Bitcoin turns out to be the creation of a three letter agency - what then?

[gentlemand]

So one day the CIA, NSA, DEA, ATF, FBI, DIA, NRO, DOD, DHS and whoever else I've forgotten rather cheekily admit that they're behind the creation of Bitcoin.

Do you freak out? Run for the hills? Take it as the ultimate endorsement of legitimacy? Milk The Man of as much as possible and then go off to finance a competing version? Shrug and trust that things have moved on and they have no effective control?

The latter is of course true, although they'd still have that mountain of early coins to wield.

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[Xavofat]

I'd probably propose a fork called NoGovernmentCoin.

We'd have a period after the fork in which only I could mine, so I'd get about 100,000 coins.  Then I'd see how else I can get shitloads of money off of Bitcoin users' newfound mistrust of their favourite crypto.  Panic could be great for profits if you're evil.

I'd also decrease the block size to 226 bytes.  That way it would be a way better store of value because no one could use it for anything else.

[HeRetiK]

Congratulate them on their great work. Then shrug and move along. Assuming they have no effective control, this doesn't change a thing about Bitcoin.

We all use Cryptography as standardized using the NSA's input in our everyday life. The internet, GPS and TOR all have military roots. All of which are undoubtedly useful and important inventions, regardless of where it came from.

[MickeyT2008]

Well everything that cocerns about bitcoin makes me wonder if it has been really created by the government and so many other agencies like the fbi, nsa, and so on.
Maybe it makes sense, i was chatting through a trollbox a few months ago with a guy who predicted that bitcoin was going to be having the same pattern that it had on 2014 (it really happened, and i earned a lot of money because of that prediction)
he told me that bitcoin was really created by one of those agencies, and i did not believe in him because it could not be possible.
I keept talking to him for a few nights later, because it was on the SimpleFx trollbox, so everytime that i was trading he was in there, talking to me.
it was an incredible experience, he knew a lot about bitcoin, and if you really think about it, it really make sense, first, the US wanted to take control of everything, i mean, they wanted to have power over everything.
NOW if bitcoin is from them, then it means that in a few years from now, the economic power is going to be theirs too.

[hatshepsut93]

Sure, if someone from those agencies made such a statement, Bitcoin's price would suffer in short term because speculators and newbies will panic, but unless that statement will be backed by moving some coins from the early blocks, it will be viewed just as FUD and manipulation attempt, just like it happened when Craig Wright claimed that he is Satoshi. But it's really unlikely that it will ever happen for two reasons - if it's false, those agencies wouldn't bother damaging their image by making false claims and if it's true, than they would do their best to keep it secret so more people will keep using Bitcoin. But since in 8 years no one found any backdoors in Bitcoin, it's extremely unlikely that there are any.

[gentlemand]

But since in 8 years no one found any backdoors in Bitcoin, it's extremely unlikely that there are any.

We already know that there isn't a back door. If there was it would've been discovered. Those early coins aside, they have no more control over it than anyone else though those coins are of course very powerful.

It's more about whether attitudes in general would change for the better or worse. While early adopters would be appalled, it might be regarded as the signal to pile in for everyone else.

And if you did want to introduce something like this it eases departmental budgets somewhat to throw it out into the wide world and let others refine it.

[LeGaulois]

National Security Agency Office of Information Security Research and Technology
Cryptology Division

18 June 1996

HOW TO MAKE A MINT: THE CRYPTOGRAPHY OF ANONYMOUS ELECTRONIC CASH
http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/classes/6.805/articles/money/nsamint/nsamint.htm


It could be a good thing if it turns out to be the truth. Let's imagine that it could be a part of the New World Order set up (1 word, 1 govt, 1 bank, 1 currency) It would mean I will be part of the new elite, participating in all the Bilderberg meetings and finally rule the world. Not bad for my future

[The Sceptical Chymist]

Funny you should bring this up in a thread, gentlemand.  I've been thinking about this for about a year now, considering whether "Satoshi Nakamoto" exists, or if bitcoin was created in response to the banking crisis of 2008.  I'm not normally a conspiracy theorist, but I've been thinking one of these agencies was responsible for bitcoin--and to me, it totally makes sense.  If banks failed completely, the world would need a bankless form of money, which bitcoin provides.

I also think this is the reason why that genesis block hasn't moved.  It's the government saving it for a rainy day (the next crisis).

Would I run for the hills?  Hell no.  It doesn't matter to me if a government created it.  It's still very useful and right now it's the best asset to own.

[plr]

It will not matter to me as long as bitcoin serves it purpose to be decentralized and peer to peer but I rather believe that bitcoin was created by a genius who does not want attention to his great works and besides are there evidence that points cis or nbi or any of those mentions agency as the creator of Bitcoin?

[maeusi]

One thing is sure. Bitcoin network doesn't forget anything and people can be tracked better than through traditional financial transactions. Taxes are implemented already and most users are transparent. But who cares about those agencies? The more they know, the worse is it for them, because they need huge ressources to take use of endless informations.

[MickeyT2008]

"Satoshi Nakamoto" exists, or if bitcoin was created in response to the banking crisis of 2008.

This really makes sense, and this has been the only thing in what i am always thinking about, maybe the US government thought that we needed a way out of that financial crysis. The whole government is smart enough to take care and create a possible new solution if that kind of crisis cames again.

If banks failed completely, the world would need a bankless form of money, which bitcoin provides.

Completely agree with this too, but when is that EXACTLY going to happen? nobody knows, at least not for now, the world is really changing, but we dont even know if that is really going to happen, or if bitcoin will crash when we dont even expect it to happen.

It's the government saving it for a rainy day (the next crisis).
Would I run for the hills?  Hell no.  It doesn't matter to me if a government created it.  It's still very useful and right now it's the best asset to own.

Still a lot of people are using bitcoin for their own profit, and that is the only thing that makes it all like a bad situation for all of the holders that have been keeping their bitcoins on their wallet for a long time.
The newbie ones sees bitcoin as the only way out to have more money than before, and that is not the main purpose of why it has been created for.

[fanbeila]

Its true that we could not totally deny that there would be no such aim of agencies.Every one who first enters bitcoin community would not be able to avoid such doubts because the person satoshi who is said to have created this bitcoin is unknown to any one.Most of them say that he does not want to risk his life and so he voluntarily hided his identity.So,it makes some thing to look suspicious.Here,we could not just avoid the words of some world leaders saying that there should be one world order to solve the problems.

So,once again the million dollar question Who created bitcoin arises and it would continue on and on unanswered.

[Oritarnopa]

Good guess. It is likely that the creation of bitcoin may be CIA

[Roganciseh]

Why, then, is the appearance of a quantum computer waiting for? NASA already has it

[jseverson]

So one day the CIA, NSA, DEA, ATF, FBI, DIA, NRO, DOD, DHS and whoever else I've forgotten rather cheekily admit that they're behind the creation of Bitcoin.

Do you freak out? Run for the hills? Take it as the ultimate endorsement of legitimacy? Milk The Man of as much as possible and then go off to finance a competing version? Shrug and trust that things have moved on and they have no effective control?

The latter is of course true, although they'd still have that mountain of early coins to wield.

They don't. Unless of course, they control more than 50% of the network, which I find unlikely. This is also why I don't believe the conspiracy theories that Satoshi is actually a three-letter agency. If they were to create something like this, why wouldn't they try to retain some control? It doesn't look like there are any backdoors either. Did they create it out of the generosity of their hearts, considering the fact that they're not exactly freedom fighters?

But uh, if we're speaking hypothetically, I would observe a bit and go from there. Finding out whether they can take over would be the highest priority. If it turns out they don't, watch how the market reacts, then dump or HODL.

[Nilda]

What's new? The internet was created upon the orders of the United States Federal Government and the email by the US Department of Defense. Whoever developed  cryptocurrency, that organization did the world a favor.

[Iranus]

Did they create it out of the generosity of their hearts, considering the fact that they're not exactly freedom fighters?

They did hugely contribute to developing and funding Tor, so it's not entirely impossible.

Shrug and trust that things have moved on and they have no effective control?

Even though a large number of people would do this in principle, it's unlikely that they would do it in practice.

At this point I would argue that most BTC users are speculators in one way or another, so they're extremely wary of other investors' potential behaviour.  The problem here could become a self-fulfilling prophecy and cause the price to drop even though they wouldn't actually have control.