Bitcoin Network Celebrates 17th Anniversary: Proof of Keys Day and Open-Source Milestone

Genesis Block Marks Historic Turning Point

On January 3, 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto created the first block of the Bitcoin blockchain, launching the network that celebrates its 17th birthday today ^[1]. The so-called Genesis Block, also referred to as "Block 0," was created at 7:15:05 PM Central European Time, as indicated by the timestamp stored in the block header ^[1].

This first block differs from all subsequent blocks in several aspects: It was not mined through the use of computational power, but directly created ^[1]. The block height "0" means that no predecessor blocks exist before the Genesis Block, representing a unique anchor point in the blockchain ^[1].

Hidden Message with Political Statement

Particularly noteworthy is the message embedded in the block's coinbase transaction: "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks" ^[1]. This headline from the British newspaper "The Times" dated January 3, 2009, draws attention to the problems of the centrally controlled fiat money system, exemplified by the bank bailouts in the context of the 2008 global financial crisis ^[1].

The embedding of this current headline simultaneously serves as proof that no mining took place before January 3, 2009 ^[1]. Interestingly, the Genesis Block contains an "error" that means the mining reward of 50 Bitcoin can never be spent ^[1]. These coins are not part of the UTXO set and theoretically not part of the total supply of nearly 21 million Bitcoin ^[1].

Proof of Keys Day: Call for Self-Custody

January 3rd has established itself in the Bitcoin community not only as the network's birthday, but also as "Proof of Keys Day" ^[1]. On this day, the community traditionally calls for withdrawing Bitcoin from exchanges or other third-party providers and taking self-custody ^[1].

The principle "Not Your Keys, Not Your Coins" means that only those who manage their private keys themselves are truly owners of their Bitcoin ^[1]. The necessity of self-custody was demonstrated by painful examples such as the collapse of the then-largest Bitcoin exchange Mt.Gox in 2014 or the more recent cases of the FTX exchange and the Celsius lending platform ^[1]. Unlike the traditional banking system, there is no deposit insurance with Bitcoin, which means that in the event of insolvency, customers' coins can become part of the bankruptcy estate ^[1].

Fedi Releases Complete Code as Open Source

Fitting for the anniversary, the company Fedi announced it would release its entire software stack as open source on January 3rd, fulfilling a promise made at its 2024 launch ^[2]. All Fedi software was placed under the Affero General Public License (AGPL), after previously being under a Business Source License ^[2].

The choice of date is deliberate and reflects the focus on community ownership and decentralized financial infrastructure ^[2]. The AGPL license is designed to ensure that improvements remain public, even when the software is used in hosted or networked services ^[2].

Fedi is used by communities to build local financial and social systems ^[2]. The app combines encrypted messaging, Bitcoin payments, and additional services through mini-app extensions ^[2]. The wallet infrastructure is based on the Fedimint protocol, which enables groups to operate shared Bitcoin custody using federated trust models ^[2].

From Decentralized Network to Global Adoption

Since the network's launch, Bitcoin has evolved from a toy for a handful of nerds into a globally distributed, decentralized monetary system now used by major investment managers and even nation-states ^[1]. The more than 1 million BTC attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto have never been moved, and it is believed that access to the coins was destroyed ^[1].