If Satoshi saw today’s Bitcoin, would he call it a failure?

[MarjorieZimmermanGinger]

So the question is, do you think Satoshi would be happy with where Bitcoin is now? yes, it’s valuable, but the original goal doesn’t seem fully achieved.

Satoshi successfully brought about changes in many aspects of Bitcoin, generally affecting individuals on a broad scale. Many people are now directly benefiting from Bitcoin's presence. Sometimes we ourselves never want to admit that KYC negatively impacts identity, and I even do that for my own gain. The Bitcoin network remains decentralized, and nothing has changed. In my opinion, it's not Bitcoin's vision that has failed, but rather, we ourselves have made it more complicated by requiring KYC for any purpose. Bitcoin is still on the path its creator intended, and I believe any innovation will never limit Bitcoin's vision for continued rapid growth.

[WhoYouCantKill]

Satoshi probably may say it is a combined result. Bitcoin sure proved the concept, it got recognized on the globe, and made it clear that decentralized money can really exist, on one hand. While on the other, the much dependant on centralized exchanges, ETFs, and rules of KYC is against the peer to peer drive of the real vision.
Conclusively, success in worth and adoption, yet compromise in aspect of ideals.

[aoluain]

So the question is, do you think Satoshi would be happy with where Bitcoin is now? yes, it’s valuable, but the original goal doesn’t seem fully achieved.

But Bitcoin can still be used as a peer-to-peer payment system, there are no
restrictions in place so Satoshi would be very impressed that Bitcoin has survived
for 16 years and that we* have been able to develop it to the point of it being recognised
as an extremely valuable asset, enough that traditional institutional investors want a slice.

There is nothing stopping me from sending you BTC0.0001 as intended in 2009

He* would also be impressed with the developments of segwit, taproot and lightning.

As he* said himself*:

I've moved on to other things. It's in good hands with Gavin and everyone.

[DiMarxist]

Frankly Speaking bitcoin has not utilize it means of creation. That is the purpose of Satoshi Nakamoto creating bitcoin has not been achieved. Normally I was expecting the those technical guys who created non custodial wallets to launch an exchange that is non custodial exchange which should be decentralized exchange like Electrum to buy and sell Bitcoin. And that is where the real peer to peer will take Place.

[OgNasty]

So the question is, do you think Satoshi would be happy with where Bitcoin is now? yes, it’s valuable, but the original goal doesn’t seem fully achieved.

But Bitcoin can still be used as a peer-to-peer payment system, there are no
restrictions in place so Satoshi would be very impressed that Bitcoin has survived
for 16 years and that we* have been able to develop it to the point of it being recognised
as an extremely valuable asset, enough that traditional institutional investors want a slice.

There is nothing stopping me from sending you BTC0.0001 as intended in 2009

He* would also be impressed with the developments of segwit, taproot and lightning.

As he* said himself*:

I've moved on to other things. It's in good hands with Gavin and everyone.

I don't believe that satoshi would be impressed with lightning.  I think he would see the faults in the network as non-starters to go down that path.  I also don't think he would have appreciated the way that segwit was activated with promises that turned out to be lies by developers. 

I think satoshi would be incredibly disappointed with the way Gavin was bullied out of the position satoshi left to him.  I think satoshi would be disappointed with the state of merged mining currently and the overall community attitude that this open source project views forks as attacks.

[ballydancer]

Yeah probably. He wanted peer-to-peer cash, not digital gold hoarded by whales and controlled by institutions.

[davis196]

We’ve always said, especially us early adopters, that Bitcoin is decentralized money meant to cut out third parties, to give us a way to move funds freely without the government watching or banks handling every transaction. But looking at the situation now, yeah, Bitcoin has grown fast and become really valuable…

I don’t have exact numbers, but I’m pretty sure most Bitcoin is sitting in centralized exchanges or ETFs, basically the new Wall Street. And the one thing we all hated before, KYC it’s everywhere now, not just in exchanges but even on gambling sites.

Satoshi’s vision was peer-to-peer transactions, yet most of today’s activity goes through centralized platforms.

So the question is, do you think Satoshi would be happy with where Bitcoin is now? yes, it’s valuable, but the original goal doesn’t seem fully achieved.

We have to ask another question in the first place. Why Satoshi left the Bitcoin community? He left the community years before Bitcoin gaining momentum and becoming a big financial asset. I'm sure that Satoshi would be disappointed to see all the centralized crypto exchanges and all the institutional investors buying more BTC. Maybe the financial world(it doesn't matter if it's fiat or crypto) cannot exist without middlemen, like banks or crypto exchanges. No peer-to-peer payment system can grow without all the government recognition, regulations and KYC.
This is the world we live in. This is the price we have to pay for witnessing a 120K USD Bitcoin price.

[Abiky]

We don't know what he would call it today, but I am sure he would be disappointed to see people keep their funds on centralized exchanges. He didn't want us to use Bitcoin like we do today. The casinos are irrelevant here because we do not keep funds in casinos. It's just a platform where people make deposits to entertain themselves. So, I don't see how it is too bad. People can still maintain their privacy and keep their crypto wallet and casino life different by using multiple wallets.

ETFs helped Bitcoin a lot economically. But I hate them personally because the companies own large amounts of Bitcoin, and they can actually manipulate the entire market if they want. So yes, Satoshi would be disappointed seeing how it is today.

Someone as libertarian as Satoshi should definitely be disappointed with the path Bitcoin has taken lately. But I don't think it didn't crossed Satoshi's mind the possibility of centralization in the long run. Bitcoin is free (as in liberty) to use by anyone, so it would be impossible to prevent "Wall Street" from getting its hands in it. The community is responsible of protecting the core Blockchain against centralizing forces.

For now, institutionalization of Bitcoin will only give giants firms and governments leverage to manipulate the market. The Bitcoin blockchain remains decentralized with the vast number of nodes and miners supporting it. Let's hope it stays that way forever. Otherwise, it may be time to look for other alternatives.