For the past decade or so, there have been people who have practically dedicated their lives to finding the creator of Bitcoin.
Even over a decade later, there are still folks who are actively seeking to track down this ghost. All with the hope of finally knowing the truth. Who created
one of, if not
the most important invention of our generation?
Naturally, this would be something everyone would want to happen. We want to give credit where credit is due. We want to put a face to this now
mythical pseudonym. Under all of this curiosity, however, lies a rather dubious double-edged sword. Especially when Bitcoin was in its infancy.
(Arguably still is.)Obviously, Satoshi Nakamoto is a pseudonym. Meaning if we were to find this individual, their true name would likely have to surface. While we would ultimately have found Bitcoin's beloved creator
and his real name, we would have opened ourselves to a whole new
planet of FUD. Not FUD towards Bitcoin itself, but its creator.
I want to be clear that the impact of finding Satoshi now would be very different than finding him 7+ years ago.Governments and financial institutions would now have the identity of the individual that is attacking the very infrastructure upon which they made a fortune. This is bad news.
While I am not insinuating they would have gone after Satoshi's life, I firmly believe they would have done everything in their massive amount of power to defame, discredit, and slander the founder of Bitcoin.
This includes:
- Fraud Allegations
- Terrorism Funding Allegations
- Allegations for Funding Criminal Enterprises
Etc..
They could even make this man look like a pedo by "linking" him to certain organizations and saying that THIS was the sole purpose of Bitcoin. The problem is, they now have a
face to attack. We know the media, they can say whatever they want.
With zero accountability.Accusations like these would not be as effective as they would have been 7+ years ago like I had mentioned. These days, the Bitcoin community is more vast and immeasurably stronger than it was during these early times. Much of this would have been recognized as manipulation by big government and HODLers would remain headstrong. Even still, it would be ignorant to think there would not be some considerable problems in an event such as this.
However, in the earlier days of Bitcoin, FUD at these levels combined with a face to attach to it could have been fatal to our still fragile ecosystem. If Satoshi had chosen not to remain anonymous from the beginning, financial institutions/governments would have stopped the party well before it got out of hand. They could have exercised any of the aforementioned options and given themselves more than enough justification to make Bitcoin
highly illegal globally. On a different timeline, something like this would have greatly hindered crypto development.
This is why it was inexpressibly important for Satoshi to remain anonymous. If you ask me, this is why he should stay anonymous.
I am in no way suggesting that people looking for this figure stop looking for this figure. If it is your mission, accomplish it. Just understand there are more serious implications at hand once he/she is identified.
I totally agree with you on the fact that identifying Satoshi would be bad because the reasons you highlighted. I am also of the opinion that instead of spending time and energy trying to find out someone who chooses to remain anonymous, why not spend the time and energy in propagating bitcoin in the mainstream world. I believe that's the only way we can say 'thank you to Satoshi for his great invention.
If he didn't stay anonymous, it would have defeated the idea of bitcoin being decentralised as he would be a centralised authority and would influence the price of bitcoin in ways unimaginable much more than Elon Musk