Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin’s pseudonymous founder, printed his white paper on Oct. 31, 2008, and subsequently launched the Bitcoin community on Jan. 3, 2009. He was quickly joined by 5 different contributors, notably Hal Finney, a developer and cypherpunk who grew to become the primary bitcoin transaction recipient (courtesy of Satoshi), and Laszlo Hanyec, a programmer who famously paid 10,000 BTC (virtually $170 million immediately) for 2 pizzas.
