Ten years ago today, Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto sent out his last message

This article is from BitpushNews, authored by Clare Wang.

On April 26, 2011, Bitcoin's founder Satoshi Nakamoto sent his last email to other developers, clearly stating that he had "moved on to other projects," while handing over the cryptographic keys he used to send alerts across the network.

Fast forward to 2021, the story of Bitcoin is still just beginning in many ways. With Bitcoin's price surpassing $60,000, the digital currency invented by Nakamoto, which is not controlled by any central party or government, is gaining increasing recognition for its necessity.

Today, Bitcoin is enjoying a mainstream moment, embraced by musicians, politicians, and human rights advocates. However, many mysteries still surround the person of Satoshi Nakamoto.

Therefore, today Forbes published a new study that comprehensively explores the time when Nakamoto served as the chief developer of the Bitcoin project.

A report by Bitcoin Magazine titled "The Last Days of Satoshi Nakamoto: What Happened When the Creator of Bitcoin Disappeared" provides a thorough summary of what Nakamoto experienced during the launch of Bitcoin, the choices he made as a developer, and foreshadows why his impact on the technology continued long after he left.

Based on this six-month study, the report includes over 120 citations, allowing readers to see the complete dialogue surrounding some notorious moments related to Bitcoin, including the full context of a famous meeting at CIA headquarters and the first power transition of the project.

With this in mind, Forbes staffer Pete Rizzo shared some insights they learned while researching Nakamoto and his early work as the Bitcoin code manager.

If you are new to cryptocurrency, I hope these findings will encourage you to explore the history of Bitcoin in more detail.

1. Nakamoto Saw Bitcoin as an Alternative to Central Banks

Over the years, many have attempted to reshape Nakamoto as someone only interested in disrupting banking or payment systems, with most having their own interpretations of the news article printed on the first block of the Bitcoin blockchain.

However, even without directly looking at the code, some of Nakamoto's initial public information directly addressed the issue of currency issuance.

In February 2009, he wrote on the P2P Foundation forum: "The fundamental problem with traditional currency is all the trust required to make it work. People have to trust that the central bank won't devalue their currency, but the history of fiat currency is full of breaches of that trust. We have to trust banks to keep our money safe and transfer it electronically, but they lend it out in waves of credit bubbles, with very little reserves."

Contrary to what critics might say, Nakamoto often regarded central banks and money printing as concerns when creating his invention.

In another of his earliest replies, he described: "For the problem of secure electronic payment protocols, there is indeed no one who can act as a central bank or the Federal Reserve, able to adjust the money supply as the number of users grows."

2. Nakamoto Remained Active Behind the Scenes After 'Leaving' Bitcoin

Before this new study, it was well-known that Nakamoto's last message on the Bitcoin forum was in December 2010, and he sent his final message to developers on April 26, 2011, with few knowing what happened in between.

Thanks to new emails provided by Gavin Andresen, a developer who worked directly with Nakamoto and took over the project during his absence, these clues are now more complete.

Indeed, there were some disagreements between Nakamoto and other developers, most notably on how to handle the publicity the project received and other technical issues.

Rizzo does not believe this allows us to understand the exact timing of Nakamoto's disappearance more deeply, but he concluded from the research that by the time Nakamoto left, Bitcoin no longer needed a single leader.

3. Nakamoto Knew Bitcoin Was a Scientific Breakthrough

Here, we refer to a subpage on the original Bitcoin.org website, where Nakamoto claimed that Bitcoin solved the "Byzantine Generals Problem," which has since been widely recognized as his achievement.

Surprisingly, Nakamoto was not only able to invent something truly new but also to concretely realize this achievement.

This demonstrated his mastery of the history of computer science and his ability to accurately define what he had accomplished, even if it took the world some time to catch up with his thinking.

4. Nakamoto Was Truly Frightened by the Possibility of Bitcoin Being Compromised

While Rizzo believes this assertion, he rigorously substantiates it through detailed clarification.

Rizzo knew as early as 2010 that the Bitcoin blockchain was exploited, leading to the creation of billions of bitcoins, which directly violated the monetary policy of the software.

Rizzo never thought Nakamoto would be deeply affected by this. Rather than viewing this event as a one-time occurrence, Nakamoto fundamentally changed his actions and leadership. His collaboration with other developers became less frequent, leaning towards making unannounced additions and updates to the software, and he became obsessed with making the software more secure, a phase that seemed to last for months.

Later in 2010, Nakamoto realized that Bitcoin was vulnerable to attacks, and the rest of his work was an attempt to prevent deadly attacks at all costs.

5. Nakamoto Was Bitcoin's Benevolent Dictator

Today, Bitcoin development is a highly collaborative process among hundreds of developers worldwide. However, when Nakamoto led the project, he and a few others did most, if not all, of the work.

It is not surprising that in the early days, there were not many exceptional programmers like Nakamoto. Encouraged by Gavin Andresen, they later joined the project, which under his leadership became a more open and collaborative endeavor.

Nonetheless, I still find it interesting that Nakamoto managed Bitcoin as a benevolent dictator, as he often wrote the "official" code for others to test. This completely aligns with the established practices of open source, and most believe Nakamoto did not realize he needed to invent a new model for managing Bitcoin to make it "decentralized."

This is why Rizzo believes it is best to view part of Bitcoin as something built by Nakamoto, whose completion, both technically and philosophically, is the result of contributions from later developers.

6. Bitcoin Users Began Criticizing Nakamoto Before He Left

Regarding this study, Rizzo's biggest surprise may have been discovering real-time conversations among Bitcoin users about Nakamoto and witnessing how users' attitudes toward him changed over time.

According to Rizzo, these attitudes roughly went through three phases. There was a honeymoon period in early 2010 when most users were discovering the software. When he began to more actively maintain his authority over the code, it was an awakening.

Finally, in the last period of late 2010, users completely distanced themselves from Nakamoto. Some joked about his gender and sexual orientation, sometimes graphically. They spoke quite freely and openly about the frustrations caused by Nakamoto, due to the general lack of usability and the inability to meet many user demands.

7. Nakamoto Removed His Name from the Bitcoin Software Before Leaving

The final interesting discovery is that Nakamoto did formally "exit" Bitcoin, removing his name from the copyright notice of the software and leaving the code to all "Bitcoin developers."

This aligns with our understanding of Nakamoto, whose hard work and expertise in personal security have kept him a mystery to this day.

This is the ultimate clue, as this move eliminated any doubts about whether he intended to leave, although the motives behind this action remain a mystery.