Before NFT profile pics, DeFi degens, and meme coin culture, there was just a plain website with a dream of fixing money for everyone.

Bitcoin historian Pete Rizzo just dropped a gem on Twitter.

For the first time, we can see a screenshot of Bitcoin.org from January 2009.

And… it's about as fancy as your first MySpace page. A developer definitely built this.

The Birth of Something Huge

Imagine: It's August 2008, and someone calling themselves Satoshi Nakamoto teams up with a dev named Martti Malmi to register Bitcoin.org.

Fast forward to Halloween 2008, and boom – they drop the Bitcoin whitepaper explaining to the world how they plan to fix money using a mix of blockchain and proof of work (also called “mining.”) 

They titled it "A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System" – which ended up being a pretty modest title for something that would redefine global finance and create an entirely new industry from nothing.

Then, January 3, 2009, happens, and the new world is born.

The genesis block is officially mined, Bitcoin has begun, and Satoshi leaves a little Easter egg – a Times headline about bank bailouts.

From Zero to Hero

A few days later, on January 9, 2009, the first Bitcoin software (v0.1) was released.

The price of Bitcoin was a whopping… $0.

Remember, it was brand new, so there wasn’t any market or people who wanted to buy. 

The site was basically just a download link and some tech docs, and you could mine dozens of Bitcoin with your home computer. 

No laser eyes, no "to the moon" memes, just pure, unadulterated tech nerd stuff.

Stepping Away From The Fire

By 2011, Satoshi pulled the ultimate diamond hands move – giving up control of the domain.

Why? Because it was never about one man – it was about starting a movement to redefine money in the digital age.

The site started evolving, and by 2013, it featured over 27 languages and was helping noobs understand what this whole Bitcoin thing is about.

Still mostly tech geeks, but Bitcoin was growing in popularity – fast. 

Real OG Energy

While other crypto projects were busy launching tokens with pictures of dogs, Bitcoin.org kept it genuine and tech-focused.

Through the great block size wars of 2017 (which saw the start of the Bitcoin Cash drama), the site stayed true to its roots.

No ads, no yield farming promises, just straight-up Bitcoin education.

Naturally, the information became more nuanced, and the discussions more varied. Still, the focus remained pure: redefine digital money and ensure a sustainable journey into the future for the still-nascent technology.

The Bottom Line

From a basic HTML page to a cornerstone of a $1.8 trillion movement – Bitcoin.org has been with us through it all.

The orange coin’s journey from Satoshi's pet project to a community-run powerhouse is a tale that will echo through time, and future generations will likely look back on it with wide eyes and wonder.

And, somewhere out there, Satoshi might be fondly looking at that screenshot.

Perhaps, seeing how far we’ve come from those early days, they’re thinking, "Not bad, anons. Not bad at all."