Satoshi ↔ Dustin Trammell Correspondence

3 messages Dustin Trammell, Satoshi Nakamoto January 11, 2009 — January 13, 2009

Dustin Trammell January 11, 2009 Source · Permalink

Dustin D. Trammell, a security researcher and cypherpunk using the handle “Druid,” was among the very first people to download and run the Bitcoin software after Satoshi announced it on the Cryptography Mailing List on January 9, 2009.

In this email dated January 11, 2009, Trammell wrote to Satoshi reporting on his experience with the alpha release. He mentioned that he was reading through the Bitcoin whitepaper and referenced the timestamp server section, sharing a link to publictimestamp.org as a potentially related resource.

Trammell reported that he had been running the software and had seen two “Generated” messages, but the credit field showed 0.00 and his balance had not changed. He asked whether this was related to a maturity requirement for newly generated coins.

This email initiated one of the earliest known private correspondences with Satoshi Nakamoto and established Trammell as one of Bitcoin’s very first users and miners. Trammell published the entirety of his email correspondence with Satoshi in November 2013.

Source: Published by Dustin Trammell in November 2013. The full correspondence is archived on the Bitcoin Wiki at en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Source:Trammell/Nakamoto_emails.

Satoshi Nakamoto January 12, 2009 Source · Permalink

In this reply to Dustin Trammell, Satoshi thanked him for the timestamp service link and discussed alternative approaches. Regarding Trammell’s question about the credit field, Satoshi explained the coin maturity mechanism:

the credit field stays 0.00 until it matures, then it’ll be 50.00.

Satoshi asked Trammell whether it would be clearer to leave the credit field blank until maturity instead of displaying 0.00, showing his attention to usability in the earliest days of the software.

Satoshi recommended that Trammell upgrade to version 0.1.3, noting:

This version has really stabilized things.

This exchange reveals Satoshi’s responsiveness to early user feedback and his iterative approach to improving the software. Version 0.1.3 had fixed a communications bug that prevented nodes from properly broadcasting blocks to each other, which was critical for the network’s early functioning.

Source: Published by Dustin Trammell in November 2013. The full correspondence is archived on the Bitcoin Wiki at en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Source:Trammell/Nakamoto_emails.

Satoshi Nakamoto January 13, 2009 Source · Permalink

In this email, Satoshi discussed a communications bug that had been fixed in version 0.1.3 which had prevented nodes from properly broadcasting blocks. He then offered to send Trammell some coins:

This is all fixed in 0.1.3. If you give me your IP, I’ll send you some coins.

This message is significant because it documents one of the very earliest direct Bitcoin transfers between individuals. Satoshi used the “send-to-IP” feature, which allowed coins to be sent directly to a node by connecting to its IP address. The receiving client would then provide a Bitcoin address for the transaction.

Trammell responded later that day (January 13, 2009, at 18:40 UTC) with his IP address:

I’m currently at 24.28.79.95, but that’s dynamic so it may change.

The following day, January 14, 2009 at 19:46 UTC, Satoshi sent Trammell 25.0 BTC in a single transaction (txid: d71fd2f64c0b34465b7518d240c00e83f6a5b10138a7079d1252858fe7e6b577). This transaction was sent from address 1Jhk2DHosaaZx1E4CbnTGcKM7FC88YHYv9 to Trammell’s address 1DCbY2GYVaAMCBpuBNN5GVg3a47pNK1wdi.

Their subsequent correspondence also touched on the insecurities of sending bitcoin by IP address. Satoshi ultimately dropped the send-to-IP feature from the software entirely, partly informed by these discussions.

Source: Published by Dustin Trammell in November 2013. The full correspondence is archived on the Bitcoin Wiki at en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Source:Trammell/Nakamoto_emails. Transaction details documented on Trammell’s blog.