The Library
Cataloged primary documents, stable links and standard citation formats.
Browse by topic; full-text search and citation export are in preparation.
Academic Papers
cataloged by subjectThe long river of ideas leading to Bitcoin, cataloged by subject: cryptography, digital cash, monetary theory, consensus mechanisms, smart contracts and scaling. Click any entry for its catalog card and a link to the original.
Cryptography
Digital cash
Monetary theory
Consensus
Smart contracts
Scaling
Mailing List & Forum Archives
where the history actually happenedThree Primary Archives
Most of Bitcoin’s history happened on mailing lists and forums rather than in papers. The whitepaper was emailed, the first purchase of a real good with bitcoin (two pizzas) was arranged in a forum thread, and "HODL" (hold on, don’t sell) began as a typo.
cypherpunks mailing list
Home of the cypherpunks, technologists who held that privacy should be protected by cryptography. Digital-cash precursors including Hashcash (1997) and b-money (1998) were first published here, and the Crypto Anarchist Manifesto and A Cypherpunk’s Manifesto circulated here.
nakamotoinstitute.org/librarymetzdowd cryptography list
The original archive of the whitepaper announcement of October 31, 2008, and the Bitcoin v0.1 release notice of January 2009. Most of Satoshi’s earliest public exchanges with the cryptography community are here.
metzdowd.com/pipermail/cryptographybitcointalk.org
The community’s own archive. Pizza Day (thread 137), HODL (thread 375643) and all of Satoshi’s posts on this forum can be read here.
bitcointalk.orgCross-archive search in preparation; browse the linked original archives.
Code History
Bitcoin releases and decisive commitsThe Bitcoin Protocol’s Lineage of Versions
The Bitcoin protocol is not a document but a history of commits — the recorded code changes. Here we catalog Bitcoin’s decisive releases and commits, including the ones that fixed bugs which could have been fatal (see “The Value Overflow Incident” in The Trust Machine hall). Code is the least disputable primary source there is. Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) are included at the end for comparison.
2009-01Bitcoin v0.1The first client2010Overflow bug fixedWithin hours2013BIP 50Chain-fork post-mortem2017-08SegWit activatesBIP 1412021-11Taproot activatesBIP 340/341/342
Bitcoin v0.1
The first Bitcoin client, released by Satoshi on the cryptography mailing list and SourceForge. Every line of the whitepaper’s design became runnable code here.
Original announcement postBitcoin Core
The current reference implementation, with its full commit history public. Any change to a consensus rule can be traced to a specific commit and the discussion around it.
github.com/bitcoin/bitcoinBIPs · Bitcoin Improvement Proposals
Bitcoin Improvement Proposals, the formal record of the protocol’s evolution: rule changes are first written up as numbered proposals and debated in public. BIP 50 (the 2013 fork post-mortem), BIP 141 (SegWit) and BIPs 340/341/342 (Taproot), all cited in our halls, are collected here.
github.com/bitcoin/bipsEIPs · Ethereum Improvement Proposals
Ethereum’s improvement proposals, its counterpart to Bitcoin’s BIPs. The originals of the ERC-20/721/1155 token standards and the EIP-1559 fee reform are here.
eips.ethereum.orgRegulatory & Legal Filings
Government public recordsPrimary Filings
The collapses and frauds in the Triumphs & Disasters hall can be shown factually rather than as rumor precisely because of documents like these — largely government records that anyone can consult.
SEC filings and press releases
Bracketed figures are SEC press-release numbers: BitConnect (2021-172), Terra/Terraform (2024-73), Celsius and Mashinsky (2023-133), FTX and SBF (2022-219), plus the spot ETF approval statement and other originals.
sec.gov/newsroomDOJ indictment and case page
The Silk Road / Ross Ulbricht case (Southern District of New York), the 2016 Bitfinex hack case (District of Columbia) and others. How investigators followed the public ledger to trace funds, and made that tracing evidence, is documented here in the greatest detail.
justice.govMiCA · Regulation (EU) 2023/1114
The text of the first comprehensive crypto-asset regulatory framework at the level of a major economy. The debate over regulatory boundaries is on the Open Questions Wall in the Culture & the Future hall.
eur-lex.europa.euOriginal: EUR-Lex · © European UnionEl Salvador’s Bitcoin Law
The law by which the first sovereign state made BTC legal tender (passed June 9, 2021, effective September 7, 2021; amended in January 2025 to make acceptance voluntary, in effect ending its legal-tender status).
asamblea.gob.svThe Library holds work with meaningful citation, scholarly value and recognized standing in the field. Widely recognized blog pieces may be added here, and the most foundational originals here are also featured in the halls. Full rules are under Standards.