The Bitcoin IRC logs can be a mundane place, the endless flow of crudely formed usernames and perpetual ping timeouts seeming to accost your eyeballs with the disinterest of street walkers. 

Every once in a while, though, a log is nice enough to offer up a penny on its sidewalk. Such was the case when I recently happened upon Luke Dashjr’s first brush with Bitcoin.

That the logs existed, I had reason to suspect. Dashjr, in a rare 2018 interview, had admitted his first encounter with Bitcoin came during a New Year’s Eve party held entirely over IRC (the chat protocol that served as a sort of global salon for its technology and philosophy).

Still, I didn’t think then to look for the conversation. Most other storied Bitcoin contributors seem to have taken a rather languid route to the project, circling the repository and mailing lists like a coin in a vortex before dropping into its bottomless well.

That is to say, I didn’t expect the online evidence of Dashjr’s first encounter to be as alive with discovery and energy as it feels. 

That you can relive a replay of any great thinker’s first encounter with his subject is something of a treat. (Dashjr is after all, one of Bitcoin’s most singular contributors, and his involvement has had an inarguable impact on its foundation and direction.) 

For a better overview on his work, you can read our deep dive into Bitcoin’s P2SH soft fork, the first in the wake of Satoshi’s exit. It highlights how Dashjr contributed to foundational parts of the project’s philosophy, including the idea its developers should take a consensus approach to software changes.

If you’d like to read the full logs from January 1, 2011, you can find them here. 

Below, I highlight four things I thought were interesting about the record and why I think it’s an interesting historical find for our archive. 

1. Dashjr had many complaints about Bitcoin

It’s true! One of Bitcoin’s most revered developers approached the project’s core concepts with the same dismissiveness and pessimism as the rest of us. 

In fact, Dashjr seems to rip Bitcoin open like a bag of chips, feeling no qualms speaking openly and brashly about his negative first impression with the state of the code. 

Within minutes, Dashjr pivots from dismissing Bitcoin mining as wasteful… 

<luke-jr_> and I still see this as monetary exchange of wasted CPU cycles :P

...

<luke-jr_> consumption is one thing. waste is another.

<mizerydearia> What would you suggest as an alternative that wouldn't be considered a waste?

<luke-jr_> computing something useful? Shrug

...

<luke-jr_> I don't really understand the whole process

<ArtForz> wasted?

<lfm> money is usefull

<luke-jr_> from what I read, it sounds like the sole purpose of the computation is to be slow

<lfm> the whole purpose is to be useful

… to questioning whether Bitcoin could ever serve as a form of money.

<luke-jr_> put it this way

<luke-jr_> bitcoins have no value, except what other people attribute to them

<mizerydearia> Yep

<mizerydearia> Same with all other currencies

<luke-jr_> no

<luke-jr_> gold is *actually* useful

<luke-jr_> food too

<lfm> money of all type has no value except what other people attibute to it

<luke-jr_> fabianhjr: sure they are. definitely gold.

<ArtForz> errr... gold doesnt really have any major use besides being shiny and pretty inert

<luke-jr_> ArtForz: conducts electricity and doesn't rust?

It goes to show many had similar reactions to Bitcoin, and why many still will. 

2. Dashjr couldn’t actually download Bitcoin

It’s one of the charms of open-source – if you find a problem, you’re expected to solve it. Dashjr wasn’t as interested in this. 

To be fair, his experience was in a more exciting fare. (He had mainly contributed to FOSS video games like Freeciv, a Civilization-style game, and Armageddon Advanced.) 

<luke-jr_> has anyone complained that bitcoin is terribly broken lately?

<luke-jr_> I can't manage to get this mess to compile at all -.-

...

<luke-jr_> mizerydearia: maybe next year

<mizerydearia> heh, I can't wait another 6 minutes

<mizerydearia> I want it NAO!

<mizerydearia> oh, you're from the future?

...

<luke-jr_> what I mean is, maybe a year from now, bitcoin will be sanely usable, and I can accept your bitcoin

<mizerydearia> sanely?

<luke-jr_> but for now, it's too broken for me

3. Bitcoin has always had 'murder hornets'

It’s interesting also to see how well adapted the IRC channel was in providing a united front to Dashjr’s questions. 

If we are to view Bitcoin Maximalist Twitter as a modern phenomenon, the logs show the community has always relied on an active hivemind to steer newcomers away from bad ideas.

<luke-jr_> ok, so more practical question:

<luke-jr_> if I accept bitcoin, how can I pay my expenses with it

<luke-jr_> or convert it to currency that I can pay expenses with?

<luke-jr_> pretty sure in the end, I'm stuck with nothing more than a bunch of numbers

...

<mizerydearia> usd wasn't accepted as it was first introduced. acceptance was gradual

<luke-jr_> mizerydearia: yes it was

<luke-jr_> there was a handy thing called a law

<luke-jr_> that said everyone had to accept it

4. Dashjr could have just signed off and never returned

Sure, some of Dashjr’s comments show the brashness that made him so divisive. But I prefer to read this log as if Dashjr is a builder simply sizing up an object, examining its sturdiness as one would a used car.

(Read a certain way, you can sort of feel his mind working on the edges of the problem, sizing up the thing itself from many angles.)

Apart from that, another striking thing is that there’s nothing particularly auspicious about his entrance. Reading it through, you wouldn’t think that he’d come to have such an impact. 

As instanced below, he even had no intention of returning. Lucky for Bitcoin, Dashjr would be back on IRC the next day (and for many more days to come).

<luke-jr_> anyhow, let me know when there's a sane client to use

<luke-jr_> I need to be getting to bed

<xelister> hi kiba happy new year

<kiba> let make bitcoin an astounding success this year!

<luke-jr_> kiba: good luck! start with creating a working client :D