LibraryCredit and stable value1998Design paperCorpus record
b-money
b-money. Wei Dai.
Participants broadcast contract offers. Money is created by solving a computational problem, and a collective bookkeeping system tracks balances. A second variant uses a subset of servers.
A reading of the public paper. Not a copy, not a benchmark, and not a claim about any later network.
Read it as the problem statement: joint bookkeeping without an issuer. Do not read it as a system you can implement line by line.
- Evidence
- Primary paper
- Re-measured
- No
- Assumptions
- 3
- Records linked
- 2
Code
Source, repository, and what is actually hosted
- weidai.comhttp://www.weidai.com/bmoney.txt
- The source URL is not a GitHub repository. No code remote is invented.
- Full text is not mirrored. Public availability is not a licence to copy the file onto this site.
- Add to a reading list
01 Claim ledger
What the paper is allowed to say
Each row is a sentence already in the study. The status is the same on every row: a model claim, not a live measurement.
Claim 01 · Paper model
The defect
A digital cash system that uses a central issuer can be switched off. Dai asked whether a group of untraceable pseudonyms could keep the books themselves.
Claim 02 · Paper model
The proposal
Participants broadcast contract offers. Money is created by solving a computational problem, and a collective bookkeeping system tracks balances. A second variant uses a subset of servers.
Claim 03 · Paper model
Creation of money is tied to computational cost.
The ledger is collective, not a bank's database.
Claim 04 · Paper model
The bound
This is a sketch, not a protocol with a proof.
02 Three cuts
Observation, model, falsifier
A desk does not stop at the summary. Each claim is cut three ways, using only this study's own assumptions and checks. Nothing here is a new figure.
01 The defect
Observation
What the study says
A digital cash system that uses a central issuer can be switched off. Dai asked whether a group of untraceable pseudonyms could keep the books themselves.
Model
What has to hold
This is a sketch, not a protocol with a proof.
Falsifier
What would retire it
Who updates the books?
02 The proposal
Observation
What the study says
Participants broadcast contract offers. Money is created by solving a computational problem, and a collective bookkeeping system tracks balances. A second variant uses a subset of servers.
Falsifier
What would retire it
How is new money created?
03 Creation of money is tied to computational cost.
Observation
What the study says
The ledger is collective, not a bank's database.
Model
What has to hold
It does not describe mining pools, difficulty adjustment, or script.
Falsifier
What would retire it
How is new money created?
04 The bound
Observation
What the study says
This is a sketch, not a protocol with a proof.
Model
What has to hold
This is a sketch, not a protocol with a proof.
Falsifier
What would retire it
Who updates the books?
03 Sequence
One action, as an operating tape
- 01Broadcast a signed update.
- 02The collective book-keepers apply it if the contract rules say so.
- 03Disputes are referred to the servers in the second variant, who must be replaced if they misbehave.
- 04What happens when two book-keepers disagree?
04 Load-bearing
The argument, and where a pitch drops it
What the paper is for
The cut
Read it as the problem statement: joint bookkeeping without an issuer. Do not read it as a system you can implement line by line.
Why it carries weight
If this cut is skipped, the paper's name is being used without the mechanism that makes the name mean anything.
Where it is dropped
What happened after
The cut
Bitcoin, and then every stake design, is a later answer to the agreement problem this note leaves open.
Why it carries weight
If this cut is skipped, the paper's name is being used without the mechanism that makes the name mean anything.
Where it is dropped
05 Register
What has to be true
06 Divergence
What happened after the paper
Bitcoin, and then every stake design, is a later answer to the agreement problem this note leaves open.
A later client, parameter set, or reward formula is a different object. Cite this paper for the mechanism. Cite a primary release for the network. This desk has not re-run the proof.
07 Pre-mortem
What to check before you use the idea
- 0 of 3 marked on this browser. A mark is a reading note, not a pass, a rating, or a recommendation.
08 Anatomy
The paper, in the order a builder needs
The problem it names
A digital cash system that uses a central issuer can be switched off. Dai asked whether a group of untraceable pseudonyms could keep the books themselves.
What the design proposes
- Creation of money is tied to computational cost.
- The ledger is collective, not a bank's database.
- The sketch leaves the agreement protocol unspecified. That gap is the whole of the later consensus literature.
How the mechanism is specified
- Broadcast a signed update.
- The collective book-keepers apply it if the contract rules say so.
- Disputes are referred to the servers in the second variant, who must be replaced if they misbehave.
What this page does not treat as proven
Why the desk still reads it
Read it as the problem statement: joint bookkeeping without an issuer. Do not read it as a system you can implement line by line.
09 Lexicon
Terms, opened into the record
- Collective bookkeeping
- A ledger held by the participants rather than an issuer.
- Contract
- A broadcast offer the note treats as the transaction.
10 Repository
Every linked record on this page
Underlined words open a page that already exists: a concept, a protocol profile, a failure record, or another paper. If a word is not underlined, this desk does not have a record for it.
This is Blockchain Lab's reading of a public design paper. It is not the paper, not a copy of it, and not an offer of tokens, equity, custody or a partnership. Later network behaviour can diverge from the text. Nothing here is investment, legal or technical advice.
Research status: Design paper. Last reviewed: 1 October 2026. This is a reading of a public paper, not investment, legal or security advice.