Correspondence
between
Satoshi
Nakamoto
and
his
earliest
known
collaborator,
Martti
Malmi,
was
released
as
part
of
an
ongoing
lawsuit
in
the
United
Kingdom
regarding
the
true
identity
of
Bitcoin’s
pseudonymous
creator.
For
some,
the
documents
represent
a
new
avenue
of
research
for
anyone
looking
to
finally
identify
who
Satoshi
really
is.
For
others,
the
120
pages
of
emails
(also
posted
to
Github)
offer
fresh
insight
into
the
character
and
personality
of
the
long
gone
developer.
This
is
an
excerpt
from
The
Node
newsletter,
a
daily
roundup
of
the
most
pivotal
crypto
news
on
CoinDesk
and
beyond.
You
can
subscribe
to
get
the
full
newsletter
here.
As
Bitcoin
historian
(and
former
CoinDesk
editor)
Pete
Rizzo
notes,
the
emails
largely
conform
to
and
confirm
what
the
world
already
knows
about
Satoshi,
who
between
2009
and
2011
was
an
active
participant
on
message
boards
like
BitcoinTalk
and
the
Cryptography
mailing
list,
and
who
cataloged
his
thoughts
in
a
formal
white
paper.
See
also:
Stupid
Things
Craig
Wright
Said
in
His
Latest
Stupid
Trial
|
Opinion
However,
new
information
has
come
to
light
via
the
document
dump,
including
Satoshi’s
attempts
to
support
early
Bitcoin
developers,
his
anxieties
about
developing
a
Bitcoin
use
case
and
his
prescience
in
anticipating
some
of
the
biggest
debates
that
have
defined
Bitcoin’s
development,
including
over
block
size
and
energy
consumption.
Here
are
five
things
Satoshi
Nakamoto
predicted
about
Bitcoin,
before
stepping
away
from
the
project.
Debates
take
energy
Proof-of-work,
the
algorithm
backing
Bitcoin,
is
a
fundamentally
wasteful
process
by
design.
Even
back
in
the
days
of
Satoshi,
people
realized
that,
if
Bitcoin
were
to
become
successful,
the
hashpower
directed
towards
securing
the
network
would
be
massive.
Satoshi
anticipated
this
debate
and
responded
to
critics,
writing,
“ironic
if
we
end
up
having
to
choose
between
economic
liberty
and
conservation.”
In
his
message
to
Malmi,
Satoshi
notes
that
Bitcoin
can
only
be
truly
peer-to-peer
“without
a
trusted
third
party,”
unlike
the
centralized
attempts
at
electronic
money
that
preceded
the
first
cryptocurrency.
“If
it
did
grow
to
consume
significant
energy,
I
think
it
would
still
be
less
wasteful
than
the
labour
[sic]
and
resource
intensive
conventional
banking
activity
it
would
replace,”
he
wrote.
Indeed,
Galaxy
Research
published
a
report
that
found
the
global
banking
system
gets
through
263
terawatt
hours
a
year,
or
twice
what
the
Bitcoin
network
uses.
Rule
of
law
Today,
bitcoin
is
the
only
cryptocurrency
recognized
by
U.S.
financial
regulators
to
be
unquestionably
a
commodity,
because
of
the
network’s
decentralized
design
and
lack
of
a
clear
stakeholder.
But
in
its
early
days,
Satoshi
must
have
been
keenly
aware
of
the
shadow
casted
by
the
U.S.
Securities
and
Exchange
Commission,
and
the
longarm
of
U.S.
law.
This
might
be
why
Satoshi
took
precautions
around
discussing
bitcoin
as
an
investment,
even
if
he
did
once
say
“It
might
make
sense
just
to
get
some
in
case
it
catches
on.”
Satoshi
told
Malmi
that
he
was
“uncomfortable”
with
language
on
Bitcoin’s
sourceforge
telling
people
to
“consider
it
an
investment.”
He
said
it
was
okay
if
people
came
to
the
realization
on
their
own,
but
that
they
should
be
wary
of
“pitching”
it.
Not
so
anonymous
Similarly,
privacy
advocate
Satoshi
realized
very
early
on
that
Bitcoin
wasn’t
an
anonymous
technology,
even
if
he
tried
to
design
it
to
be.
At
best,
Satoshi
wrote,
Bitcoin
can
be
pseudonymous
if
people
take
the
appropriate
precautions
(like
never
reusing
key
pairs)
and
being
careful
not
to
link
Bitcoin
transactions
to
their
real-world
identities.
He
also
worried
it
made
Bitcoin
sound
“shady.”
Today,
considering
that
most
people
acquire
bitcoin
via
exchanges
that
are
legally
required
to
implement
know-your-customer
procedures
to
identify
users,
it’s
hard
to
remain
private
while
using
Bitcoin.
It’s
unclear
if
Satoshi
saw
this
coming
—
especially
because
Bitcoin
was
designed
to
obviate
the
need
for
intermediaries
like
exchanges
—
but
he
was
still
considering
describing
Bitcoin
as
private,
lest
it
mislead
users
and
sow
distrust
of
the
project.
“I
think
we
should
de-emphasize
the
anonymous
angle,”
he
wrote
to
Malmi,
who
had
said
Bitcoin
“can
be
kept
hidden”
in
an
FAQ
(a
point
Satoshi
praised
for
being
“carefully”
worded).
“I
think
the
people
who
want
anonymous
[sic]
will
still
figure
it
out
without
us
trumpeting
it.”
Any
use
cases?
Satoshi
and
Malmi
frequently
discussed
potential
uses
of
Bitcoin,
knowing
that
the
network
needed
a
killer
use
case
or
application
to
drive
adoption.
Generally
speaking,
Satoshi
noted
the
timestamping
features
of
the
blockchain,
which
could
be
used
to
help
authenticate
events
in
the
real
world.
But
Satoshi
also
thought
about
bitcoin’s
position
within
the
world
of
digital
payments,
and
thought
it
could
be
used
to
create
more
liquid
markets
around
existing
digital
currencies
like
Liberty
Reserve
(now
defunct).
He
predicted
that
people
wanting
to
improve
their
privacy
could
go
from
bitcoin
to
liberty
reserve
to
dollars,
gold
or
PayPal,
given
that
at
the
time
it
was
easy
to
generate
BTC
just
by
mining.
One
avenue
that
Satoshi
correctly
predicted
would
be
bitcoin’s
viability
for
buying
gift
cards
(which
he
referred
to
as
“paysafecards”),
which
today
is
one
of
the
most
common
uses
of
bitcoin.
Developer
patronage
Rizzo
noted
that
the
emails
also
give
insight
into
one
of
the
earliest
financial
backers
of
Bitcoin,
which
was
fully
bootstrapped
by
Satoshi
and
never
took
in
VC
capital.
According
to
a
back-and-forth
over
the
course
of
months,
Satoshi
reveals
that
he
has
found
an
anonymous
donor
interested
in
donating
between
$2,000
and
$3,600
to
support
development
of
Bitcoin.
While
it
took
some
time
for
the
mysterious
and
still-unknown
benefactor
to
send
the
cash
(via
post)
to
Malmi,
the
money
did
go
towards
paying
for
website
hosting
costs
and
other
incidentals.
See
also:
Nic
Carter
–
Bitcoin’s
Patronage
System
Is
an
Unheralded
Strength
|
Opinion
While
this
isn’t
a
massive
financial
windfall,
securing
funds
to
offset
the
costs
of
volunteer
work
by
developers
shows
—
perhaps
for
the
first
time
—
that
Satoshi
was
aware
of
challenges
of
supporting
open-source
development.
“It
might
be
a
long
time
before
we
get
another
donation
like
that,
we
should
save
a
lot
of
it,”
he
wrote.
Malmi
was
also
told
to
take
$1,000
of
the
donation
to
put
towards
an
exchange
he
was
developing,
which
could
have
helped
support
the
BTC-USD
exchange
rate
(then
worth
just
a
few
cents).
If
anything,
this
anticipates
the
current
state
of
Bitcoin
development
patronage,
which
is
still
ad
hoc
and
arguably
insufficient.
While
it’s
becoming
more
common
for
firms
like
Block,
MicroStrategy
and
others
to
sponsor
Bitcoin
developers,
over
the
years
a
number
of
contributors
have
walked
away
from
the
costly
labor
of
love.
Satoshi
notes
at
several
points
that
he
is
often
too
busy
with
work
to
put
as
much
time
and
attention
towards
Bitcoin
as
deserved.
Heis
thankful
that
developers
like
Malmi
and
Satoshi’s
handpicked
successor,
Gavin
Andresen,
were
around
to
carry
the
project
forth.
