BTC possibly being developed by US intelligence: what it brings (op-ed)

[alexkamillakroy]

Hi, fellow enthusiasts. Ran into this op-ed today, and I found it pretty interesting.

https://cryptopotato.com/the-cia-secretly-owned-crypto-ag-did-they-secretly-create-bitcoin-opinion/

I did see the OP earlier, although I didn't read WaPo article in details because it looks to be demanding paid subscription from everyone now & no way am I paying for this establishment propaganda mouthpiece with rare sparks of good content (he-he)  . However, the main revelation is clear: Crypto AG was secretly owned by CIA & sold equipment to various state actors (who were naive enough to fall for it), keeping lags allowing US & German govts to spy on the supposedly encrypted communications. * imagine our collective shock *   

(Here is some other article on topic; not like Guardian is pure & bright, but at least not paywalled. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/11/crypto-ag-cia-bnd-germany-intelligence-report).

Of course, encryption is pretty broad topic in general. Moreover, lots of tech products were developed or backed by intelligence (look no further than Tor, damn, even Internet in its initial form was an US intelligence product!). However, it's neither unrealistic nor surprising at this point to assume that if intelligence gives out smth to the world, it's not done out of generosity; or that intelligence offices are forwarding the technology to use in their respective states' geopolitical purposes & are okay with the fact this tech might be used against them in the future. Therefore, the math is above "all that", the product must be safe and no way any breaches are left for intl to at least try to control it. (If Edward Snowden's revelations in particular are any indicator).

Here are some particular highlights of the aforementioned op-ed that grabbed my attention (sorry if I'm unwillingly repeating some gospel):

Bitcoin is based on technology created by the National Security Agency (NSA). The NSA’s Secure Hashing Algorithm 256 (SHA-256) is a lynchpin of Bitcoin Core, the software that turns a computer into a Bitcoin node. SHA-256 is a one-way hashing function that compresses and encrypts a string of any length into a unique 256-bit signature or hash. The original string cannot be determined from the hash. And it’s impossible to guess what SHA-256’s output will be for any given input. So it’s functionally random. You can enter Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address into it and get one hash, then change a single letter and enter it again and get an entirely different hash.

None of this proves the CIA created Bitcoin. The NSA published SHA-256 in 2001. So non-CIA coders could have taken it up and used it to make Bitcoin. But after Crypto AG, it does make one wonder if there’s some kind of back door into SHA-256. Perhaps more incriminating is the meaning of the name Satoshi Nakamoto in Japanese. Nakamoto actually means “Central” or “Middle.” Satoshi means “Enlightened,” “Wise,” or “Intelligent.” These are facts. Satoshi Nakamoto means Central Intelligence. That could be a joke by its non-CIA creators, or it could be the CIA’s calling card.

_{(can anyone who speaks Japanese confirm please?.. Because... if so, it's one of the greatest levels of unabashed bait/open trolling I saw)}

What do you think?

And, if the assumption is legit, what would be the purpose?

p.s. I am not sure if this thread fits in Economic/Speculations thread, although economic consequences of cryptocurrency projects being state-backed from the start, are pretty broad to even imagine - still, it's rather vague subject. I don't think it fits into "Politics" or "News" section either. If anything, mods, feel free to move this thread to another section.

[hatshepsut93]

This has been discussed many times already on this forum, so generally there are three main points:

1. There's no proof that Bitcoin was created by some intelligence service, it's merely a theory. And theories are just that - theories, you might as well propose that Bitcoin was developed by aliens or the Illuminati.

2. Bitcoin is based on the same cryptography that is used by the rest of the world, it was reviewed countless times by the best cryptographers in the world and they didn't found any backdoors. If you don't trust someone's else cryptosystem, you can develop your own, like the Russians do, but it will likely be inferior to the standard crypto implementations.

3. A lot of tech comes from military background - the Internet, GPS, TOR - just because it was created by the government, it doesn't mean it comes with a backdoor.

[mu_enrico]

OP, first and foremost, this is not an economics discussion, perhaps more appropriate to move this on Bitcoin discussion. There is no way for us to know for sure who created Bitcoin and for what purpose except from Satoshi's legacy (email, forum post, etc.). Moreover, even if Satoshi himself comes to light, it would be very difficult to prove that he is the real one.

Many essential human technologies were created by government funding, and some by private companies. The government has the budget to funds researchers and academics institutions, so it is not something unusual. My point is, even if SHA256 was funded/invented by the government, it doesn't mean the algorithm is malicious. SHA256 has been tested multiple times by experts around the world and still widely used today.

And last, it doesn't matter who created Bitcoin and the motivation behind it since the code can be easily audited.

[davis196]

There's an article about your hypothesis that was published back in 2014.

Link:https://siliconangle.com/2014/08/12/did-the-nsa-create-satoshi-nakamoto/

The question "Did CIA/NSA created Bitcoin?" can't get an answer by anyone,except  the US government,and the US government will never answer such question.So this topic seems kinda pointless to me.
At least,if the CIA really created Bitcoin,we can be 100% sure that the US government will never ban bitcoin trading and mining.
If the CIA really stands behind Bitcoin Core,they would never use a nickname that suggests that CIA stands behind Bitcoin Core.

[Kakmakr]

Even if the NSA published SHA-256, it would not necessarily mean that they also developed Bitcoin. Remember that SHA-256 are out there for everyone to use in their projects and it is just natural that Satoshi Nakamoto would look into adding this into his little project, because it was what he/she needed.

The Internet also started when the US military implemented TCP/IP in their Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) and that formed the foundation for the Internet we have today.

So you have a project and you look for the things out there that you can use to get to your end goal and this case it was SHA-256. People sometimes create the weirdest conspiracy theories from nothing. 

[LeGaulois]

@OP I like this topic because there are several coincidences.

In the '90s the NSA published a document talking about a cryptocurrency, you will recognize several terms we all know here, like Schnorr signature, multiple spending prevention, anonymity, untraceability, and so on.
http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/classes/6.805/articles/money/nsamint/nsamint.htm#Conclusion

In an attempt to control the world economy and to be able to manipulate it, the US may well be behind Bitcoin. At least, it's something we shouldn't be surprised if it turned to be the truth.

We often refer to Bitcoin as the worldwide currency, I know people will say we fall in the conspiracy theory but 1 world, 1 government, 1 currency doesn't it remember you something? The NWO?

Do you remember MtGox?

From the internet archive:
Jan 6, 2007
204.251.15.185
Reverse DNS:                    http://sbcp5.dhs.gov .
Reverse DNS authenticity:       [Verified]

link

Now you mentioned Germany

Another early #Bitcoin domain, from Aug 2010.
This one was trickier than I expected.  The website was Russian but the servers were in Germany.
BTCEX dot com
IP: 78.46.0.0 - 78.47.255.25

link

There are so many points like this. Perhaps it's true Bitcoin is the money for the Elite? Well I'm glad I will belong to this Elite group
Go illuminatis

But if the US is behind Bitcoin it doesn't make sense then to track down Bitcoin's users
https://theintercept.com/document/2018/03/20/pages-from-oakstar-weekly-2013-03-08/

[fiulpro]

Well if it was developed by the people who are working in the intelligence they for sure want to spy on the nations and the people who have black money hidden at places where the government can't find.
I do think if that's true then it's some kind of secret operation , they are infiltrating all the countries economy and therefore I do think that it is Preety dark and not doing what it was supposed to do instead it's just a pawn of the government.
But then again it's not at all confirmed and I do have my reasons to not believe this.

[FanEagle]

It is not a "secret" that they are doing secret things anymore. I mean we are talking about CIA here and their whole thing is doing secret stuff, so it is not a wonder that they did something about bitcoin as well, I would definitely expect them to do something like this.

They literally got an order to actually "stop bitcoin" once as well, they realized bitcoin is not something people can stop so they gave up on that, this shows that they realized they can't stop it so they got involved instead as well. Plus if the governments of the world created their own exchanges we wouldn't had this trouble of exchange hackings or exit scams or whatever because they would be backed by governments. I know we don't like regulations here but sometimes safety comes before freedom.

[FanatMonet]

I don’t think this is true, a large number of various checks have already been done, and no one was able to prove the connection of any intelligence service to the creation of bitcoins. If you give evidence, such as the fact that the SHA-256 is a military development, then the Internet is also a military development, so such evidence is not entirely true.

[dothebeats]

You can find several 'lapses' (if you may) on this cover-up, but IMO, said lapses were too few to actually make it substantial. As many of us always say, no system is devised perfectly, and perhaps these 'flaws' in the system devised by the NSA are the IPs and write-ups they have had in the past that coincided with what bitcoin and the whole idea of cryptocurrency has.

Then again, they could only be unwanted coincidences after all, and do note that bitcoin was basically a synthesis of multiple closely-related cryptographic concepts to form a working digital currency.

[avikz]

I don’t think this is true, a large number of various checks have already been done, and no one was able to prove the connection of any intelligence service to the creation of bitcoins. If you give evidence, such as the fact that the SHA-256 is a military development, then the Internet is also a military development, so such evidence is not entirely true.

A lot of things developed for military but it ended up to mass use.  As you have rightly said, even internet was developed for military usage which was known as "Advanced Research Projects Agency Network" or ARPANET. Even GPS is one of those technical developments which we use in our mobile phones today! So it is possible that SHA-256 protocol is another military development but we don't have any substantial proof to believe bitcoin is developed by them as well.

There are definitely gaps, but even those gaps are not substantial to make us believe this story. If you have to believe the conspiracy theorists, you will have to believe that the earth is flat. So it's better to ignore sometimes!