Bitcoin and Blockchain: The Tangled History of Two Tech Buzzwords

Interestingly, the word "Blockchain" doesn't actually appear in the original bitcoin white paper, released back in 2008.

"The word blockchain was never used in the early days," former bitcoin developer Mike Hearn told CoinDesk.

While compared to today, the download would have far faster, according to one Bitcoin Talk user: "The initial blockchain download is quite slow."

Interest in the term seems to have sprung out of professional organizations and individuals hesitance to align themselves with bitcoin itself because of its bad reputation as the currency for drugs and gray economies.

To many, bitcoin the currency could be decoupled from bitcoin the blockchain protocol, and so a whole new industry of so-called "Private blockchains," devoid of a cryptocurrency, emerged.

"Initially people said 'block chain', and then, thanks to a great PR campaign, we were blessed with the much improved 'blockchain,' single-word, probably thanks to a community-wide effort near and around the Bitcoin Talk forums," long-time cryptocurrency developer Greg Slepak said.

Not only did it become one word, but it also came in vogue to describe any blockchain that wasn't bitcoin's blockchain as "a blockchain." Bitcoin got to keep the terminology "The blockchain," giving credence to the fact that it was the first.

Blockchain has become so divorced from bitcoin that both words typically see a similar spike when cryptocurrency prices start mooning.

Cryptographer Stuart Haber, whose whitepapers on timestamping were cited in the bitcoin white paper, claims to have created the first blockchain called Surety.

Bitcoiners believe a blockchain can only be the one and only bitcoin blockchain, like words, definitions are always evolving and changing.