Bitcoin Creator: Satoshi Nakamoto or NSA Invention, CIA Denial & Vitalik Buterin’s Aged Comments

Recent reports and circulating comments have resurfaced regarding Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin and the infamous Bitcoin creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. Add that storyline to the CIA denial of the true identity of bitcoin's creator as they do not confirm or deny knowledge about the question so many crypt-enthusiasts wonder about.

We will begin with a summary of all three stories starting with Vitalik's aged comments recently resurfacing in the crypto-media world. Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency and the biggest platform for the creation of new blockchain technologies and smart contracts, (which originally was meant to be built on the bitcoin blockchain) founder once speculated that the National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States was deeply involved in the initial creation and development of the digital currency Bitcoin.

Here is the Bitcoin Talk Forum archive picture for reference:

The post was dated June 5, 2011 at 12:11:52 PM from Vitalik Buterin so it is ironical all of this is resurfacing at this point in time but anything dealing with Satoshi is going to be entertaining.

Then to switch gears, of course there is the infamous quote from Kaspersky Lab's Natalya Kasperky in saying:

“Bitcoin is a project of American intelligence agencies, which was designed to provide quick funding for US, British and Canadian intelligence activities in different countries. [The technology] is ‘privatized,' just like the Internet, GPS and TOR. In fact, it is dollar 2.0. Its rate is controlled by the owners of exchanges”

This is back when Natalya Kaspersky called the original cryptocurrency in Bitcoin as the dollar 2.0 and was designed by the US and British intelligence bodies from around the world to provide new way of financing.

Now let's dive into all three of these controversial headlines regarding the creator of bitcoin and who it might be.

What the Latest News is About Bitcoin's Creator

The most famous of the decentralized currencies, Bitcoin is known for its role in establishing a continued trend of anonymous currencies on a decentralized public ledger known as the blockchain.

The currency was created by an anonymous person or group of people operating under the name “Satoshi Nakamoto.” There has been significant speculation as to what the actual identity behind the anonymous and enigmatic character might be. The latest theory comes from a respected name, Buterin of the Ethereum organization. The founder of the massive blockchain platform has hinted on numerous occasions that it is his belief that the National Security Agency, a law enforcement and intelligence subsidiary of the United States Federal Government, may have played a part in the founding of Bitcoin.

And he isn’t the only on making such a speculation. An InfoWatch research agency CEO by the name of Natalya Kapersky has remarked that “American intelligence agencies” were responsible for the creation of the Bitcoin cryptocurrency.

Some federal authorities in the United States have also managed to add a bit of legitimacy to the theory. The Central Intelligence Agency, typically responsible for the monitoring of foreign persons of interest, has stated that they “can neither confirm nor deny” that it has a file on the mysterious figure known as “Satoshi Nakamoto.”

Origins of Satoshi Nakamoto

In the beginnings of Bitcoin, the whitepaper was published by an entity which went by the name Satoshi Nakamoto. Thus far, little progress has been made on figuring out who the interesting figure might be. For now, the truth is that Satoshi could be a male, a female, or even a group of people or a corporation.

In this light, several conspiracy theories have been developed to explain who might be behind the anonymous identity. One theory dictates that the creator of Bitcoin is actually just the creator of another currency which came before Bitcoin. This currency went by the name “Bit Gold” and was pioneered by US computer scientist Nick Szabo. This theory is backed by one blogger who extensively “analyzed” the white paper which explained Bitcoin initially, but Szabo has never commented on the legitimacy of the claim.

But some theories are not so straightforward. One speculation holds that a group of companies created the name and, even more crazily, the name Satoshi Nakamoto represents a combination of portions of their brand names. The companies Samsung, Toshiba, Nakamichi, and Motorola created Bitcoin. The first two letters of Samsung, the first five of Toshiba, the first four of Nakamichi, and the first four letters of Motorola combine to make the name which has caused so much speculation and confusion alike.

But this latest theory could mean even bigger things for the crypto community. First, a government agency having created the very thing which they have targeted for regulation for the past few years would be a huge development. Additionally, the agency’s involvement has severe philosophical impacts, especially given the libertarian, decentralized tendencies of Bitcoin.

But in a larger sense, the centralized control, even in the short-term or the beginning, of Bitcoin would have major impacts on its usage and applications. In a time when the community is already questioning the security and true anonymity of the currency, the revelation that the famed Satoshi Nakamoto could potentially be devastating to the struggling market, and could certainly mean more people switch over to different altcoins offering better security and less centralized origins.

The NSA Theory

The initial creation of the NSA theory comes from Metro News. The organization found a blog post from 2011 that had an account claiming to be Vitalik Buterin, founder of Ethereum and respected crypto innovator, responded to a post speculating that the creator of Bitcoin could have been a desensitized worker who had become dissatisfied with the state of the US financial system and created the coin as a sort of rebellion.

The account, which claimed to be Vitalik, responded with this comment:

“Or the NSA itself […] created Bitcoin.”

He elaborated to say that it was not a new trend for agencies or organizations to “work against themselves,” and that the creation of Bitcoin would be something to be expected from a government organization such as the National Security Agency.

The news organization contacted the creator of Ethereum to verify whether or not he had made the comment himself, but he failed to respond. Though the theory could be easily discounted, the presence of a secondary claimant gives it an added layer of legitimacy.

Kaspersky Claim

Natalya Kaspersky is the head of a Russian cybersecurity claim known as InfoWatch. During a speech before a cybersecurity gathering at ITMO University, she stated that the currency was developed by intelligence agencies in the United States, and that the technologies form the basis for modern cyber-wars.

During her extensive presentation, the expert even speculated that the name “Satoshi Nakamoto” was a name used to represent a group of cryptographers at the hiring of the NSA in the United States. This claim is a significant one, and it comes from a somewhat respected source in the world of cyber-technology.

CIA Evidence

The most compelling evidence for the theory that the NSA secretly created the revolutionary cryptocurrency comes from another federal arm of the United States government. The Central Intelligence Agency was asked for a comment on whether or not they have a file on “Satoshi Nakamoto” by a writer from Vice.

The agency did not comment one way or another on the issue. Instead, they echoed the same response that the CIA often defaults to when it comes to issues of major importance: “we can neither confirm nor deny.”

For some, this means very little. It is possible, however, that the agency has a document detailing the character, meaning that they know who really hides behind the identity of Nakamoto. This could mean that the group is someone the agency knows, or even a group with whom the agency has interacted in the past. For followers of the NSA theory, the CIA’s handling of this important question is a major implication.

Conclusion

The identity of Satoshi Nakamoto remains a mystery, at least for now. But of all the theories regarding the identity of the creator of Bitcoin, none would shake the community to its core quite as much as the theory that Satoshi is actually a group from the National Security Agency of the United States government.

However, the theory, supported by several sources, is unfortunately represented by the same phrase to which the CIA constantly defaults:

“We can neither confirm nor deny.”

There was even a worthy mention of popular early-day bitcoin developer Gavin Andresen who was recently pegged as Satoshi based on a stylometry method, also using something called Principal Component Analysis and Burrows’ delta that associated the whitepaper and other forms of stats as the most similar based on a person's writing style as a unique fingerprint.

What do you guys think of the recent news about bitcoin's creator regarding Satoshi, the NSA and Vitalik Buterin?