A recent report claims that Blockstream‘s founder Adam Back might actually be Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin (BTC), which is now the world’s largest cryptocurrency in terms of market cap and overall adoption. According to a detailed NYT probe, British cryptographer Adam Back may be the author of the Bitcoin whitepaper, which was published in late 2008 (around the time of the Global Financial Crisis of 2008).
Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto Is More Likely a Group of Individuals, Not a Single Person
However, it is more likely the case that the inventor / creator of Bitcoin is not a single person. For instance, people who have been in the crypto space for more than 10 years can tell you that individuals like smart contract pioneer Nick Szabo played a very important role in introducing a range of digital innovations in the 1990’s and a bit earlier. In fact, the kind of peer to peer electronic cash that is proposed in the Bitcoin whitepaper was not an entirely new concept even in 2008 or earlier.
Cypherpunks Worked on Digital Currencies in the 1980s
Moreover, many early cypherpunks from the 1980’s had envisioned a world where two or more parties could carry out business transactions without actually knowing the real identity of the person they were engaged with. As long as their business contracts were executed properly, then that is all that mattered.
Now, over the years, there have been many convicted fraudsters with the most prominent being Australian computer scientist Craig Wright who continued to claim that he was Satoshi Nakamoto. But extensive court proceedings and the findings from multiple lawsuits strongly indicated that Craig Wright is not really Satoshi Nakamoto and most likely does not even belong to the potential group of individuals who may have authored the Bitcoin whitepaper.
Blockchain Data Structure Invented by Dr. Stuart Haber and Colleagues
If you have ever glanced at the references section of the bitcoin paper, then you will also know that the blockchain data structure was not invented by Satoshi either. In fact, the blockchain was invented by Dr. Stuart Haber and his colleagues and was proposed as a way to handle digital document time-stamping (in the early 1990s).
Interestingly, the late John McAfee had even very strongly hinted / indicated that perhaps Adam Back and some other British researchers may actually have published the Bitcoin (BTC) whitepaper because of the way they would express certain ideas in formal papers and the specific spellings of words and even overall spacing of words within paragraphs. However, there is still no completely convincing or definitive proof that any one particular individual is solely behind the Bitcoin whitepaper.
Satoshi Now Among the World’s Wealthiest
While these debates have lingered for many years now, nobody has really come forward to convincingly claim or even (decisively) deny whether they are Satoshi Nakamoto. At present, Satoshi’s coins (around 1 million BTC), which have not moved for many years, are valued at around $100 billion. This makes the Bitcoin creator(s) one of the world’s wealthiest people.
Interestingly, it was not too long ago that a random address transferred around $150,000 in BTC to Satoshi’s address. The reasoning or motivation behind this move is not known, but it does raise some questions. For instance, what would happen if Satoshi’s coins were finally moved? Or worse, what would happen if they get hacked?
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao recently suggested that Satoshi’s coins could be frozen or something similar to that, so that the BTC holders who are active can be protected from any security issues that may harm them. Recently, other threats to bitcoin have emerged as well, such as Google researchers highlighting how quantum computing could soon become a threat to Bitcoin.
But if quantum computers become sufficiently advanced, then they could actually impact the entire banking system and many other online services. A much more likely scenario is that software upgrades for bitcoin are released so that it becomes quantum-resistant. In fact, this is something that Adam Back and other bitcoin experts have explained in detail via X and other social media channels.
Based on these developments, it can also be argued that it might not even be that important for us to know who exactly Satoshi Nakamoto is or was. Even though Coinbase actually cited Satoshi moving his coins as a potential risk when the crypto exchange was getting ready to go public several years back, this concern may be exaggerated. That’s because as long as the holder of these coins abides by the transparent rules of the Bitcoin protocol and network (which are automatically enforced by design), then there should not be anything to worry about.
DAT Treasuries May Be the Biggest Threat to Bitcoin
What is more concerning right now is the emergence of these so-called Bitcoin treasuries, with Michael Saylor‘s Strategy now holding around 700,000 BTC. These DAT companies or digital asset treasuries are the real threat to Bitcoin because they could face bankruptcy proceedings or be forced to liquidate due to regulatory issues or their failure to maintain business operations.
Other risk factors include governments intentionally acquiring large amounts of bitcoin and then abruptly deciding to dump them on the market. Ultimately, however, the Bitcoin network should remain resilient because of basic protocol design features like the 21 million hard cap and its growing decentralization due to btc miners being located all over the world by now (not to mention entire nation states like Bhutan actively mining the leading cryptocurrency).
Bitcoin and Crypto Are Here to Stay
Bitcoin along with a few other cryptocurrencies are here to stay. The future of finance is clearly digital and these permissionless digital currency networks are a natural progression of how our society would prefer to transact in the foreseeable future. And complementary technologies such as the Lightning Network (LN) are helping businesses and consumers complete payments faster and more efficiently.
And while bitcoin is still not perfect, it is a move in the right direction and moves away from the fiat standard where currencies are printed out of thin air and continue to be devalued / debased over time. Another point to consider is that critics often point out that Bitcoin was supposed to function as peer to peer electronic cash or as a mode of payment, and not as a long-term store of value that bitcoin maximalists like to claim.
However, does it really matter what Satoshi actually envisioned? Not really. As long as Bitcoin can serve some useful purpose, then it will continue to grow as a network and onboard millions of users in the future. Honestly, who really cares what Satoshi‘s initial vision for this monetary experiment even was? Or who even cares about knowing the real identity of bitcoin’s creator? All that matters is if people are benefitting from this innovation and finding it useful in their everyday lives.
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