Why did Satoshi disappear?

In December 2010, Satoshi made his final post and then disappeared from the

internet.

Why?

Perhaps to protect his anonymity in the face of rising interest from the media

and, more significantly, the authorities: to protect his own safety as the

WikiLeaks panic began to erupt.

There is also the possibility that he disappeared because he was ill.

In 2009, Finney was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease – amyotrophic

lateral sclerosis – the same disease from which Stephen Hawking suffers. It is,

for the most part, fatal and claims its victims within two to five years. ‘My

symptoms were mild at first,’ he says, ‘and I continued to work, but fatigue and voice problems forced me to retire in early 2011. Since then the disease has

continued its inexorable progression.’

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In March 2013 he said, ‘Today, I am essentially paralyzed. I am fed through a

tube, and my breathing is assisted through another tube. I operate the computer

using a commercial eye-tracker system. It also has a speech synthesizer, so this

is my voice now. I spend all day in my power wheelchair. I worked up an

interface using an arduino so that I can adjust my wheelchair’s position using my

eyes. It has been an adjustment, but my life is not too bad. I can still read, listen

to music, and watch TV and movies. I recently discovered that I can even write

code. It’s very slow, probably 50 times slower than I was before. But I still love

programming and it gives me goals.’

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Could a terrible illness be the reason Satoshi withdrew?

Finney was one of the first to mine bitcoins. What did he do with them?

I mined several blocks over the next days. But I turned it off because it

made my computer run hot, and the fan noise bothered me. In retrospect,

I wish I had kept it up longer, but on the other hand I was extraordinarily

lucky to be there at the beginning. It’s one of those glass half full half

empty things.

The next I heard of Bitcoin was late 2010, when I was surprised to

find that it was not only still going, bitcoins actually had monetary value.

I dusted off my old wallet, and was relieved to discover that my bitcoins

were still there. As the price climbed up to real money, I transferred the

coins into an offline wallet, where hopefully they’ll be worth something

to my heirs. Those discussions about inheriting your bitcoins are of more

than academic interest. My bitcoins are stored in our safe deposit box,

and my son and daughter are tech savvy. I think they’re safe enough. I’m

comfortable with my legacy.

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Finney, it seems, has since sold many of his bitcoins in order to pay for medical

care, many at around $100.

86 Satoshi does not appear to have spent his.