Bitcoin 0.1 rebuilt byte by byte: Satoshi Nakamoto's machine betrayed by its executable

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Compiling means transforming source code into an executable program. Thus, two machines never obtain the same file, because their tools differ, which requires finding Satoshi's tool chain.

The difficulty is immense, because the repository had to bring together packages found in the archives from 2006 to 2008. It was necessary to find the exact snapshot used by Satoshi.

Failing to get back on Windows XP, the project replays the compilation under Linux with Wine, which imitates the 32-bit Windows of the time. The first attempt takes about 6 minutes, according to the repository readme.

Upon arrival, the output announces MATCH, since the reconstituted bitcoin.exe has the same SHA-256 as the original file, a 6,440,960 byte program. Also, the .rar archive copies the fingerprints published by the Satoshi Nakamoto Institute.

Indeed, this identity proves a fact that had been missing for seventeen years, because the file distributed in 2009 did indeed go beyond the code published with it. No hidden program slips into the executable, which no one has ever guaranteed.

Then, the file acts like a fingerprint, because its internal traces name each library used, along with its version. The most telling remains MinGW GCC 3.4.5, the compilation path of which appears in the binary.

For its part, the readme of version 0.1.5 aligned two possible compilers, also Visual C++ 6.0. The binary is indeed out of MinGW, which resolves a question that has been open for years.

Indeed, a test of the Berkeley DB database fails in a very specific way, which only Windows XP system files produce. The filing here puts forward its strongest clue about the original operating system.

Furthermore, the archive speaks as much as the program, since its headers keep dates set by hand, to the minute. Satoshi packaged his software with a WinRAR already over three years old, which the repository found.

However, the bitcoin-0.1.0 of the repository is not that of launch day. The archive actually contains the January 10 update, as no verified copies of the launch package have survived.

In addition, the script copies three timestamps read from the original file, so that the reconstruction repeats a gesture without discovering it independently. On the other hand, Satoshi announced the color on January 8, 2009:

However, the human enigma remains unsolved. Satoshi's computer does not appear in any documents, and the repository says nothing about its user.

Machine-translated from French