Creator of Silk Road, the first modern darknet marketplace, which pioneered Bitcoin as a medium of exchange. Sentenced to life in prison in 2015 and pardoned by President Trump in January 2025.
First modern darknet marketplace (2011-2013) that used Bitcoin as its sole payment method, serving as one of Bitcoin's earliest large-scale demonstrations as a medium of exchange.
Pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin who published the whitepaper in 2008 and launched the network in 2009.
Nathaniel Popper's narrative history of Bitcoin, tracing the cryptocurrency from its cypherpunk origins through its first major boom, told through the stories of the key figures who built it.