Can Bitcoin's "white paper" be considered the genesis of digital art?

This is a very interesting question, like asking if an architectural blueprint counts as the beginning of architectural art. My view is:

Directly considering it a "digital artwork" itself might be a bit of a stretch, but viewing it as a "manifesto" or "foundational text" for a grand digital art movement is absolutely appropriate.

Let me explain in plain language:

1. What is it itself? The Bitcoin whitepaper, fully titled "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System," is essentially a technical paper, a manual. It uses very rigorous, even somewhat dry language, to describe how a system operates. Its purpose isn't aesthetic appreciation but to solve a practical problem: how to enable secure online transactions without a central authority (like a bank). From this perspective, it's like a draft paper filled with formulas and code, rather than a painting.

2. Why can it be related to art?

   • The Artistry of Thought: Art isn't just pretty pictures. There's "conceptual art," which posits that the "idea" behind the work is more important than the work itself. The "decentralization" idea proposed in the Bitcoin whitepaper was groundbreaking at the time. It constructed a trust system entirely based on mathematics and code, and this concept itself is full of philosophical and subversive beauty. Many people, especially programmers and cryptography enthusiasts, find the system's design so exquisite, much like appreciating a perfect mechanical watch or an elegant mathematical formula.
   • It's the "Foundation" of New Art Forms: This is the most crucial point. What is the technical basis for NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) that we discuss today – those digital images, music, and videos selling for astronomical prices online? It's blockchain. And the Bitcoin whitepaper is the first successful application and most classic exposition of blockchain technology. It can be said that without this whitepaper, there would be no Bitcoin, no widespread adoption of blockchain, and thus no thriving NFT digital art market today. While it's not the first NFT artwork, it invented the "soil" and "air" that allowed NFTs to be born.

In summary:

You can imagine the Bitcoin whitepaper as Duchamp's Fountain (the famous urinal). The urinal itself wasn't a traditional artwork, but it posed a revolutionary question to the world: "What is art?", thereby opening the door to modern and contemporary art.

Similarly, the Bitcoin whitepaper itself isn't a digital painting, but it used code and logic to construct a new, decentralized digital worldview, paving the way for all subsequent NFT digital art. Therefore, calling it the "pioneer" or "spiritual totem" of digital art (especially crypto art) is entirely appropriate.