Bitcoin was first mentioned in a 2008 research paper published under the name Satoshi Nakamoto. It is unknown who Satoshi Nakamoto is. In 2009, an exploit in an early bitcoin client was found that allowed large numbers of bitcoins to be created.[48]
In March 2013, a technical glitch caused a fork in the block chain, with one half of the network adding blocks to one version of the chain and the other half adding to another. For six hours two bitcoin networks operated at the same time, each with its own version of the transaction history. The core developers called for a temporary halt to transactions, sparking a sharp sell-off. Normal operation was restored when the majority of the network downgraded to version 0.7 of the bitcoin software