An unprecedented event in the history of Bitcoin took place this Thursday, February 22. A series of unpublished and never-before-seen emails between the creator of the decentralized protocol, Satoshi Nakamoto, and cryptographer Adam Back, came to light.
In the midst of the trial between businessman Craig Wright (who claims to be Nakamoto) and the Cryptocurrency Open Patent Alliance (COPA), Back provided copies of the emails that, in 2008, he exchanged with the true creator of Bitcoin, who disappeared without leaving a trace in 2013.
The emails were sent four months before the official launch of Bitcoin, on January 3, 2009, and in them, Nakamoto already showed what is now the White Paper , the founding document that gives life to the bitcoin (BTC) protocol, the pioneering digital asset on the market.
In the first of five emails shown by Adam Back at trial, Satoshi Nakamoto wrote to him to let him know that he would use a phrase from an article he wrote about Hashcash. That is a protocol launched by Back in 1997 that was one of the bases of the Proof of Work (PoW) of the Bitcoin protocol.
“I'm getting ready to publish an article that references your post about Hashcash and wanted to make sure I got the citation correct. (…) I think you will find it interesting as it finds a new use for hash-based proof-of-work as a way to make electronic cash work.”
Satoshi Nakamoto, creator of Bitcoin, in an email to cryptographer Adam Back.
In that letter, Satoshi Nakamoto revealed to Back the definition of bitcoin for the first time. He talked about how e-cash, without the need for a trusted third party, would allow payments to be sent online, directly from one party to another, “without the burdens of going through a financial institution.”
In a subsequent email, dated August 21, 2008, Adam Back recommended Satoshi investigate the article titled “B-money,” written by cryptographer Wei Dei, focused precisely on digital cash.
In another email that same day, Satoshi admits to never having read Wei Dei's research. And in the next, Back points out to Nakamoto that he had not been able to read the Bitcoin White Paper.
It was not until January 10, 2009 when Satoshi Nakamoto and Adam Back had a final conversation, in which the creator of Bitcoin thanks the cryptographer for his contributions. In that letter, Nakamoto also introduces him to his creation, Bitcoin, for the first time.
Back said in his testimony at the Wright and COPA trial that he did not hear about Bitcoin and its technology again until late 2012, when he entered the industry.
The series of emails sent between Satoshi Nakamoto and Adam Back demonstrate that the cryptographer was part of the development of Bitcoin , although indirectly. Furthermore, it adds to the evidence that Craig Wright is not the true creator of Bitcoin, as he has been pointing out for years.
