High-level and Condensed BTCP Timeline

A high-level chronology of Bitcoin Private from launch through remediation and the current relaunch effort. This page is for holders and stakeholders.

For policy detail see Guiding Principles; for workstreams see Roadmap.

2017–2018 — Origins and launch

When	What happened
Nov 2017	ZClassic is live (BTCP’s Zcash-family predecessor).
Feb 2018	Bitcoin Private whitepaper released; merge of BTC + ZCL narratives.
Late Feb / early Mar 2018	Snapshot of BTC and ZCL holdings; fork-mine / mainnet launch. Transparent addresses use the familiar `b1` / `bx` prefixes.
2018	Early market and custodial friction (some venues decline markets or use claim processes rather than full listing).
Sep 2018	Significant reorg / 51%-style attack attempt against the network.
Dec 2018	Independent reporting highlights large illegitimate supply from early fork-era issues; remediation code paths for shielded-pool reset and unmoved-burn logic are prepared.

2019 — Remediation hard forks and a second inflation wave

When	What happened
Jan 2019	Shielded-pool reset hard fork — removes a large stock of illicit (and some collateral legitimate) shielded value.
Feb 2019	Great Coinburn consensus rules take effect: large unmoved fork/airdrop allocations are made non-spendable under the old chain’s rules (not revived as free supply on a fresh genesis without an explicit decision).
2019	Several exchanges delist or exit BTCP markets amid custody and trust disputes.
Mid–late 2019	Further network stress (large reorgs); mining parameters updated (including Equihash variant changes).
Aug 2019 onward	A new wave of illicit unshielding / inflation is identified by community analysts (“Patient Zero” and later large wash-through events).
Nov 2019	Public write-up “No Sunshine, No Rainbows” documents major illicit balances; freeze-and-appeal style remediation is discussed. Chain also hits a consensus halt around a reward-schedule edge case.
Dec 2019	Community direction toward a new chain (modern Zcash-family codebase) rather than endless patching of the legacy stack.

2020 — Snapshot cut and a stalled rebuild

When	What happened
Early Feb 2020	Very large late-window unshielding / drain activity occurs near the end of the historical chain tip.
Feb 2020	Transparent UTXO snapshot height designated for any future airdrop/relaunch cut (commonly referenced as block 680,000).
Late 2020	A contracted rebuild effort is approved; no deliverables produced, no new chain ships.

2021–2025 — Custody reality and a quiet period

When	What happened
2021	Negotiations and correspondence with remaining custodians about what belongs on a new chain; supply semantics after the 2019 burns are documented for the community.
2021–2022	At least one major venue declines to list a future chain while custodial questions remain live issues between holders and that venue.
2024–2025	Several historical venues go fully defunct (operations cease / operators removed from the market). By mid-decade only a thin set of live counterparties remain.
2024–2025	Technical groundwork resumes privately: offline parsing of historical chain data, architecture experiments, and preparation for a modern node stack.

2025–2026 — Modern rebuild and policy clarity

When	What happened
2025 H2	Serious forensics and tooling effort on historical data; false leads from parser mistakes are corrected; true illicit events are separated from artifacts.
2026 Q1	Snapshot engineering for a genesis-ready transparent set; early Phoenix (Zebra-based) project scaffolding; wallet planning begins.
2026 mid	Zebra-based node work continues (parameter freezes, transparent-first genesis posture).
18 Aug 2026	Public balance-query site scaffolded (this project): address checks plus interim principles / timeline / roadmap pages.
Aug 2026	Exchange disposition policies adopted: operational venues → leave balances in place; defunct venues → redemption fund (entitlement, not key possession); contingency fund for residual fairness. See Guiding Principles.
Aug–Sep 2026	First-receiver exclusion and labeling limitations formalized; claim-standard wording tightened so redemption cannot become a refund window for exploiters. Genesis coin classes clarified (expunge / redemption / contingency).
Sep 2026	Full BTCP development stack realignment: chain parameters and the Rust node move to their own workstream (W9); DEX interoperability split to W10; W1 focuses on the clean UTXO and genesis allocations. Critical path becomes W1 → W9 → W2/W3/W4 → W7/W8.
Sep 2026	Node fork work advances on Zebra 6.3.0 (network identity, Equihash 192,7 penalization). Few remaining parameter choices pending, such as block time/retarget and emission schedule (waits on the W1 genesis total).
Now	Final sanitized UTXO still pending confirmations with operational counterparties.

Where this sits on the relaunch path

At a stakeholder level the sequence is:

Freeze a cleaned transparent UTXO and genesis allocations under the guiding principles (W1)
Bring up the modern Rust node with that genesis overlay and locked parameters (W9)
Provide holders the opportunity to verify balances once sanitized UTXO finalized (W2)
Ship wallet / light surfaces (W3 / W4) and the official public website (possibly adapt this website if the original domain is not timeously returned by current custodial party) (W8)
Later: DEX liquidity (W10) and optional governance (W5)

Related pages: Guiding Principles · Roadmap (W1–W10) · Balance