Could Satoshi ever spend his Bitcoins?

[phathash]

Some speculate Satoshi has as many as 1M+ Bitcoins. Could he ever spend them without attracting frenzied tx-attention/investigation or spend them without causing a run on the currency? Could he keep his anonymity?

10 years from now with 18m Bitcoins in existence, Satoshi might have 6% of all Bitcoins. Part of the Bitcoin Oligarchy. However, this is not all bad. Larry Ellison is estimated to be worth $36b and his Randian influence (like it or not) on the world is still limited. If Satoshi was worth $36b in 2022, Bitcoin would have a market capitalisation of $600b. Bitcoin would be causing waves, and each Bitcoin would be valued at $30k each.

Some speculate Satoshi is not an individual, but rather a group. Perhaps this group has good intentions and want to make the world a better place. Curiously, Larry's personal fortune is on par with the endowment of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Perhaps "Satoshi" might start offering BTC bounties to make the world a better place. Think X PRIZE? A cure for Malaria?

[Jon]

Whatever Satoshi is, I think it's certain that it has plans for its amassed fortune related to furthering Bitcoin. It would of spent it by now otherwise, methinks.

It keeps me confident in the future.

[Jon]

if satoshi is human and humans make mistakes, i think it's possible a large number of his private keys have already been lost permanently.

It was self-important enough to create an untraceable identity. I am sure it assigned the same importance to its Bitcoins as well.

[phathash]

if satoshi is human and humans make mistakes, i think it's possible a large number of his private keys have already been lost permanently.

I've considered that. However, some have speculated quant/s had to be involved. Could this really be the work of one man? Perhaps this group knew exactly what was going to happen. Under such a scenario, such carelessness could not have happened.

The coins have not been spent. They might have a purpose.

[Jon]

if satoshi is human and humans make mistakes, i think it's possible a large number of his private keys have already been lost permanently.

I've considered that. However, some have speculated quant/s had to be involved. Could this really be the work of one man? Perhaps this group knew exactly what was going to happen. Under such a scenario, such carelessness could not have happened.

The coins have not been spent. They might have a purpose.

The code has been found to be meticulous. I think we are dealing with some high-level shit here. As for who and what, it's unknowable. Just buy some coins and enjoy the ride.

I, for one, thank our influential benefactors. 

[phathash]

The code has been found to be meticulous. I think we are dealing with some high-level shit here.

Whatever happens with Bitcoin, I look forward to reading about the origin of its development in my life time. It took 30 years for the story of Bletchley Park to be released to the public.

In this era I don't think secrets can be held for that long.

[Gabi]

if satoshi is human and humans make mistakes, i think it's possible a large number of his private keys have already been lost permanently.

It was self-important enough to create an untraceable identity. I am sure it assigned the same importance to its Bitcoins as well.

Back then bitcoin was just an experiment, bitcoins were mostly worthless, who know how many test they did with wallets and private keys?

[Technomage]

Indeed I find it likely that at least hundreds of thousands of bitcoins were lost during the early days. People seem to lose them occasionally even today when they are actually worth quite a lot. Back then they were worth basically nothing so it's plausible that large amounts of coins could have been lost.

[DeathAndTaxes]

if satoshi is human and humans make mistakes, i think it's possible a large number of his private keys have already been lost permanently.

I've considered that. However, some have speculated quant/s had to be involved. Could this really be the work of one man? Perhaps this group knew exactly what was going to happen. Under such a scenario, such carelessness could not have happened.

The coins have not been spent. They might have a purpose.

The code has been found to be meticulous.

Um the concept is amazing.  Beyond amazing.  Satoshi (individual or group) solved a large number of problems considered unsolvable and put into place a lot of elements which provide future security and enhancement.

However the code (translating that amazing concept into lines of code) is not meticulous.  It is buggy, poorly documented, often times poorly implemented.  The version you see now has involved tens of thousands of hours of work by post Satoshi developers and still is pretty "ugly" as codebases of that size go.

[DeathAndTaxes]

It was self-important enough to create an untraceable identity. I am sure it assigned the same importance to its Bitcoins as well.

I doubt it.  The early days of Bitcoin was mostly an academic experiment.  Even the 10K BTC pizza didn't happen until years later when Bitcoin at least had gained the potential for future adoption.  I doubt early wallets were well protected.

I don't even think Satoshi believed Bitcoin (the version he released) would go this far.  Everything about the paper, early writing, launch indicates it was more a "proof of concept".  Then again if one of those early mining rewards ever gets moved/consolidated then we will know for sure.

[DeathAndTaxes]

Nobody has used proof of work to build a consensus in a distributed network (currency or otherwise).  That is kinda the cornerstone of Bitcoin.  The rest is pretty routine p2p functionality stuff (node detection, data relaying ,etc).

[triplehelix]

where does the idea that satoshi has 1m coins come from?

[RodeoX]

As far as I know Satoshi doesn't own a single bitcoin.

[FreeMoney]

Then again if one of those early mining rewards ever gets moved/consolidated then we will know for sure.

Not really. If he moves a few they might be some of the only ones he has.

I really doubt he lost them all, that would be pretty hard to do considering even after it was obvious they were going to be worth -something- you could still get them daily with a CPU.

[Daily Anarchist]

You guys really think the genius who brought us Bitcoin was stupid enough to lose a gazillion Bitcoins?

This guy knew he was creating something that could/would bring down the global banking cartel. He knew he would be a target. Any smart target would wait to move his coin until it becomes extremely safe to do so. You think he's going to buy some alpaca socks and have them shipped to his house? Or sell his coins on Mt. Gox?

No, he'll patiently wait until the the empires of the world come crashing down and we live in a much more free and peaceful planet before he comes out and exposes himself and his extremely vast fortune. At least that's what I would do.

[rjk]

You guys really think the genius who brought us Bitcoin was stupid enough to lose a gazillion Bitcoins?

This guy knew he was creating something that could/would bring down the global banking cartel. He knew he would be a target. Any smart target would wait to move his coin until it becomes extremely safe to do so. You think he's going to buy some alpaca socks and have them shipped to his house? Or sell his coins on Mt. Gox?

No, he'll patiently wait until the the empires of the world come crashing down and we live in a much more free and peaceful planet before he comes out and exposes himself and his extremely vast fortune. At least that's what I would do.

I'm still waiting to see actual blockexplorer evidence of his supposed wealth.

[Daily Anarchist]

You guys really think the genius who brought us Bitcoin was stupid enough to lose a gazillion Bitcoins?

This guy knew he was creating something that could/would bring down the global banking cartel. He knew he would be a target. Any smart target would wait to move his coin until it becomes extremely safe to do so. You think he's going to buy some alpaca socks and have them shipped to his house? Or sell his coins on Mt. Gox?

No, he'll patiently wait until the the empires of the world come crashing down and we live in a much more free and peaceful planet before he comes out and exposes himself and his extremely vast fortune. At least that's what I would do.

I'm still waiting to see actual blockexplorer evidence of his supposed wealth.

I doubt he used one address for all of his mining.

[ribuck]

I doubt he used one address for all of his mining.

Even if Satoshi had wanted to use one address, it would not have been possible. There were no mining pools back then, and each generation creates a new private key.

All that we know for sure is that Satoshi mined the first block.

[Daily Anarchist]

I doubt he used one address for all of his mining.

Even if Satoshi had wanted to use one address, it would not have been possible. There were no mining pools back then, and each generation creates a new private key.

All that we know for sure is that Satoshi mined the first block.

This story has all of the makings of a post-apocalyptic religious text.

[DeathAndTaxes]

This story has all of the makings of a post-apocalyptic religious text.

In the beginning there was only the endless fiat and the masses cried out in agony from the persecutions inflicted upon them by the FED. The Satoshi said let their be a block and there was a block and it was good.  The world was divided between the fiat and the block and it was good ...