How a College Student Helped Bring Bitcoin Where It Is Now

After Satoshi Nakamoto’s paper introducing bitcoin back in 2008, the idea did not kick off immediately until he came in contact with a college student who helped launch the cryptocurrency to where it is now. The paper had been very technical and filled with jargon that regular folks couldn’t understand, which prompted Martti Malmi to write about it.

Malmi had been a sophomore in the Helsinki University of Technology back then and he was a shy student who spent most of his time in his room, writing code on his computer or playing online games. This led him to discover bitcoin while also reading up on democratic social structures that idealized power being away from the state.

Early Days of Bitcoin

In particular, Martti had become fascinated by the rise in Scandinavia of the Pirate Party, which promoted technology over political engagement as the way to move society. “I would like to help with Bitcoin, if there’s something I can do,” he wrote to Satoshi back in 2009.

“Your understanding of Bitcoin is spot on,” Satoshi wrote back. In addition, Satoshi gave practical advice that could help Martti with his project. “My writing is not that great. I am a much better coder,” Satoshi wrote, encouraging Martti to try his hand.

From there, Martti created a simple FAQ on bitcoin ready to be published live in order to aid mainstream understanding of the cryptocurrency. These answered basic questions like: Is bitcoin safe? How can I use bitcoin?

Despite Martti’s relative lack of programming experience, Satoshi gave him full permission to make changes to the core Bitcoin software on the server where it was stored while Martti worked on developing the underlying code. Marti also setup an online forum which later on drew plenty of interest and grew in size, becoming the starting point of most startups in the industry.