To this day, Satoshi Nakamoto is one of Bitcoin’s biggest mysteries as people have searched far and wide to uncover the creator’s identity. 11 years ago, on December 12, 2010, the pseudonymous blockchain programmer (or programmers) left a final message to the crypto community stressing that “there’s more work to do on [denial-of-service] DoS.”
Satoshi Nakamoto’s Legacy: Introducing Bitcoin, Kickstarting the Network and Giving Sound Advice
The original creator of Bitcoin left the community 11 years ago, on 12/12/10 2010. There were a few alleged emails that followed Satoshi Nakamoto’s departure from the community, when Bitcoin’s creator reportedly sent correspondence to the developers’ Mike Hearn and Gavin Andresen. Satoshi was first known 13 years ago when the Bitcoin whitepaper published on October 31, 2008. Satoshi communicated with the members of the emerging crypto community for approximately 772 days, or just under 2 years.
How did Satoshi spend the 772-day time period? Bitcoin’s creator first told the world about the invention and sent approximately 16 emails about the peer-to-peer e-cash paper. These emails were sent to metzdowd.com’s cryptography mailing list. Satoshi’s 17th email message on metzdowd.com was published exactly seven days after Nakamoto kickstarted the cryptocurrency network. The 17th email was published on January 8, 2009 and was called “Bitcoin v0.1 released.”
There is strong evidence that the network was started by one entity. It is presumed Satoshi Nakamoto, the miner. According to a mining simulation, Satoshi used one high-end PC (using the Windows operating system) to mine 1.11 million bitcoins. Satoshi Nakamoto is probably still living and can access this BTC. This makes him one of the most wealthy people on the planet. Satoshi Nakamoto is believed to have mined between 750,000 and 1.1 million BTC in the seven-day period.
Satoshi Nakamoto introduced the Bitcoin whitepaper and emails. He also gave community members advice and spoke frequently with developers over the two years that the inventor lived. For years, people have pieced together Satoshi Nakamoto’s quotes and advice to see what the inventor truly meant. Nakamoto said things like: “[Bitcoin is]It is attractive for the libertarian perspective if it can be explained properly. I’m better with code than with words though.” Bitcoin’s creator also said:
The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that’s required to make it work. It is essential that the central bank does not debase currency. However, the history of fiat currencies has shown many breaches of this trust.
Kicking the Hornets Nest & Releasing a Fast Build
Satoshi discussed other technological ideas, such as a hypothetical Bitdns system that eventually lead to Namecoin’s creation and merged mining. Nakamoto also was present when Wikileaks, Julian Assange and others decided to use bitcoin as a means of monetizing the site’s financial blocks. When someone said that the Bitcoin community should “bring it on” with Wikileaks donations, Nakamoto wholeheartedly disagreed.
“No, don’t ‘bring it on.’ The project needs to grow gradually so the software can be strengthened along the way. WikiLeaks is urged not to attempt to use Bitcoin. Bitcoin is still a beta community. You would not stand to get more than pocket change, and the heat you would bring would likely destroy us at this stage,” Nakamoto stressed.
Many believe Wikileaks’ decision to adopt bitcoin as a payment method in 2010 could have caused enough upset to Satoshi to force him to flee. Prior to Satoshi’s final email on December 12, the day before on the 11th, Nakamoto complained about Wikileaks adopting BTC.
“It would have been nice to get this attention in any other context. WikiLeaks has kicked the hornet’s nest, and the swarm is headed towards us,” Satoshi said at the time.
The very next day was Satoshi’s final message to the community as a whole. The message on December 12 was all business as the crypto inventor offered a quick build, and told developers that there’s more work to be done on denial-of-service (DoS) attacks.
“There’s more work to do on DoS, but I’m doing a quick build of what I have so far in case it’s needed, before venturing into more complex ideas. The build for this is version 0.3.19,” Satoshi explained that day. Satoshi added:
– Added some DoS controls. Gavin and me have repeatedly stated that software is susceptible to DoS attacks. Although this is a significant improvement, there are many other ways of attacking the software. I’m leaving the -limitfreerelay part as a switch for now and it’s there if you need it. – Removed “safe mode” alerts. ‘Safe mode’ alerts was a temporary measure after the 0.3.9 overflow bug. We can say all we want that users can just run with “-disablesafemode”, but it’s better just not to have it for the sake of appearances. This was not intended to be a permanent feature. Still, safe mode can be activated by seeing an invalid blockchain with greater PoW.
Satoshi Nagmoto didn’t address the community and public again via forum messages after that message. There have been a few people who claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto. These messages were posted after the 12th of December forum posting on bitcointalk.org. But, none of the messages that followed have been proved to be reliable, and no one has ever been able prove their invention.
The December 12 forum post was Satoshi’s final message to the nascent crypto community and quite possibly, the inventor’s way of saying goodbye.
How do you feel about Satoshi Nakamoto’s final message to bitcointalk.org, 11 years ago? We’d love to hear your opinions on the subject.
Image creditShutterstock. Pixabay. Wiki Commons
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