The Genius Anonymity of Satoshi Nakamoto
Satoshi Nakamoto stayed anonymous so that Bitcoin could thrive.
The identities of most of the influential people in our society are usually well known. These are politicians, businessmen, billionaires, and many others who play important roles in our world. We know who they are, what they do, and to some degree, why they do it. But there is one extremely important person who still remains completely anonymous.
Satoshi Nakamoto is the pseudonym for the anonymous creator of Bitcoin. Even after a decade, he remains completely unidentified. This pseudonym could have belonged to a government, a small group, or even just one individual. No one really knows for sure.
When Satoshi first launched Bitcoin in 2009 it was a niche idea that a small community enjoyed tinkering with. Today, Bitcoin has spawned a whole movement of cryptocurrencies that have trillions of dollars in total value. This has led Satoshi to become one of the richest and most influential individuals of our lifetimes.
Not only did Satoshi create an extremely revolutionary technology, but he is also believed to hold a significant stake in it. It is estimated that he owns over 1 million Bitcoins, which would be worth billions of dollars today. Yet, Satoshi has never sold any that we are aware of.
Creating such a revolutionary technology could have netted Satoshi fame and fortune. But like a thief in the night, he disappeared without a trace. All these years later he still remains anonymous and inactive.
Why?
How Satoshi Nakamoto Became A Legend
Satoshi Nakamoto started creating the code for Bitcoin back in 2007, but things really kicked off in 2008. This was the year he introduced Bitcoin to the rest of the world. On August 18th, 2008 Satoshi registered the domain name for Bitcoin. Then on October 31st, he published the whitepaper, outlining Bitcoin’s exact purpose and how it would work. This whitepaper was then distributed to a cryptography mailing list that had many individuals who would be interested in something like Bitcoin.
2009 was an even bigger year for Bitcoin. It went from an idea to a real functioning software. On January 3rd of that year version 0.1 of Bitcoin was released. With this, the genesis block of Bitcoin was created officially marking the beginning of Bitcoin. (Satoshi mined this block)
The genesis block awarded Satoshi Nakamoto the first 50 Bitcoin, but it also held a more interesting Easter egg. In the code, Satoshi hid the message “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”. This message acts as both a timestamp and a way for Satoshi to voice his frustrations against the current financial system.
This Easter egg was a headline from the same day the first Bitcoins were mined. It was from the front page of The Times, one of the oldest newspapers in Britain. The article details how another bailout may be needed for banks following the 2008 recession. Ironically this headline explains the exact reason for Bitcoin’s existence. Governments rewarded banks for the problems they created while leaving the many individuals their actions hurt with very little help.
Satoshi had brought up many times his dissatisfaction with the current financial system. He talked about it in forum posts, emails, and most importantly in the Bitcoin whitepaper itself. It was clear he was very ideologically driven and intended for Bitcoin to be a solution to many problems our current system created.
Satoshi would continue to work on Bitcoin’s source code by himself while taking input from others in the community. In mid-2010 he would then give up his place as the lead of Bitcoin. He handed everything over to other prominent and trusted community members.
Gavin Andresen was given the source code repository and the network alert key. This allowed Andresen to easily make updates to Bitcoin’s code as well as alert nodes of any issues on the network. Essentially Satoshi had just passed the torch of lead developer down to Gavin.
Satoshi would continue to be active in the community until around December of 2010 when he would make his last forum post. Without any real public announcement, he began removing himself completely from the project. Letting the others he trusted to take full control. While Satoshi’s public involvement had ended, he did still seem to respond to some emails from those who were working on Bitcoin at the time.
In 2017 Mike Hearn, one of the early developers of Bitcoin, released his email correspondence with Satoshi from 2009 to 2011. In his last email, Mike Hearn asked,
“I had a few other things on my mind (as always). One is, are you planning on rejoining the community at some point (eg for code reviews), or is your plan to permanently step back from the limelight?”
Satoshi answered this question with a concise yet insightful response:
“I’ve moved on to other things. It’s in good hands with Gavin and everyone.”
This made it official. Satoshi Nakamoto was done with Bitcoin. Thus, ushering Bitcoin into a new era without its creator.
Satoshi would make one final forum post several years later in 2014. This post was written in the replies of the original post made introducing Bitcoin on the p2p forums.
The reply simply read:
“I am not Dorian Nakamoto.”
This comment was a response to a controversy at the time. A journalist had accused a California man by the name of Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto of being the creator of Bitcoin. It is debated if this message was truly from Satoshi himself or if his account was hacked by someone. Either way, it only solidified the fact that he was truly an enigma.
How Satoshi Nakamoto Remained Anonymous
The anonymity of Satoshi Nakamoto wasn’t an afterthought. It was a major part of his plan from the start. In our digital age it’s nearly impossible for someone to remain anonymous. So, it’s a wonder that over a decade later his identity still remains unknown. Satoshi did not just create a pseudonym and call it a day. He deliberately made sure that every action he took was one that could not be traced back to his real identity.
The steps Satoshi Nakamoto would have taken to hide his identity include, but are not limited to: using a VPN, registering domain names through sites that would protect his identity, using The Onion Router (TOR), creating a brand new email address, and not using personal accounts on the same computer he used to work on Bitcoin. It’s hard to know exactly which methods he used to protect himself. After all, he was concealing his identity and very likely didn’t want people to know all the ways he was doing so.
What we do know for sure is that his methods were advanced and comprehensive. The most notable is Satoshi’s possible use of TOR, which he expressed interest in on the BitcoinTalk forums. TOR is open-source software that routes your internet usage in a way that makes it much more difficult to trace back to an individual.
While TOR is extremely useful in protecting the user’s privacy, it does have drawbacks. The largest is that it significantly slows down your internet browsing speed. If Satoshi was using TOR, anytime he was working on Bitcoin-related tasks it would have slowed down portions of his work. While not a massive inconvenience it was something Satoshi did not have to deal with. However, he chose to sacrifice speed over privacy. Another testament to the lengths Satoshi would go to in order to not to be identified.
It’s also obvious that Satoshi Nakamoto was a huge fan of security and privacy. Not only did he browse forums and talk to people who valued those things, but he created Bitcoin. A currency that at its core values individual liberties. Someone as deeply rooted in these ideas as Satoshi Nakamoto would likely take every step needed to keep their anonymity.
Why Satoshi Nakamoto Remained Anonymous
It’s easy to see that Satoshi Nakamoto took his privacy very seriously. The steps he took to stay hidden were drastic. But why exactly did he hide his identity? While we don’t know for sure, there are a few theories that try to answer this question.
What Satoshi created is an extremely powerful technology. If Bitcoin worked as he intended, it would help to take power away from those that our current financial system benefits the most. This means as Bitcoin grew more people would be interested in tracking down its creator.
While many of the people looking for Satoshi Nakamoto would see him as a hero, there would be others who were not fans of the technology he created. They could potentially want to cause harm to Satoshi and those closest to him. So, one of the biggest reasons he stayed anonymous was very likely for the safety of himself and those around him.
He also probably kept anonymous to separate the project from his personal identity. The real identity behind Satoshi Nakamoto is a flawed human. Someone who has beliefs and wants that are completely separate from Bitcoin and everything it stands for. The character of Satoshi Nakamoto however, only exists as the creator of Bitcoin.
This has allowed Satoshi Nakamoto to add more credibility to Bitcoin over time. With every year that passes, we get farther away from Satoshi’s original involvement with the project. At the same time, his legend continues to grow. In the crypto community he has been mythicized, even to the point where statues of him are being erected.
Satoshi likely wanted his persona to get this sort of notability. He would have wanted a strong figure to guide the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency movement. At the very least he didn’t want his weaknesses as a human to hurt the technology that he worked so hard to create.
So, why did Satoshi Nakamoto remain anonymous? We will never truly know all the details. Everything mentioned here are just educated guesses. What we do know is that Satoshi was incredibly smart and likely had many reasons to keep his identity hidden. The two most prominent reasons are for his safety and to make sure Bitcoin could thrive.
The Genius Anonymity of Satoshi Nakamoto
Satoshi Nakamoto’s hidden identity has been a great help to the Bitcoin and crypto community. It has allowed them to benefit from a lot of the positives of having a strong founder without the many negative aspects of him being a fallible human. Satoshi Nakamoto acts as a symbol of what we should strive to be — someone who is proactive in creating solutions for the issues in our society.
Many will continue to search for Satoshi’s true identity. Some will even claim to be him, but the truth is we will likely never know who the real Satoshi Nakamoto was. Most likely he was an individual, but Satoshi could’ve been the government or a small dedicated group.
Just like his creation, Satoshi will live on. As a legend, he will never truly disappear. In 100 years, assuming crypto and Bitcoin are still widespread, he will be more alive than he ever was now. Monuments will be erected in his honor and people will continue to discuss the forum posts and emails he made between 2008 and 2011.
They won’t be idolizing Satoshi Nakamoto the man. They will be praising Satoshi Nakamoto the idea, because that is what he always has been. There never really was a Satoshi Nakamoto. He was a character of sorts meant to perpetuate the technology of Bitcoin and he doesn’t exist outside of that.
Satoshi disappeared as quickly as he arrived. He created a revolutionary technology, improved on it, and let his invention run wild. To many it may be a disappointment that we don’t know who really created Bitcoin, but maybe some things are just better left unknown.