Since 1955 Guinness World Records (GWR) has published a reference book annually that covers world records from extreme natural events to human achievements. This year, Bitcoin has entered the fray as the world’s first and most valuable cryptocurrency network as GWR has added the subject to this year’s annual records.
Satoshi Nakamoto’s bitcoin entered the Guinness Book of World Records
Satoshi Nakamoto’s cryptocurrency and blockchain network, Bitcoin, has received many accolades over the years, and has been recognized by mainstream media sources and traditional mediums. For example, in 2016, the word “bitcoin” was added to the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary, and two years later it entered the Scrabble lexicon. This year, the Guinness World Records (GWR) recognized Satoshi Nakamoto’s invention as the “first decentralized cryptocurrency”.
Guinness World Records has been formally recording records from various human achievements and extreme natural events for 67 years. Records show that the first edition of Guinness World Records was the top book on the best-seller list in December 1955. The book still contains an important catalog and attestation of world records associated with numerous acts and record-breaking achievements. The idea of creating a book of records was originally taken by Sir Hugh Beaver, the managing director of the Guinness Brewery.
While It’s an Achievement for Bitcoin, Guinness World Records Summary Contains Errors
The summary of bitcoin featured in the latest Guinness World Records describes how the project’s white paper was published online in 2008, and the Guinness authors say Bitcoin was “developed as a solution to the challenge of regulating a digital currency without any centralized organization, or ‘trusted third party,’ to oversee transactions.” The GWR authors further detail that the network Satoshi Nakamoto created solved the double spending problem. The 2022 GWR record states:
bitcoin network [solves] the problem of double spending with a “trusted” mechanism that does not require a third party (eg, banks) to verify the transaction; And it achieves that with validators (ie, miners in PoW.) miners are dedicated computers to the network to validate all transactions and block any bad actors.
The category GWR researchers put Bitcoin in is “first,” as in the “First decentralized cryptocurrency.” The date recorded for the record-breaking “first” is January 3, 2009, the day Bitcoin launched. While the GWR addition is an achievement, some of the factoids provided by GWR researchers are wrong.
For example, it incorrectly recorded the publication date of the original Bitcoin white paper which was October 31, 2008, and it incorrectly cited Satoshi Nakamoto as having 600,000 BTC in a single wallet that was “over a decade”. This information is factually incorrect as Nakamoto’s concealment does not reside in a wallet and the BTC held by the inventor is estimated to be around 1 million BTC as opposed to 600,000 BTC quoted by GWR.
