What happened to Bitcoin 17 years after Satoshi Nakamoto's publication

Today marks 17 years since Satoshi Nakamoto published the Bitcoin white paper on a cryptography mailing list in 2008. At that time, Bitcoin looked like nothing more than a proposal for a new technology that originated in the cyberpunk circles of the 1990s. Since then, Bitcoin has undergone numerous transformations, evolving from a niche internet currency to a decentralized network that was used for illegal markets and later became a popular speculative investment on Wall Street and among governments around the world.

Source —Bitcoin Magazine 

Today, it is important to discuss the concept that the system works according to how it is used, rather than according to its intended goals. Many users still refer to the white paper as a foundational document, even though it is really just an abstract description of the Proof-of-Work technology used to implement the digital currency. Calls for the standards proposed in the white paper can be dangerous, as they often become a reason to reject potential improvements to Bitcoin.

Satoshi did not leave us a foundational document to make us feel constrained; he provided software so that users could determine what the system would be. In Europe, most communication is now covered by environments designed to work with the digital internet rather than telephone networks, demonstrating how technologies can transform over time.