Bitcoin was born out of despair. Hidden among the lines of code in the first ever batch of the cryptocurrency was a headline from the frontpage of that day’s edition of The Times: “Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”. It was 3 January, 2009, and the world was in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Banks were collapsing, businesses were foreclosing and people were losing their homes. It was the result of the worst excesses and greed of a capitalistic system that was teetering on the edge of comprehensive collapsed. But Satoshi Nakamoto, bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator, ... (full story)