Do you think Satoshi ever expected Bitcoin to reach this level of success?

[krishnaverma]

From an experimental whitepaper to a trillion-dollar asset class — has Bitcoin gone beyond even Satoshi’s imagination?

My guess is he could have never imagined that the project would become so successful.

[alani123]

Surely satoshi didn't prefer this kind of success as he disappeared the moment wiki leaks featured BTC donations thinking it was too early.

Likewise, without a proper scaling solution YET, bitcoin has already met institutional adoption. This is way too far from the initial vision of being an anti-systemic tool to counter banks. Now banks and stock brokers are looking into bitcoin ETFs and mining stock portfolios. It's a crazy timeline we live in.

[Synchronice]

From an experimental whitepaper to a trillion-dollar asset class — has Bitcoin gone beyond even Satoshi’s imagination?

My guess is he could have never imagined that the project would become so successful.

Satoshi said following: I'm sure that in 20 years there will either be very large transaction volume or no volume. This means that he was expecting Bitcoin to reach this level of success but what kind of success this is, it's another question. Transaction volumes are definitely significantly up, especially compared to 2010 year, when he wrote this post.
By the way, two years ago, when Bitcoin ordinals were spamming the network, there were so many transactions in the mempool that the price per the simplest transaction was up to $20, which is insane.

I also want to say that to my mind, Satoshi wouldn't like Bitcoin ETFs and the way Bitcoin's direction shifted from being a solution to modern e-commerce problems to becoming a thing of manipulation.

[Royal Cap]

From an experimental whitepaper to a trillion-dollar asset class — has Bitcoin gone beyond even Satoshi’s imagination?

My guess is he could have never imagined that the project would become so successful.

In my opinion, Satoshi did not think that Bitcoin is a reserve or asset that people see today. He  just wanted to create an alternative payment system, where people could transact without relying on banks or governments.
Basically he wanted to have control over his own money. Which he was able to see success in just a few years, after the invention of Bitcoin but now it spread like covid, that may not expected Satoshi.

[Vaculin]

From an experimental whitepaper to a trillion-dollar asset class — has Bitcoin gone beyond even Satoshi’s imagination?

My guess is he could have never imagined that the project would become so successful.

I believe Satoshi has already predicted that bitcoin will be successful in the future. This could be the reason why he is the largest holder of bitcoin so far that amounted around 1.1 million BTC. However, this is not his focus why he created bitcoin since the original goal for bitcoin is to serve as a virtual currency that can be used as a legal tender, or a payment system that can be used to buy or sell goods or services. But since this isn't yet completely possible due to non-support from government, hence bitcoin as a digital asset becomes popularly known these days that have been taken advantage by big whales or even those big, private institutions that are now hoarding bitcoin.

[UchihaSarada]

From an experimental whitepaper to a trillion-dollar asset class — has Bitcoin gone beyond even Satoshi’s imagination?

My guess is he could have never imagined that the project would become so successful.

Satoshi Nakamoto is a human like us and he did not know about the future.

In fact the Bitcoin founder actually expected two possible scenarios in the future for Bitcoin. It's logically that as a founder of Bitcoin project, after spending a lot of time and efforts for it, Satoshi Nakamoto wanted Bitcoin to succeed but he was realistically about Bitcoin possible future.

theymos asked and Satoshi Nakamoto answered. It's about transaction volume, not about price but it's clearly that transaction volume reflects demand on Bitcoin that is related to its value and price.

What's with this odd generation?

Right.  Otherwise we couldn't have a finite limit of 21 million coins, because there would always need to be some minimum reward for generating.  In a few decades when the reward gets too small, the transaction fee will become the main compensation for nodes.  I'm sure that in 20 years there will either be very large transaction volume or no volume.

[fuguebtc]

This will depend on what goals he sets for bitcoin.


If his goal and expectation is that bitcoin can become popular globally but it must be used for its original purpose as a peer to peer currency. No interference from governments, banks and centralized organizations. I don't think he would call it a success.

On the contrary, if his goal is for Bitcoin to be accepted and become globally popular, with huge transaction volume regardless of how it is used. He feels what bitcoin has achieved today is an unexpected success.

But in the end, we still cannot know what he truly wants to see in Bitcoin and what he wants it to become.

[kotajikikox]

From an experimental whitepaper to a trillion-dollar asset class — has Bitcoin gone beyond even Satoshi’s imagination?

My guess is he could have never imagined that the project would become so successful.

We do not even know exactly what Satoshi had in mind for success. There are different forms of success. For some success might mean bitcoin being adopted by numerous institutions and countries but for some success might just mean bitcoin being adopted not by the big institutions but the average citizen. Satoshi might not have intended bitcoin to be used a certain way. We would only know if we ask him directly.

[zaim7413]

This question is very personal, so it is very difficult to know exactly what was on Satoshi mind. His decision to remain anonymous has prevented further information about his vision for Bitcoin from being fully disclosed, even though the project he is building is now rapidly developing. To get an opinion or find clues about his feelings after Bitcoin reached the level of success it has today, we can look at the whitepaper that explains it in detail and his communication with the community at the beginning of Bitcoin launch.

While there is no guarantee he never expected Bitcoin to achieve such massive success and high value, his email conversations regarding Bitcoin "as a completely decentralized peer-to-peer electronic currency system with no third parties" and his continued involvement in the early development of Bitcoin, ensuring its underlying code was robust and secure, suggest Satoshi was very serious about Bitcoin and expected it to have a bright future with wider adoption. He has left absolutely no definitive explanation since he disappeared around 2010, but the breakthrough he made has opened the eyes of most elements of society from different financial levels in looking at money and blockchain technology.

[Lida93]

We do not even know exactly what Satoshi had in mind for success. There are different forms of success. For some success might mean bitcoin being adopted by numerous institutions and countries but for some success might just mean bitcoin being adopted not by the big institutions but the average citizen. Satoshi might not have intended bitcoin to be used a certain way. We would only know if we ask him directly.

Can it be that one of the ways Satoshi never expected bitcoin to be used is in the way whereby everyone is using bitcoin as a model of a store of value where everyone is holding bitcoin instead of spending it for daily transactions. Satoshi had created bitcoin as alternative to fiat system of financial transactions but I am not sure he had envisioned it that people would be rather hodling it than spending.

[RockBell]

no one knew the intention that Satoshi had towards bitcoin and no matter what it might be look at the level of attention bitcoin now have, and it might have started from an idea and from there the implementation and other things follow and the innovation got a massive response, globally now no one does not know about bitcoin and people are even considering it as a retirement plan and others so with this kind of things shows the level of trust that people have in bitcoin and the way volunteer awareness were happening was just amazing at some point if you are not investing in bitcoin you are making big mistake.

Just that, whether Satoshi expected it or not the name Bitcoin will exist forever because even countries want to invest, seeing the profit El Salvador made, some want to use it as there reserve instead of gold. This is because gold has been used long enough.

[Frankolala]

From an experimental whitepaper to a trillion-dollar asset class — has Bitcoin gone beyond even Satoshi’s imagination?

My guess is he could have never imagined that the project would become so successful.

Satoshi said following: I'm sure that in 20 years there will either be very large transaction volume or no volume. This means that he was expecting Bitcoin to reach this level of success but what kind of success this is, it's another question. Transaction volumes are definitely significantly up, especially compared to 2010 year, when he wrote this post.
By the way, two years ago, when Bitcoin ordinals were spamming the network, there were so many transactions in the mempool that the price per the simplest transaction was up to $20, which is insane.

I also want to say that to my mind, Satoshi wouldn't like Bitcoin ETFs and the way Bitcoin's direction shifted from being a solution to modern e-commerce problems to becoming a thing of manipulation.

Of course, Satoshi wouldn't be happy with Bitcoin ETFs because that wasn't how he designed bitcoin to the stored. However, I think that there's no way bitcoin will get to this price so quick without third party involvement in trading bitcoin because it will make people who are skeptical on bitcoin be free to adopt bitcoin because it shows that the government supports it.

[ColdLava40]

My guess is he could have never imagined that the project would become so successful.

For a technology that was able to eliminate the use of a central authority, of course Satoshi must have had high expectations from it.

He already knew how the government would respond once they see what bitcoin was becoming, so he took the earliest exit and stayed hidden.

Bitcoin has so many potential that may be yet unlocked. Satoshi would be very proud of his genius idea now, and we all are grateful for giving us this wonderful technology.

[PrivacyG]

Satoshi wouldn't be happy with Bitcoin ETFs because that wasn't how he designed bitcoin to the stored.

I agree.  But at the same time.  Satoshi would have probably expected this to happen at some point in the future if Bitcoin becomes a big success.  But I at least hate ETFs and such things because the more financial power is concentrated on a single entity, they can become an influence.  Other wise, I would not mind ETFs at all.  What I care is that I and the rest of REAL Bitcoin users can use Bitcoin the way we want.  I believe this is what mattered to Satoshi too for the most part.  ETFs can bring a lot of attention so there are positive sides to it too.  What should matter most however is how the base layer and the actual Blockchain functions.

[NurseHub]

Surely satoshi didn't prefer this kind of success as he disappeared the moment wiki leaks featured BTC donations thinking it was too early.

Likewise, without a proper scaling solution YET, bitcoin has already met institutional adoption. This is way too far from the initial vision of being an anti-systemic tool to counter banks. Now banks and stock brokers are looking into bitcoin ETFs and mining stock portfolios. It's a crazy timeline we live in.

Wish I had spare merit!

Even Satoshi would not believe what bitcoin has turned into, or maybe we might be thinking different from him but from what I have always perceived bitcoin has changed directions, seems not to be against but for or a tool for the same people we wanted freedom from, yet in terms of price it has performed really well but do we loss ourselves (core tents/intentions of bitcoin or satoshi) to the price of bitcoin? not sure anyone will like to do that.

[Botnake]

My guess is he could have never imagined that the project would become so successful.

For a technology that was able to eliminate the use of a central authority, of course Satoshi must have had high expectations from it.

He already knew how the government would respond once they see what bitcoin was becoming, so he took the earliest exit and stayed hidden.

Bitcoin has so many potential that may be yet unlocked. Satoshi would be very proud of his genius idea now, and we all are grateful for giving us this wonderful technology.

I share the same idea. Satoshi has planned well on his invention, and make sure that it will become a mainstream in the next possible years, and definitely become a threat to central authority because it's decentralized, meaning they will have no full control on any decentralized system. So most likely, he knows already that bitcoin will hold a bright future but since he doesn't want to gain the spotlight way back the, he chose to make an early exit and let the people enjoy his invention.

And yes, people are really taking advantage on it, because it turns out to be a profitable investment aside from being a good virtual currency.

[Obari]

I don’t know how best to say it but yes I believe bitcoin already exceeded the expectations of satoshi and whoever satoshi is, he will be very proud of himself now and Howfar the project and coin have grown so are into a global recognized asset and since the primary goal of satoshi was to have something against what the local banks offered, it is already a thing of surprise seeing even banks considering ironing some bitcoin which some government are already buying into.

[osasshem]

From an experimental whitepaper to a trillion-dollar asset class — has Bitcoin gone beyond even Satoshi’s imagination?

My guess is he could have never imagined that the project would become so successful.

His intention of creating Bitcoin was to make an alternative of the native Banking system, an asset that has no regional restriction and can be owned by anyone. He wasn't looking for popularity, neither was he expecting it to get the attention it already has now, but to make something that has no control by some set of bodies. He might have foreseen this, maybe not to this extent or way above what it already is.

The decentralized nature of Bitcoin is what creates room for attraction of the institutional bodies now, of which was their first nightmares, which made them to fight against it at the early days. I think Satoshi will be pleased with his creation and satisfied with what the result would ever be in the long run.

[freedomgo]

From an experimental whitepaper to a trillion-dollar asset class — has Bitcoin gone beyond even Satoshi’s imagination?

My guess is he could have never imagined that the project would become so successful.

I don't see it that way. Satoshi is wise and brilliant, and he will never take the most of his time developing bitcoin without future expectations from it. This is common sense that even an ordinary developer will always root success from his invention, much more for Satoshi because his invention is never an ordinary but a life-changing creation.

Bitcoin has become successful because it was designed by Satoshi in the most successful and productive way. And no one can question it but let bitcoin's success deal on it.

[macson]

My guess is he could have never imagined that the project would become so successful.

He already believed this would be a successful project in the future because he saw the weaknesses of the current centralized financial system and was confident that many people shared his vision of realizing a decentralized financial system that was more open, transparent, free from the interference of a single authority, and accessible to anyone worldwide.

He was confident that his vision for Bitcoin would be a strong foundation for the future, a fair financial system where everyone could have full control over their assets and a system that allowed everyone to contribute to the network.

That's why he had already fully designed everything, and he even continued discussing it on forums in the early years with several other users to ensure Bitcoin's continued development.