why do you think satoshi nakamoto kept his identity as a secret?

[jonathan6655321]

why do you think satoshi nakamoto kept his identity as a secret?

[odolvlobo]

why do you think satoshi nakamoto kept his identity as a secret?

For the same reason I keep my identity a secret, I suppose.

[Crypdon]

He or she created an anonymous form of payment so perhaps this person is real big on privacy. Then came Monero, Dash, XSPEC, etc.. which are even more private!

[sakahayang]

this question may be asked by everyone, especially the bitcoin users in the world. Because until now no one knows the reason why he hid his identity. but if he appeared to the public, maybe he could become one of the famous and richest people in the world because it has created bitcoin.

[rudox]

I think he is behind the scene for safety reason. He has given the world something real good and helpful to the downtrodden and kept fund and access to fund easier.

[Za1n]

this question may be asked by everyone, especially the bitcoin users in the world. Because until now no one knows the reason why he hid his identity. but if he appeared to the public, maybe he could become one of the famous and richest people in the world because it has created bitcoin.

He would already be pretty rich on his own as he supposedly controls a wallet with 500,000 Bitcoins, worth about $2,900,000,000 USD as I type this. That is 2.9 Billion, so yeah he would be (or already is) among one of the richest people in the world. As far as fame, he is also already famous even though no one know who he is, can't beat that if you ask me.

[Reid]

You made something non taxable and somehow madr you a ninja that government are having a hard time to track every transaction that will happen. Also, he made something that became an asset and is now inflating.
Will you not run after that? They just dont say it but they will want to question what you have done amd your purpose.

[949miner]

nobody knows who is him, but if i am satoshi and i am holding that amount of bitcoins, i would definetely reveal my identity, because such that event will make bitcoin go up by a lot of money. Just imagine how crazy it would be if we know who is the real leader and founder of this project, so many people will start to have more hope on bitcoin.
But i dont know, with that amount of money, he could just dissapear, and leave no tracks on the system.

[californiaquail]

Satoshi is most certainly a dude going by the name of Nick Szabo, an american cryptographer and computer scientist.

I mean, he invented the term "Smart Contract" then theorized and designed Bit Gold back in 1998.  

What was Bit Gold ?

A peer to peer network where participants would dedicate computer power to solve cryptographic puzzles, solved puzzles would be sent a byzantine fault-tolerant public registry and assigned to the public key of the solver.

Does that ring a bell ?  


Obviously he denied it on multiple occasions, and chances are he's dead by now lol.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Szabo

[Larva14]

why do you think satoshi nakamoto kept his identity as a secret?

Would you not if you were him? I mean you created a powerful network that now serves us the currency of the Internet in which the demand increase exponentially through the short span of time. Not to mention the unknown number of hackers that tries to find your identity in order to hack your account and steal from you.  Hiding, that's all you can do until such time that no one will try to harm you just to get rich.

[Pettuh4]

You made something non taxable and somehow madr you a ninja that government are having a hard time to track every transaction that will happen. Also, he made something that became an asset and is now inflating.
Will you not run after that? They just dont say it but they will want to question what you have done amd your purpose.

exactly, tahts's common sense and i totally agree with satoshi for remaining anonymous because it's for his own safety and security. He also staying anonymous mystifies bitcoin and draws more attention to this new technology.

[Boseda]

why do you think satoshi nakamoto kept his identity as a secret?

I think the main reason is security. Someone with that amount of money can be a target for criminals. Also, since Bitcoin has the power to destroy governments and banks, it's too risky to be under the spotlight for him...

[Skieleton]

why do you think satoshi nakamoto kept his identity as a secret?

Satoshi is probably not one person just an entire team or corporation. It will always be unknown.

[ramsdaj28]

why do you think satoshi nakamoto kept his identity as a secret?

Try to ask yourself: what's the point of revealing your identity when created a BIG INVENTION? Is it for FAME? Is it for POPULARITY? or is it for PRIDE? Well, I don't think that is the mindset of Satoshi Nakamoto. In my opinion, he hid his identity for SECURITY and PRIVACY. He don't want people to enter his private life, which I think is a very good decision by him. I, myself, won't even reveal mine if I were to create it. And another thing, why do people bother to find out who he is? To thank him? To interview how he came up with this invention? or the worst, to ask money from him? I love the way he managed everything. He's a humble person, in my opinion.

[jc01480]

why do you think satoshi nakamoto kept his identity as a secret?

For the same reason I keep my identity a secret, I suppose.

Oh, we know who you are, buddy!  (j/k)

[kiddeon123]

If I were to ask you if you are the one who created the bitcoin and holds a lot of money that are not taxed by the government, will you revile yourself, satoshi doesn't needed the fame I supposed and I think that is the reason why .

[traderethereum]

why do you think satoshi nakamoto kept his identity as a secret?

i think he don't want to get famous because once he reveal his self, the media will interfere him and will follow everything he do and he will lost his privacy in his daily life. he can not doing anything that he want by freely, he can not enjoy his life and he can not move into many place without anyone know. the media will do everything the media could do to accompany satoshi to every where he go. and i think this is why he don't want to tells to anybody else who is he and its better he keep remain in the dark and people only know as anonymous person.

[szpalata]

why do you think satoshi nakamoto kept his identity as a secret?

i think he don't want to get famous because once he reveal his self, the media will interfere him and will follow everything he do and he will lost his privacy in his daily life. he can not doing anything that he want by freely, he can not enjoy his life and he can not move into many place without anyone know. the media will do everything the media could do to accompany satoshi to every where he go. and i think this is why he don't want to tells to anybody else who is he and its better he keep remain in the dark and people only know as anonymous person.

Far from that , i think he doesn't want to be pursued by the powers that be, because a lot of governments and agencies would plan to topple him if they knew his identity and so he is safe from death and trouble this way. I totally support his reason for staying anonymous though.

[raoulsergia]

why do you think satoshi nakamoto kept his identity as a secret?

i think he don't want to get famous because once he reveal his self, the media will interfere him and will follow everything he do and he will lost his privacy in his daily life. he can not doing anything that he want by freely, he can not enjoy his life and he can not move into many place without anyone know. the media will do everything the media could do to accompany satoshi to every where he go. and i think this is why he don't want to tells to anybody else who is he and its better he keep remain in the dark and people only know as anonymous person.

Far from that , i think he doesn't want to be pursued by the powers that be, because a lot of governments and agencies would plan to topple him if they knew his identity and so he is safe from death and trouble this way. I totally support his reason for staying anonymous though.

well, they arent pursuing vitalik buterin are they? though satoshi isa bit high profile than vitalik i assume.

theres no reason for any government to attack a developer. heck even monero developers who have openly supported anonymity arent being singled out. development of a project and its use are different


i think he remained anonymous for his own private and philosophical reasons

[Yakamoto]

why do you think satoshi nakamoto kept his identity as a secret?

Any number of reasons really, it could be there is a desire to keep his identity secret so that various government agencies, or people in a similar vein of that, malicious or not, have a hard time finding him. This could also be because Satoshi is actually a group, not a specific person and thus they use a generic name to prevent any sort of real affiliation. Alternatively, it is actually his real name and he simply disappeared for one reason or another and we just never knew what happened to him in the end. Which is possible.

[krauzzer02]

I think that's for Satoshi's manner and privacy as he created decentralize and anonymous currency that is now dominating the crypto market, that is for his own safeness and security to his private life as we can say that he is one of the richest person through out the world but who knows if he still alive or not and what project or system he is currently involved, he have an account here in Bitcointalk but the last activity he posted last December 2010.

[PalindromemordnilaP]

why do you think satoshi nakamoto kept his identity as a secret?

I think i have already crossed a topic in this forum similar to this one before. Well, in my own and humble opinion, Satoshi Nakamoto's identity has kept secret so that no one might kidnapped him and force him to run a script that would shut his self-made digital currency. Or maybe, he will be forced to make a new coin similar to bitcoin that would somehow take bitcoin's position as the alpha of all cryptocurrencies.

Well, but who knows? Satoshi Nakamoto is a group and not just one person.

[Bitfort]

why do you think satoshi nakamoto kept his identity as a secret?

Because he was aware if the BTC succeed it will be pain in the ass to many "powerful" people.
I just hope he did it all well and now he's enjoying the growing popularity of his "child".

[yugyug]

i doubt that Satoshi Nakamoto is not a single person like the one who create the Ethereum crypto currency, Mr. Vitalik Buterin whose creation as popular  as bitcoin rank second in market capitalization. I doubt that this compose of a team who develop bitcoin for anti-hyper inflation of world economy , or we just simply called it the Nakamoto group, and maybe the original Nakamoto group was disbanded due to the conflict of some development on which side they give their support its either on the business side or to the masses. As we all know the current situation of bitcoin, thereare so many attempts to kill bitcoin, you may hear something like forking, Bitcoin Cash,Bitcoin Gold, Segwit2x or chain split and network split. If Mr. Nakamoto was a real person and he faces many problems of bitcoin, he would say that "being rich gives me a lot headaches".

[siti25]

Perhaps because sometimes being a famous person is not very fun. Being famous should be ready to be visited by journalists and continue to be thrown with questions wherever we go. And perhaps Satoshi is not ready for that so he prefers to keep his identity secret. Unpopular life is certainly more free.

[audaciousbeing]

For the mere fact that he could create something as intelligent as this that could only be cracked by a computer yet to be built despite the fact that he does not have the same himself, then I would want to go underground because of that. Satoshi create a liberation for the financial industry and this is something he did not because he wants to be listed on Fortune 500 or to get the Nobel (in which I think he deserves one if he had wanted it but because of the threat it serves against the interest that matters, he might be denied and that is another reason to hide). In the face of all this, lets all remind ourselves as we appreciates this fascinating invention, lets be mindful of the one who made it possible without claiming any fame or glory in that regard.

[Skieleton]

Perhaps because sometimes being a famous person is not very fun. Being famous should be ready to be visited by journalists and continue to be thrown with questions wherever we go. And perhaps Satoshi is not ready for that so he prefers to keep his identity secret. Unpopular life is certainly more free.

Satoshi may not really exist. We have no confirmation. Only guesses.

[Bitfort]

Perhaps because sometimes being a famous person is not very fun. Being famous should be ready to be visited by journalists and continue to be thrown with questions wherever we go. And perhaps Satoshi is not ready for that so he prefers to keep his identity secret. Unpopular life is certainly more free.

Satoshi may not really exist. We have no confirmation. Only guesses.

Well, then who had sent BTCs to Finney? With whom Gavin A. had talk to? Sure there was someone. The real question is whether it's a single person or some group.

[Bay_Harbour_Butcher]

maybe he's hiding his identity more because for security reasons, because we know many countries are banned bitcoin, that means many people in the government do not like him, so from that he prefers to hide

[UsernameBitcoin]

Satoshi Nakamoto kept his identity a secret because he wanted to stay anonymous and look how much good that has done compared to coins with devs that aren't anonymous.

[Peashooter]

why do you think satoshi nakamoto kept his identity as a secret?

If you were him, would you reveal yourself? The world is so cruel. There are a lot of people who want to steal to you. It is also a good strategy because it creates an interesting story behind the developer of bitcoin. I know there would be time when he will reveal himself and bitcoin will face the highest demand in its history.

[momopi]

why do you think satoshi nakamoto kept his identity as a secret?

The question is, is Satoshi Nakamoto even real?. Real in terms of a single person.  I've read some articles and some claims that "Satoshi" is actually a group of devs and not just a single person.  Anyway, whoever he/she is or whoever they are, crypto community is surely grateful that a bitcoin was created and digital currency is continue evolving

[DrGuns4Hands]

I believed that satoshi nakamoto was not only one i think they're kind of group who developed bitcoin. and also I think they're not revealing who they're because they have a lot of money right now since wikipedia says that they owned one million bitcoins. On a One million BTC If satoshi nakamoto sell all their bitcoin, then the market will definitely crash. 

[Ucy]

Here is a Quotes from Satoshi⬇

There should not be any signed int. If you've found a signed int somewhere, please tell me (within the next 25 years please) and I'll change it to unsigned int.

Don't fully understand what he mean there ...but from the way thst sounds, he obviously planned to stay longer.
If he really did planned to stay, I wonder why he would use fake NAMES. Using his first name and Surname makes the Anonymity theory very unlikely.

Well, if indeed those aren't his real names then he's most likely still posting on this forum and possibly helping to grow Bitcoin (maybe part of Bitcoin core?)

[cotton ball]

bitcoin is an innovation classified as destructive by government regulation, bitcoin offers financial freedom without being interfered with by any government, if satoshi nakamoto appears then he will end up in federal court and bitcoin will disappear in an instant, this is the right decision, In my opinion, bitcoin created by one person, not a pseudonym and symbol as many people are talking about.

[taiwww]

Satoshi Nakamoto, no one knows who he is.
He may be a person or a group.
He? may be holding a large amount of bitcoins which he never wants to disclose.
He? may be hiding for his security  and privacy which get disturbed by his public appearance.
Bitcoin is a decentralised peer to peer currency with no owner which runs on the trust of its users.
Bitcoin runs on some fundamental rules aliened by Satoshi Nakamoto.
The lack of official bitcoin leader is an asset for bitcoin.
Rules get altered  by the leaders from time to time, this is not possible with bitcoin as the creator itself is unknown.
I think this is the one one of the reason why Satoshi Nakamoto never appear in public.

[Wulanayu]

in my opinion to maintain the privacy, security and comfort he and his family. I think satoshi is cool because the true millionaire is not arrogant and do not want in the know by the crowd.

[Zimbabwecoin]

My thought is that Satoshi probably has several identities - I myself use multiple identities and have done so for over 20 years. So he can still show off using one of his other identities any time he wants. Sure we think his main identity has 500,000 bitcoin. But, perhaps he has a dozen more identities. Maybe he poses as someone who has 100 bitcoin or 10 bitcoin. He could live off of bitcoin and no touch his main stash for 30 or 40 years. Would he ever reveal himself? Probably under the right circumstances. But, I have no idea what that would be. He is also probably 10 times smarter than me so who knows what can motivate him. I am just glad that he does exist.

[Zimbabwecoin]

Alot of the talk is more answering why Satoshi is still keeping his identity secret. I think that he kept his identity a secret because he could.

For most inventions it is hard to keep your identity a secret. Certainly if you own a public company you can't keep your identity a secret.

Bitcoin is perhaps the most innovative and most impactiful invention where the inventor could be kept a secret. At no other time in history and with no prior business structure could the inventor and originator keep his identity a secret. He was smart enough to know that in this case he could keep his identity a secret. He was smart enough to see so far ahead to know that keeping his identity a secret was a possibility.

So he COULD do it and is likely very SHY so he wanted to do it and certainly also very PRIVATE.

[Fievel]

If it's 1 person we're talking about, and that person was in possession of something like 500.000 - 1.000.000 Bitcoins from what I've gathered, one would wonder why he/she hasn't cashed out any of it yet. I mean, it's a stupendous amount of money. The coins might be lost forever, the creator might have the integrity to leave them untouched, or the person is no longer with us.

The creator was obviously intelligent, and maybe he/she knew from the beginning that any commodity can artificially create additional value as long as there's a certain mystique associated with it. It's basically a myth now, and an interesting one that gathers the attention that Bitcoin might need to pull off what it was meant to do.

[Opquar]

Maybe he just didn't want to be popular. Some people like living a quiet life. In Satoshi's case, it will be a quiet life of yachts and beautiful houses.

[Btcvilla]

why do you think satoshi nakamoto kept his identity as a secret?

I never know what he thinks. no one ever knows, only rumors that continue to grow until now. so no one will ever know, except he who created it.

[cloud777]

why do you think satoshi nakamoto kept his identity as a secret?

Satoshi is probably not one person just an entire team or corporation. It will always be unknown.

I always thought it.
Maybe Wei Dai + Timoty C. May + Nick Szabo + Hal Finney + Gavin Andersen?

[DoublerHunter]

Satoshi nakamoto kept his identity as a secret because he carries a lot of bitcoins and he doesn't want to be exposed as the owner of the biggest holding of bitcoins because if he will expose himself with his identities then it will be a lot of danger to his life and he might be killed or assassinate or something just to get the bitcoins from his wallet.

[Fretcy]

The developer of bitcoin and blockchain technology is a real genius who has created  this technology in the pseudo name "Satoshi Nakamoto". Every day new entrants are entering the bitcoin community because of the transparency, good security and ease of transactions with anonymity worldwide and the transactions are recorded in the public ledger called the blockchain which can be tracked by anyone from any part of the world without a central controlling system. The user's identity are not revealed to anyone so what is the need for the developers identity, may be because he was not sure on how the world is going to treat this bitcoin network, back in 1990's in America a person named Bernard created a private currency called the liberty dollar which was backed by Gold and silver and began circulating in 2007 later the secret agents and the federal Bureau of Investigation raided him for possessing and selling his own currency which might be reason for the bitcoin developer's secrecy of not revealing his identity.

[Zufox]

One of the main supporting ideas of bitcoin is decentralization and anonymity. Developers, hiding their identity, only confirmed these ideas, which gave bitkoin so widely spread throughout the world. In addition, this could be done for security reasons - hackers simply do not know how to get to the main computer sources of bitcoin, because where they are unknown to anyone. And it's brilliant.

[Intutan]

Satoshi nakamoto kept his identity as a secret because he carries a lot of bitcoins and he doesn't want to be exposed as the owner of the biggest holding of bitcoins because if he will expose himself with his identities then it will be a lot of danger to his life and he might be killed or assassinate or something just to get the bitcoins from his wallet.

I agree with that. If he tells us about it, then he has to pay a lot of taxes.

[fanbeila]

Satoshi has almost challenged the entire banking industry which no one could dare to do.Finacial sector has almost been shaken by bitcoin.Bankers and governments too are very much upset about bitcoin.No one has ever expected such a gigantic growth by bitcoin.We could understand that how much they would be in anger over a person who has created such a bitcoin.Satoshi's life itself is in serious threat.That's why,satoshi has taken a wise decision of hiding his identity so that his life would be spared.I think that he would never reveal his identity forever.

[bitfools]

Satoshi has almost challenged the entire banking industry which no one could dare to do.Finacial sector has almost been shaken by bitcoin.Bankers and governments too are very much upset about bitcoin.No one has ever expected such a gigantic growth by bitcoin.We could understand that how much they would be in anger over a person who has created such a bitcoin.Satoshi's life itself is in serious threat.That's why,satoshi has taken a wise decision of hiding his identity so that his life would be spared.I think that he would never reveal his identity forever.

Exactly, the rest of his life he would live in a cage.

All governments on earth would indict him and extradite him, just like Julian Assange.

Years ago Phill Zimmerman invented PGP, and for years the GOV wanted to put him in prison, for giving the public an easy way to hide info from GOV.

Now satoshi has given us an easy way to make our own money and hide it from GOV, thus all gov on earth wants satoshi to pay.


Look at silk-road guy gets life in prison as an example, because GOV wants to set an example, also the silk-road guy never spent any BTC, because he knew they were all being tracked, just like satoshi ...

Why go public? If he goes public, then he goes to prison for life, and he can never spend the money.

Let's recall history, its when Gavin(?) I think told Satoshi he had an appointment to meet CIA, that was the last time, and of course Satoshi didn't want BTC used for Wikileaks as he knew that would make BTC an enemy of NSA&CIA.

So Satoshi must remain hidden for life, and can never spend his coin.

End of story.

The real question was satoshi doing this as a solo hobby, or was he a contractor?? Solo, means little, but contractors means some "AGENCY" owns BTC, IMHO  most likely he was "SOLO" because if an agency had paid, they would of by now taken control, the fact that nobody has taken control, is a result of the fact that the first 5 years were just natural growth in the crypto-anarchy community,

Control bullshit didn't start until BTC became noticed by the elite bankers that rule the world

Now of course china see's BTC as currency for the 'gods',

I suspect that across the world BTC will be a rich mans tool, as given USA avg guy don't have $500USD in bank, sure as shit will never have 1 BTC, in China ppl are richer on average, thus many rich will move their wealth around via BTC, again its a toy for the politically elite rich, aka CIA

BTC is just most famous, now there are 1,000's of alt-coins and 100's are very profitable and not on radar,

In some ways its good the assholes ( gov, bankers, lawyers ) just stay focused on BTC and leave the good stuff alone

[uztre29]

Assuming Satoshi Nakamoto is a man, he kept his identity for safety, I guess. What do you expect for the creator of Bitcoin? We all think he is a multi-billionaire. Well, it actually makes sense. If he broadcasts his identity, people will come after him. I do think he don’t want that to happen.

[yojodojo21]

The Reason Why He/She Hid His/Her Identity is for own safety. Having Gigantic Amount of Bitcoin will Lead Him/her To Many Followers (Kidnappers,Terrorist,and Many More Bad Guys). He/She is A Professional Smart Person. If I would Be Satoshi I will do The Same Thing As He/She Did. If He/She Reveals His/Her Identity He/She Will Be A Walking/Living Gold. Big Bounty On His/Her Head.

[megynacuna]

Satoshi has almost challenged the entire banking industry which no one could dare to do.Finacial sector has almost been shaken by bitcoin.Bankers and governments too are very much upset about bitcoin.No one has ever expected such a gigantic growth by bitcoin.We could understand that how much they would be in anger over a person who has created such a bitcoin.Satoshi's life itself is in serious threat.That's why,satoshi has taken a wise decision of hiding his identity so that his life would be spared.I think that he would never reveal his identity forever.

It makes every sense  for him to have kept his identity incognito because, these financial agencies and institutions you mentioned would have toppled him by now. He cannot as one man fight against the system but he did it through technology and so the technology and its users are going to be the soldiers that are going to fight on his behalf.

[odolvlobo]

The Reason Why He/She Hid His/Her Identity is for own safety. Having Gigantic Amount of Bitcoin will Lead Him/her To Many Followers (Kidnappers,Terrorist,and Many More Bad Guys). He/She is A Professional Smart Person. If I would Be Satoshi I will do The Same Thing As He/She Did. If He/She Reveals His/Her Identity He/She Will Be A Walking/Living Gold. Big Bounty On His/Her Head.

Satoshi was anonymous even before bitcoins had any value. If anything, it was the idea of Bitcoin and not the value of the bitcoins that was a reason for being anonymous.