoto to drive this development. Especially 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 major implications. Firstly, it demonstrated that Bitcoin technology worked. A secure, private, decentralized, and censorship-resistant digital money system was in place. Everything that cypherpunks like David Chaum, Nick Szabo y Wei dai they dreamed. 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 transaction of BItcoin, and the fact that it continues to be reflected more than ten years after it was carried out, is irrefutable proof of the security of the system. A digital value exchange system, which has never stopped working for a single second, immutable, which practically guarantees the immortality and inalterability of information. Something that no other system to date has achieved.

Finally, 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 doesn’t seem to stop. Processes like tokenization or smart contractsThey only open new possibilities for everything that started with a simple transaction.