[2023-10-04] The Economist: Did bitcoin leak from an American spy lab?

[pawel7777]

A click-baity headline fro the Economist. The very first sentence says it all: "No. But the theory is spreading online".
Article is hidden behind pay-wall, but can be accessed e.g. here

Did bitcoin leak from an American spy lab?

https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2023/10/04/did-bitcoin-leak-from-an-american-spy-lab

The origins of covid-19 remain unknown. Most scientists think it jumped from wild animals to humans at a meat market in Wuhan. But it is also possible it escaped from a virology research lab in the same city.

Now a similar argument has broken out around bitcoin, the first and most used cryptocurrency. Bitcoin’s accepted origin is that it was invented by Satoshi Nakamoto, a pseudonymous coder, who published a paper describing it in 2008 before later vanishing from sight.

But a theory circulating online holds that bitcoin was dreamed up by the National Security Agency (nsa), an American spy agency that also does cutting-edge cryptography research. “I think it was a shuttered internal r&d project which one researcher thought was too good to lay fallow on the shelf and chose to secretly release,” tweeted Nic Carter, a prominent bitcoin fan. Mr Carter and his fellow travellers think they have a smoking gun: a paper written in 1996 by nsa employees entitled “How to make a mint: the cryptography of anonymous electronic cash”. And the paper cites work by a researcher named “Tatsuaki Okamoto”.
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[stompix]

A click-baity headline fro the Economist.

And the paper cites work by a researcher named “Tatsuaki Okamoto”.

Indeed, and poor journalism, why put the guy's name in "" like it's not his name or he doesn't exist, he has even given interviews on his patents and his views on Bitcoin. Besides, old story:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=235289.0
somebody from the Economist just had a pressing deadline on delivering some article.

But imagine this being true, some users around here might need some extra pills if they find out the thing that was supposed to overthrow the government is a tool leaked by the government to control the masses! And sheeple becomes a new kind of meme. 

[pawel7777]

But imagine this being true, some users around here might need some extra pills if they find out the thing that was supposed to overthrow the government is a tool leaked by the government to control the masses! And sheeple becomes a new kind of meme. 

I didn't know Bitcoin was meant to overthrow any government, I must've missed the briefing. As far as I know, it was meant to provide an alternative to the flawed financial systems.
And yeah, since the beginning there have been theories about BTC being a US intelligence project, and the fact there was no real resistance to let the BTC market grow to its current size seems to confirm this. But, at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter, as long as it's an open-source and as long as Craig Wright is not confirmed to be the real Satoshi 

[BlackHatCoiner]

Literally the same article was published last month: https://cointelegraph.com/news/nic-carter-supports-bitcoin-invented-by-nsa-conspiracy-theory. Tweet from Nic Carter, Tatsuaki Okamoto coincidence, NSA, hell even the Covid-19 analogy. Does the same journalist writes on the Economist?

But imagine this being true, some users around here might need some extra pills if they find out the thing that was supposed to overthrow the government is a tool leaked by the government to control the masses!

Work like Bitcoin could be government-funded. I mean it occurs often in bureaucratic systems to pay someone to open a hole and another to close it.

As I have said in the duplicated thread, it does make some sense that peer-to-peer electronic cash was a concept that began from within the government, and took a more anarchistic shape when someone saw they could forestall the financial advantage.

[stompix]

I didn't know Bitcoin was meant to overthrow any government, I must've missed the briefing.

Oh, my pure padawan, you don't know the good old times when this was considered a tool for some to fight the three-letter agencies.
Radical voices have been reduced over time, unfortunately a lot by useless shitposting but there are still a few thinking crypto is the way to take the power from the government and make them accountable for or even completely replace them in a blockchain world.

There is some pretty good material to get high without weed buried in the first topics of P&S and BD boards.

As I have said in the duplicated thread, it does make some sense that peer-to-peer electronic cash was a concept that began from within the government, and took a more anarchistic shape when someone saw they could forestall the financial advantage.

Hmm, like TOR?  The plot thickens!"

[pawel7777]

Oh, my pure padawan, you don't know the good old times when this was considered a tool for some to fight the three-letter agencies.
Radical voices have been reduced over time, unfortunately a lot by useless shitposting but there are still a few thinking crypto is the way to take the power from the government and make them accountable for or even completely replace them in a blockchain world.

My bad, my old age dementia must've kicked in, but now that you mentioned it, I recall "revolutionary" voices being quite dominant in the Bitcoin space, i.e. likes of Amir Taaki or Cody Wilson. Taaki was even regularly featured as a Bitcoin expert in British mainstream media (many appearances on BBC). Good old days.

[cryptosize]

But imagine this being true, some users around here might need some extra pills if they find out the thing that was supposed to overthrow the government is a tool leaked by the government to control the masses! And sheeple becomes a new kind of meme. 

Can you explain how the government can control the masses with Bitcoin?

[Kakmakr]

Well, it surely will make sense.... but why would a government agency include the paper clipping of the Bank bailout in the Genesis block? It can be possible that it might be a disgruntled government employee and that the news paper title could just be a diversion. 

It is well known that Secure Hash Algorithm was designed by the US National Security Agency (NSA) and that is part of the Bitcoin clockwork.. so it is not unlikely that they created Bitcoin too. 

[HmmMAA]

Well, it surely will make sense.... but why would a government agency include the paper clipping of the Bank bailout in the Genesis block? It can be possible that it might be a disgruntled government employee and that the news paper title could just be a diversion. 

Bitcoin wasn't created that day , in fact it seems that it was a project developed for years . So , that message had nothing to do with bitcoin's purpose . Satoshi should have written a simpler message like the following since most people can't figure out what a timestamping message is.

[dansus021]

I also dont believe that Bitcoin from the American leak I mean if so what is the benefit to making of it are the US is going to destroy its dollar itself, and secondly, if the US make the bitcoin they should be a crypto-friendly country by now and case with the SEC about Bitcoin ETF and cryptocurrency should be settled down.

Maybe this just a theory or some conspiracy theory but I do believe that covid 19 is made on lab hahahhaha.

[cr1776]

A click-baity headline fro the Economist.

And the paper cites work by a researcher named “Tatsuaki Okamoto”.

Indeed, and poor journalism, why put the guy's name in "" like it's not his name or he doesn't exist, he has even given interviews on his patents and his views on Bitcoin. Besides, old story:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=235289.0
somebody from the Economist just had a pressing deadline on delivering some article.

But imagine this being true, some users around here might need some extra pills if they find out the thing that was supposed to overthrow the government is a tool leaked by the government to control the masses! And sheeple becomes a new kind of meme. 

What is more likely is that this rumor that it is to "control the masses" is being spread by "agencies" because they know that bitcoin is a tool that allows the masses to avoid the control by the governments, protect themselves, their assets and families, be pseudo-anonymous, and be secure from censorship of payments.  Reverse psychology here.