"We Are All Satoshi" is a story about the early history of Bitcoin. The artwork is a memorial for generations to come immune to any correction or distortion. It is a part of Bitcoin's history, recorded not in books or internet articles but represented in the most ancient way known to mankind. Through images created through unquestioned pow.
"We are all Satoshi" is the first work that traces parts of Bitcoin's history in chronological order, representing a physical record of the ups and downs that the technology has gone through, including the entire early community of visionaries before hyperbitcoinization. I would refer to the artwork as scenes from the Old Testament before the global adoption took place .
The artwork is in no way intended to compare Bitcoin technology to religion in a literal or figurative sense. The graphic "We are all Satoshi" is my contribution to immortalizing some of the biggest events that happened in the early years of adoption.
In this blog I will describe the progress of "We are all Satoshi" step by step until the very end.
The idea.
"We are all Satoshi" is an artwork illustrating scenes from the early history of Bitcoin. In chronological order, 6 of the most important events in Bitcoin's history are presented, and the main scene is the introduction of the technology to the world by Satoshi himself.
All the figures are being portrayed wearing the Guy Fawkes mask, which has become a symbol of the peaceful struggle against injustice and oppression upon humanity. Hiding faces of all, including Satoshi himself, removing the individuality and reinforcing the sense of a common aspiration of all who have adopted the Bitcoin standard, by the instrument of the peaceful revolution that could liberate us from the enslavement of the current financial system. Completely in sync with the creator, We are all Satoshi.
"Fix the money and you will fix the world"
Main scene- The Genesis
The main scene in the center of the composition shows Satoshi himself introducing Bitcoin technology to the world. Depicted at the moment of digging block 0 on 3 January 2009, he holds the physical manifestation of Bitcoin in his right hand. The logo became recognizable to the entire world in less than 10 years. His left hand remains hidden to the world. In one of his last emails he mentions
"I've moved on to other things. It's in good hands with Gavin and everyone."
The hidden left hand symbolizes this another project of his that he focused on afterwards. Satoshi is standing on a podium. On the front face of which is the hash of the Genesis block. This is the first step of the staircase that 13 years later millions of people have taken. Approximately every 10 minutes all the participants in the network take another step up, and when looking back one sees the tremendous evidence of the work we have done over the the last 13 years.
On his sides are drawn 7 of the earliest developers who helped Satoshi. Somewhere under the mask I have depicted Hal Finney, Gavin Andresen,Laszlo Hanyecz, Martti Malmi, Jeff Garzi and others. Some are represented under the bear, symbolizing their position on the project, criticizing the direction of development, while others that have remained true to Bitcoin are positioned under the Bull side. ( The RIGHT side ). The Bull and the Bear symbolize the ongoing emotional balance between skeptics and optimists about Bitcoin technology.
The physical touch of the creator's robes by the first devlopers is a reference to the online communication these people had through the emails whose notes have remained as an integral part of the early history of Bitcoin. They are presented as angels because despite their further criticism towards the protocol, their interest and contribution in the early days were of a great importance.
The Bear and the Bull in constant battle.
The very early stage of the process. I made a compositional project of which I drew the figures before immortalizing them on the original. It is unthinkable to start such a complex and large project without having a draft on which you clarify your project. Later I will upload a picture of the sketch I experimented on.
Not counting the time I spent on the rough sketch, just working on the orginal has taken me about ~22 hours of work so far. This includes the cells of the individual scenes, drawing of the main scene, the bull and the bear as well as the whole frieze frame.
Scene one- Two Pizzas
Scene one introduces one of the most interesting and early stories in Bitcoin history. On May 22, 2010, now known as Bitcoin Pizza Day, Laszlo Hanyecz agreed to pay 10,000 Bitcoins for two delivered Papa John's pizzas. Organized on bitcointalk forum, the Florida man reached out for help.
"I'll pay 10,000 bitcoins for a couple of pizzas.. like maybe 2 large ones so I have some left over for the next day,"
This is the first transaction in which Bitcoin has been used to exchange real value. A whole 9 months before bitcoin reach parity with the US dollar. Inevitably, this story is fundamental to the history of Bitcoin, laying the foundation of the use of technology for exchanging value.
The scene represents the exact moment when Laszlo Hanyecz claims the most expensive pizza in the history of mankind !
( note: the wings of the carrier has been removed, from unconfirmed information the pizzas were cold when they arrived, so we won't give credit to the courier where there is none )
Update 03/08/2022
Today I put in another 6 hours of work, for total of 28h so far. I worked mainly on the second scene of the composition, namely The Silk Road event. As usual I sketched the composition on my draft, and once I got the position and scale of all the figures clear, I started bringing them over the original. I thought a lot whether to illustrate the creation or the collapse of the Silk road. In the end, I decided not to have the scene contain anything specific, but to purely symbolically depict the operation of the site.
The central figure can be conceptualised as Ross Ulbricht, the man who is currently paying a huge price for the creation of the site. He symbolically connects two peers holding their hand, at the moment of exchanging value. In the background are presented other users in the community. Communicating with each other, realizing that Bitcoin works and can be used to exchange value they are amazed by this new technology. The Guy Fawkes masks are in line with the anonymity of all users on the site.
I took a few hours and started working on the 3rd scene. There I placed the creation of the First Bitcoin ATMs. On October 29, 2013, a Robocoin machine opened in the Waves coffee shop in downtown Vancouver, Canada. This machine is understood to be the world's first publicly available Bitcoin ATM. Will be illustrated an exact replica of the design. Around the machine are gathered a group of peers discussing the development of Bitcoin, and one of them will even use the new service offered by Robocin for the first time.
04/08/2022 Update
Аfter 35 hours I finished most of the scenes. I started the 4th scene - the MtGox hack. The man who lost a lot by freezing the withdrawals from the exchange is depicted in the center. Another one is holding him up, and giving him reassurance. Around them are figures holding lists of all the addresses of the lost bitcoins.
The two figures that enclose the centre scene are also almost ready. The quote "We are all Satoshi" will be carved just above them. They are identical and holding the Bitcoin whitepaper in thier hand.
Behind the left figure is a panel where parts of the formulas present in the whitepaper are carved. On the panel behind the right figure will be carved total of 21 years of Bitcoin halvings and the block reward for that year. On the base of the monument is pointed out that total of 33 halvings are coded in the software.
I put some progress on the framework as well.
04/08/2022 Update
Today was a long day. After 10 hours the first scene is almost ready. I wanted to get it almost finished in order to stimulate myself for the other two scenes that I have to draw. I put a corn field for the landscape, think it fit perfectly in the scene.
10/08/2022 Update
52h of work on the piece. I've only got two scenes to draw, and I've put some progress on the whole, expanding the finished part to the sides of scene one. Gradually the written explanations will become less and less, and progress will only be noticeable in the overall stage of the work.
10/08/2022 Update
After 62 hours it starts to get interesting. Two of the scenes are almost done.
23/08/2022 Update
67h of work
15.9.2022 Update
78 PoW
Added the 1 trillion market cap scene.
On 671275 block Bitcoin reach 1 trillion market cap. Significant achievement for a piece of software that worth nothing 12 years ago. The scene depicts two peers observing the merkle tree of the block 671275. Еach leaf symbolizes a transaction that occurred during that block. At the top of the tree glows a sphere with the number 9. One of the numbers implemented deep in the Bitcoin code by Satoshi himself.
11.10.2022 Update
106 h PoW
138h PoW
147h PoW
153h PoW
29.10.2022 Update
Will start with the last hidden information within the artwork.
The sphere count.
I wanted the smallest detail of the work to have hidden meaning and knowledge. Choosing the number of decorative spheres is one such example.
All along the vertical of the compositions in the middle- Silk road, The Genensis block and the 1 Trillion market cap there is a reference to the numbers 3,6 and 9. Numbers deeply encoded in the processes driving Bitcoin forward. Here at the top of the Merkel tree the number 9 shines with its power.
“If you only knew the magnificence of the 3, 6, and 9, then you would have a key to the universe.”
N. Tesla
174h PoW
The last scene depicts the El Salvador event. This will surely go down as one of the most significant events in Bitcoin history. The scene depicts how a elected person in position, hands out the Bitcoin symbol to a group of people.
In the end I will reveal some of the geometry and symbolism encoded in the artwork. Have a nice trip down to the rabbit hole.
1. In the absolute center of the composition is the sphere symbolizing the Bitcoin technology that Satoshi introduced to the world by mining the Genesis Block.
2. The contact of the diagonals with the other 4 scenes is also carefully planned. The movement of the figures repeats these diagonals, and in the scene "The El Salvador event" the diagonal once again crosses the Bitcoin sphere, which is handed to the people.
3. There are 9 scenes depicted, 3 in each row, and 6 are all the scenes of the story except the main one- the Genesis. The numbers 3,6 and 9 are deeply embedded in the artwork, just as in the functioning of Bitcoin.
Here are some examples of how these numbers appear in the composition. 1. We take the total number of figures in each row. From the most crowded scene we subtract the number of figures from the other two. Finally, from the sum of the 1st and 2nd row we get the number 9.
Now let's focus on the vertical and horizontal raw of scenes. If we say that 1 in the computer language equals + and 0= -, then summing the number of figures in the horizontal and subtracting the number of figures in the vertical raw give us the numbers 0 and 1 accordingly.
The infinity sign is depicted above the arches of the upper and bottom middle scenes. Also 3 arches are depicted behind all of the figures on the bottom and top row of scenes.
Final thoughts.
Even the longest journey begins with the first step. When a person reaches his goal and looks back, very often he says "If I had known what I had to go through, I would not have taken the first step" . However, the result of what has been achieved is in many cases great and the experience you've got invaluable. This is a quality embodied in the human mind itself. It is these achieved goals that are the force that leads humanity forward. That is exactly why I made this blog, opening it and seeing the first picture, mentally goes through all the 3+ months of work that I have been progressing through the white space with the pure pow of the pencil.
I'll quote Picasso who captured everything I want to say in one sentence.
Picasso is sketching at a park. A woman walks by, recognizes him, and begs for her portrait. Somehow, he agrees. A few minutes later, he hands her the sketch. She is elated, excited about how wonderfully it captures the very essence of her character, what beautiful work it is, and asks how much she owes him. “5000 francs, madam,” says Picasso. The woman is incredulous, outraged, and asks how that’s even possible given it only took him 5 minutes. Picasso looks up and, without missing a beat, says: “No, madam, it took me my whole life.”
In my case it only took me a few pencils, $5 paper , 176 hours of drawing and 20 years of my life. Can I start such an ambitious project again tomorrow ? Absolutely not. Is this the greatest work I will ever create ? If it's up to me, no.
With the express permission of the twitter account @roasbeef , I will end with these lines.
I miss the old Satoshi, straight from the node Satoshi.
Chop up the code Satoshi, set on his goals Satoshi.
I hate the new Satoshi, the lawsuit Satoshi.
The always rude Satoshi, go on a cruise Satoshi.
I miss the sweet Satoshi, chop up the tweets Satoshi.
I gotta say at that time I’d like to meet Satoshi.
See he invented Satoshi, it wasn’t any Satoshis.
And now I look and look around and there’s so many Satoshis.
I used to love Satoshi, I used to love Satoshi.
I even had the old windows, I thought I was Satoshi.
What if Satoshi made a post about Satoshi?
Called “I Miss The Old Satoshi,” man that would be so Satoshi.
That’s all it was Satoshi, we still love Satoshi.
And I love you like Satoshi loves Satoshi.
I’m glad there’s no Satoshi, all nym no face Satoshi.
That’s very based Satoshi, cuz’ now we’re all Satoshi.