Original Bitcoin Laboratory

The earliest Bitcoin, made to run.

Evidence‑first, executable reconstructions of the earliest Bitcoin — the 15 Nov 2008 pre‑release and the 3 Jan 2009 v0.1.0 client — built from two hash‑verified archives, with nothing disabled and no chain privileged. Released as candidates: a Bitcoin, not the Bitcoin. Not money.

Interactive · neutral

How far from the origin?

Pick an origin and a moment in history; see how far each Bitcoin version stood from it. Distance, not identity.

Open the tracker →
Reasoning · a compass

Is it a Bitcoin?

Describe any object — a paper, a chain, a token, an amount — and see where it qualifies as a Bitcoin or a satoshi, and where the answer is convention, not fact.

Open the compass →
Live · experimental · not money

Join the live network

Two always‑on anchors run both reconstructions. Clone the repo and point a node at one — it syncs and independently re‑validates every block.

Read the invitation →
Source · MIT · reproducible

The code & the recipe

Two independent nodes (Python + Rust), cross‑checked byte‑for‑byte. verify_genesis.py re‑derives both genesis blocks from source, forever.

Browse the repos →
seed.bitcoin-lab.org:18009  JAN09-X · Jan 2009 v0.1.0
seed.bitcoin-lab.org:18008  NOV08-X · Nov 2008 pre-release · leading-zero-bits PoW

What this is, honestly. A research microscope, not a coin. Which live network "is" Bitcoin has no factual answer — only convention; this lab privileges none. The experimental chains are stamped not money: no premine, no sale, no promises. The durable artifact isn't a running node — it's the reproducible recipe, which lets anyone re‑derive the exact genesis with no key and no node to trust.

authority = 2 hash-verified archives + whitepaperMIT © 2026 Parth Mauria Saxenanot money