Did Satoshi “trust but verify” external libraries when building Bitcoin v0.1?
Question
Bitcoin’s culture today emphasizes “don’t trust, verify.”
When Satoshi Nakamoto released Bitcoin v0.1.0 on SourceForge in January 2009, the software already included cryptography, networking, a wallet, mining, and even a GUI.
My question is:
Did Satoshi write all of this from scratch in C++, or did he trust external libraries for certain components? For example: OpenSSL (crypto), Berkeley DB (storage), wxWidgets (GUI), Winsock (networking).
If he did rely on external libraries, was that an intentional case of “trust but verify” — using proven code where possible, while implementing consensus rules himself?
What risks or trade-offs came from this approach?
In short: how much of Bitcoin v0.1 was original Satoshi code, and how much depended on trusted third-party libraries?
No answers available yet.
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