Nobody seems to have a good answer to where Satoshi has gone and why he and his coins have not been seen for years.

I can think of only a few reasons why that might be.

1. He wants btc to succeed and knows spending his coins will cause a massive panic.
2. He is already rich and has no need for more money.
3. He was hired/tagged by an agency or institution and is under NDA.
4. He is sick of btc.
5. He hates attention/spotlight and does not want the leadership role.

What if the answer is even simpler? He had a car accident / heart failure and died. His wallets are lost and therefore never spent.

This is so much more reasonable and probable than "satoshi is an AI" or other crazy theories here. It's sad, but I think this might be the truth.

In many ways, a blockchain currency is the ideal form of money for a country.

1. Every single transaction is recorded, no matter what. This is a huge advantage over cash.

2. Relatively cost-efficient (e.g. a US penny costs more to make than it's worth). Compared to having to re-design and re-issue anti-forgery bills every decade or so.

3. Safe as long as it requires multiple identification.

4. Could be designed to be instantaneous and only require internet access.

5. Supply/demand/mining power could be tightly regulated and micro-adjustments can be made.

The only cons (for the govt) I can think of is that it requires a deep internet/electricity infrastructure to be widely implemented, and that it might compete with the existing currency, and the older generations would have to be taught. For citizens, the pro's would depend on what design it takes and the con's would be loss of privacy on your finances.

In countries like South Korea (where more than 50% of the pop live in cities) or Singapore, cryptocurrency wouldn't be difficult to implement. Many of these countries already use e-cash for public transport, ect.

I doubt that a nation would adopt an outside currency but probably would be willing to create their own. Could they completely control such a system, would it succeed, and would it be good for the current community?