Will satoshi steal my coins?

[Cointosser99]

Hi,

when I discuss bitcoin the question about who created it often pops up.
People often seem to think that the unknown creator(s) have a backdoor where they can either create more BTC or steal from others.
The go-to argument then is that bitcoin is open source and desentralized, validated by thousands of people.

But then the last question comes... "Have YOU validated the data?" - checkmate 

So apart from learning to actual read and validata computer code - what is the best way to know that there is no hidden backdoor into Bitcoin?


Thanks!

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[mdayonliner]

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He don't need to. The amount of Bitcoin he is holding is more than enough to survive his next of kins for few generations  

Dude you are forgetting that the whole bitcoin network is decentralized. The only way to destroy or harm the network is to shutdown the entire internet. The 51% attack will do as well but that's in theory and not possible at all.

[denis-z12]

If he wanted to do that and actually could do it why would he do it now and not back in 2017 when Bitcoin was booming and on its ATH!

[HeRetiK]

So apart from learning to actual read and validata computer code - what is the best way to know that there is no hidden backdoor into Bitcoin?

Let's put it like this -- Bitcoin currently has a bug bounty of 130 BILLION dollar on its head. Its inner workings have been known by friendly and not so friendly hackers alike for almost ten years. One would assume that would be both incentive and time enough for anyone to go out and try to break it. Yet this never happened. Unlike banks, exchanges, multinational cooperations, nation states and countless private individuals Bitcoin never got hacked. Software exploitation is a billion dollar industry, thriving on finding both intentional and accidental backdoors. Yet Bitcoin is safe. Think about it.

That, or maybe it's just a long term conspiracy of tens of thousands of cryptographers, developers, hardware engineers and Bitcointalk sockpuppets. You decide.

[nmgfsdnfgwjio]

This is also a problem that I am very curious. Since Bitcoin was born in 2008, nobody knows exactly who Satoshi Nakamoto is. But we still want to know what the future of Bitcoin will be. We want to know what happens to millions of Bitcoins in Satoshi's hands. If they disappear forever or they are coming back, it will be a big change. We all wonder who Satoshi Nakamoto is. We want to know where this person came from and where Bitcoin came from because the whole system works wonderfully.

[www.crypago.com]

My 74 yo friend suggested that one. You could argue that if he stole all the coins, he couldn't sell them. No one would buy coins he could just steal. The logic is self-defeating.

[Richeniko55]

Satoshi can't steal your coins if he doesn't have access to your private key wich is generated randomly. Don't worry about it.

[pixelvault]

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He don't need to. The amount of Bitcoin he is holding is more than enough to survive his next of kins for few generations  

Dude you are forgetting that the whole bitcoin network is decentralized. The only way to destroy or harm the network is to shutdown the entire internet. The 51% attack will do as well but that's in theory and not possible at all.

a 51% mining attack is still very much possible. Lets say a government wants to attack bitcoin. All they would have to do is buy many miners and out perform every other miner to achieve 51% of the network hash

[mk4]

If bitcoin had a "backdoor" that could be exploited by some people then it's very likely for it to be found already. Your local bank's mobile banking app/website is very likely to have more vulnerabilities than the bitcoin network.

[crairezx20]

There are many hackers are honestly attempting to hack bitcoin but until now no one can hack it except for phishing strategy which is a well-known strategy to get information from some bitcoin user to get their user account and password or private keys and seeds.
I think you can verify it if you know about programming languages you can verify the satoshi's created with his open source code from github.
That is why there are some new coins created because of the open source code that you can verify if the source code from satoshi is compromised.

[PhoenixEmpire]

I think he/she wouldn't need to do that in the first place, I mean if he could have a backdoor to make new one as mentioned by you why would he/she steal yours?

As to to your main question. No I do not posses enough coding skills to validate bitcoin's source code. but I don't need to because if that was true and Satoshi came out of no where tried to destroy what he/she created. A hard fork can simply make the malicious code obsolete.

[AzatFinrazor]

Even if he or she has some way of stealing/creating bitcoins, they are going to be worth nothing. The system is compromised, nobody wants to use such money, bitcoin price will drop, businesses will stop accepting them.

[liemfrans]

My 74 yo friend suggested that one. You could argue that if he stole all the coins, he couldn't sell them. No one would buy coins he could just steal. The logic is self-defeating.

very good logic, im agree on that.
He couldnt sell them again, after he stole it, because no one will buy it after stollen.
and if he wanted to do that, he could do it when Bitcoin was booming in 2017.

[pooya87]

So apart from learning to actual read and validata computer code - what is the best way to know that there is no hidden backdoor into Bitcoin?

the same way that you know there is no backdoor in any other open source project out there. for example different Linux distributions. the code is out there open for ANYBODY to see and there are billions of people in the world, many of whom are going to go through it even for fun and bitcoin wasn't created yesterday! it has been around more than 9 years. if there were a backdoor it would have been found already.

you may look at the source and see it is huge but the protocol part is not that long or complicated either. it is using a couple of cryptography techniques that are well known such as called Elliptic Curve Cryptography [1] and some hashing functions. all easy to check and duplicate in different programming languages which has already been done too.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliptic-curve_cryptography

[Edeakramer]

How can a dead person can steal your coin  .

[mu_enrico]

<...>
But then the last question comes... "Have YOU validated the data?" - checkmate 
<...>

In addition to all seniors who have commented.
IMO that's not a good idea if you are not a skilled blockchain programmer.
Let's say an unskilled blockchain programmer try to review the code, he/she will surely unable to find any bugs or security holes. So it's just a waste of time and energy.

the same way that you know there is no backdoor in any other open source project out there. for example different Linux distributions. the code is out there open for ANYBODY to see and there are billions of people in the world, many of whom are going to go through it even for fun and bitcoin wasn't created yesterday! it has been around more than 9 years. if there were a backdoor it would have been found already.
<...>

Above statement explains the logic to answer that kind of question. The code is open-source and available for any experts to find bug/backdoor/holes. And they have incentives to do that. They might do it for bounty, popularity, reputation, etc. So I think code validation/review is not just for everyone.

[AaronVaughn]

At present there is no sign of Bitcoin's disappearance. The big investors are also investing in Bitcoin so we can be sure Bitcoin will not be able to take away all the money you put into it. That's just my suggestion

[laborrdj]

As far as i know satoshi is the smallest value of bitcoin. Correct me if i'm wrong.

[boyptc]

As far as i know satoshi is the smallest value of bitcoin. Correct me if i'm wrong.

Yes that's correct an homage for satoshi so smallest unit was named after him but he's also the creator of bitcoin.

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Satoshi_(unit)

[Srujan007]

No as bitcoin is completely decentralized and permission less ,tamper proof cryptocurrency which uses technology of blockchain for the transaction.