Why has Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto remained anonymous?
The man, woman or group who invented Bitcoin has never revealed their identity. Why did Satoshi Nakamoto choose anonymity?
By Scott Chipolina
6 min read
Sep 15, 2020
In its decade-plus lifespan, Bitcoin has gone from being the niche obsession of a group of cypherpunks on message boards, to one of the world’s largest currencies. Yet the identity of its creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, remains unknown.
Over the years, Satoshi’s true identity has been the subject of feverish speculation, with many names having been put forward. That’s hardly surprising; people love a mystery, for one thing. For another, the gigantic stash of Bitcoin that Satoshi mined in the cryptocurrency’s early days has remained untouched; were he (or she, or they) to return, those Bitcoin could flood the market, potentially affecting the cryptocurrency’s price (we got a hint of this in mid-2020, when Bitcoin’s price dumped on the news that some Satoshi-era coins moved).
So we know that Satoshi’s identity is a mystery. We even have an idea of how Satoshi kept his identity secret. But what about why?
To decentralize Bitcoin, you must set it free
Let’s start with the facts. We know that Satoshi was motivated by a vision of a currency that didn’t rely on trust in third parties or the government. Thanks to The Complete Satoshi, the Bitcoin creator’s ideas and philosophies are preserved: “What is needed is an electronic payment system based on cryptographic proof instead of trust, allowing any two willing parties to transact directly with each other without the need for a trusted third party.”
Given Satoshi’s clear intentions here, it’s probably true that maintaining his anonymity was necessary to make sure Bitcoin remained a truly decentralized creation.
Crypto creators have an outsize influence over the communities that grow up around their coins, something that's caused many of them disquiet in the past. Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin is "not too excited that the community assigns so much importance to him," according to his father in a New Yorker profile. Litecoin creator Charlie Lee, meanwhile, surrendered ownership of any of his own creation. In a Reddit post, Lee said, “It is a conflict of interest for me to hold LTC and tweet about it because I have so much influence
Why has Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto remained anonymous? The man, woman or group who invented Bitcoin has never revealed their identity. Why did Satoshi Nakamoto choose anonymity? By Scott Chipolina
6 min read
Sep 15, 2020
In its decade-plus lifespan, Bitcoin has gone from being the niche obsession of a group of cypherpunks on message boards, to one of the world’s largest currencies. Yet the identity of its creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, remains unknown.
Over the years, Satoshi’s true identity has been the subject of feverish speculation, with many names having been put forward. That’s hardly surprising; people love a mystery, for one thing. For another, the gigantic stash of Bitcoin that Satoshi mined in the cryptocurrency’s early days has remained untouched; were he (or she, or they) to return, those Bitcoin could flood the market, potentially affecting the cryptocurrency’s price (we got a hint of this in mid-2020, when Bitcoin’s price dumped on the news that some Satoshi-era coins moved).
So we know that Satoshi’s identity is a mystery. We even have an idea of how Satoshi kept his identity secret. But what about why?
To decentralize Bitcoin, you must set it free Let’s start with the facts. We know that Satoshi was motivated by a vision of a currency that didn’t rely on trust in third parties or the government. Thanks to The Complete Satoshi, the Bitcoin creator’s ideas and philosophies are preserved: “What is needed is an electronic payment system based on cryptographic proof instead of trust, allowing any two willing parties to transact directly with each other without the need for a trusted third party.”
Given Satoshi’s clear intentions here, it’s probably true that maintaining his anonymity was necessary to make sure Bitcoin remained a truly decentralized creation.
Crypto creators have an outsize influence over the communities that grow up around their coins, something that's caused many of them disquiet in the past. Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin is "not too excited that the community assigns so much importance to him," according to his father in a New Yorker profile. Litecoin creator Charlie Lee, meanwhile, surrendered ownership of any of his own creation. In a Reddit post, Lee said, “It is a conflict of interest for me to hold LTC and tweet about it because I have so much influence