[p2p-research] Bitcoin P2P e-currency v0.1 released

[Satoshi Nakamoto]

Announcing the release of Bitcoin, a new open source peer-to-peer 
electronic cash system that's completely decentralized, with no central 
server or trusted parties.  Users hold the crypto keys to their own 
money and transact directly with each other, with the help of the P2P 
network to check for double-spending.

Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista.  Open source C++ code is included.

Download: http://www.bitcoin.org

- Unpack the files into a directory
- Run BITCOIN.EXE
- It automatically connects to other nodes

If you can keep a node running that accepts incoming connections, you'll 
really be helping the network a lot.  Port 8333 on your firewall needs 
to be open to receive incoming connections.

You can get coins by getting someone to send you some, or turn on 
Options->Generate Coins to run a node and generate blocks.  I made the 
proof-of-work difficulty ridiculously easy to start with, so for a 
little while in the beginning a typical PC will be able to generate 
coins in just a few hours.  It'll get a lot harder when competition 
makes the automatic adjustment drive up the difficulty.  Generated coins 
must wait 120 blocks to mature before they can be spent.

There are two ways to send money.  If the recipient is online, you can 
enter their IP address and it will connect, get a new public key and 
send the transaction with comments.  If the recipient is not online, it 
is possible to send to their Bitcoin address, which is a hash of their 
public key that they give you.  They'll receive the transaction the next 
time they connect and get the block it's in.  This method has the 
disadvantage that no comment information is sent, and a bit of privacy 
may be lost if the address is used multiple times, but it is a useful 
alternative if both users can't be online at the same time or the 
recipient can't receive incoming connections.

Total circulation will be 21,000,000 coins.  It'll be distributed to 
network nodes when they make blocks, with the amount cut in half every 4 
years.

first 4 years: 10,500,000 coins
next 4 years: 5,250,000 coins
next 4 years: 2,625,000 coins
next 4 years: 1,312,500 coins
etc...

When that runs out, the system can support transaction fees if needed. 
It's based on open market competition, and there will probably always be 
nodes willing to process transactions for free.

Satoshi Nakamoto

http://www.bitcoin.org