2009

donbass said:

Before people could start mining btc in january 2009, who knew of btc in 2008? Were computer scientists, cryptography enthusiasts, and cypherpunks THE EXCLUSIVE only people who knew in 2008? Was satoshi mail list only way to know? Were there other ways apart from this? How could the average joe know?

I found out about it in late 2008 or early 2009. The white paper and chatter were circulating in the US libertarian political and electronic privacy circles online around that time.

donbass said:

I mean anyone who isnt any of these three people?

Don’t know. I’m not not those people. Taking it seriously was another thing. Despite reading a lot of Friedman at the time, my reaction then was “Cool idea, too bad it will never amount to anything”.