Bitcoiners have been conversing about Satoshi Nakamoto’s original Bitcoin source code over the last few hours and whether the pseudonymous creator distributed a private version to others before the official launch. The discussion started on March 13 when well-known BTC proponent Francis Pouliot shared a very old version of Satoshi’s source code and a letter from the creator detailing that he sent the “main files” to James A. Donald. “I sent you the main files (available by request at the moment, full release soon),” Nakamoto stated on Nov. 17, 2008.

A mailing list response to James A. Donald on Nov. 17, 2008 explains that Satoshi gave files to a few people before the launch on Jan. 3, 2009.

In the source code that was distributed to Bitcointalk.org member “Cryddit” there are some interesting finds in what is believed to be the earliest version of the Bitcoin code. For instance, the code mentions the term “bitcoin miner” which seems to be the first time Nakamoto describes these participants as miners. Interestingly, the term “miners” was not used in the original whitepaper – throughout the text they are referred to as “nodes.” Additionally, the term blockchain was really called the “timechain” according to Satoshi’s code given to Cryddit.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: news.bitcoin.com