Satoshi – Bitcoin Malaysia

WHY DID SATOSHI NAKAMOTO
CREATE BITCOIN?

Between 2008 and 2012, a pseudonymous programmer
shared with the world a brilliant vision and the code to build it.

Learn More

Source: Satoshi Nakamoto Institute

The Original Whitepaper Emails Forum Posts Code Quotes

WE DON'T KNOW WHO SATOSHI NAKAMOTO IS...

But we do have time-stamped past documents, emails, forum posts, openly accessible written code and discussion threads with the pseudonymous programmer that can help us understand why he/she/they created Bitcoin before disappearing.

Here are links to a very comprehensive repository of past exchanges with Satoshi Nakamoto. Or if you like quick facts, read on.

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THERE'S ONLY
21 MILLION
BITCOINS.

QUICK FACTS

SATOSHI
INTENDED BITCOIN TO BE DIGITAL GOLD.

SATOSHI
GOT THE
TIMING
RIGHT.

SATOSHI
disappears
and NEVER
CASHED
OUT.

BITCOIN WORKS AND IS MADE FOR YOU.

Satoshi needed a way for Bitcoin to spark itself into existence, so he coded in its DNA a fixed supply (21M Bitcoins). An increase in Bitcoin’s price inevitably leads to more participants (users), security (mining), and developers. This becomes a self-reinforcing feedback loop.

Imagine a metal as scarce as gold but can be transported over a communications channel.

Bitcoin’s mining function, Proof of Work (PoW) is both a metabolism and defense mechanism. Electricity is required to generate new coins. And the longer the Bitcoin network runs, the taller the digital wall becomes to attack the network.

PoW makes Bitcoin anti-fragile money because it requires an ginormous amount of electricity to cheat the Bitcoin network.

As of writing today, the Bitcoin network has never failed to produce a block every ten minutes. It runs 24/7/365 without interruption and is now 11 years old.

Bitcoin has become a novelty.

Satoshi read and reviewed his whitepaper 47 times to look for any glaring mistakes. He couldn't find any.

He spent years coding up Bitcoin and patiently waited to release it to the world. There was only one shot at this. Oct 31, 2008 - Satoshi opened his email client, checked the draft email cypherpunk emailing list and pressed send. The Bitcoin whitepaper was published.

With the 2008 financial crisis, trust had been lost in a world that ran on trust. Bitcoin was launched in a time of absolute necessity, Satoshi planted the seed at precisely the right moment.

On Jan 3, 2009, the Bitcoin network launches for the first time. Satoshi places an important notation onto the first block, “Chancellor on Brink of Second Bailout for Banks” - a cover story The London Times ran that day; indicating the intent behind why Bitcoin was created.

Although described as peer-to-peer electronic cash in the whitepaper, Satoshi has often compared Bitcoin to precious metals. It hints to us that Satoshi's intention for Bitcoin is more than a better VISA; but a storage of value that can earn its worthiness to form a new backbone of our financial system.

Bitcoin is more like a collectible or commodity.
It's more typical of a precious metal.

Bitcoin uses a game theory based security model that ensures every transaction is independently validated by pseudonymous actors who have staked electricity as a guarantee for the security work they have done (verification of transactions).

Satoshi chose to be anonymous.
When the operation of a technology works, the identity of who the inventor was no longer matters.

Importantly, Satoshi didn't premine any Bitcoins. He gave the cypherpunks two months (Nov, Dec 2008) heads up before mining together with the open public. To prove fairness, he included a proof of no premine timestamp in the Genesis Block of the Bitcoin blockchain.

In April 2011, Satoshi disappears.

Satoshi owns 1 million Bitcoins (approx. USD 5 billion) from his own mining contributions. But unlike every other founder in history, Satoshi never cashed out.