Arguably the greatest mystery in not only cryptocurrency; but the entire financial market is what happened to Satoshi Nakamoto. (The pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin)
No one knew his identity and in the blink of an eye vanished never to be heard from again in 2011.
What happened to him?
Did he simply leave Bitcoin due to losing interest? Was it due to legal worries? Could he have passed away, gotten arrested, or just felt that Bitcoin was ready to grow on its own? The list of possibilities goes and on on.
The sad reality is that we will likely never know the full truth of Satoshi’s identity.
However, there is still one question that has been baffling the crypto markets for over a decade.
Why Satoshi never touched his Bitcoin wallet?
This wallet was one of the first to mine Bitcoin and he was able to accumulate millions of Bitcoin. An amount that would currently make him one of the wealthiest people on Earth.
Many have speculated that Satoshi intended his Bitcoin wallet to be considered burnt coins. That he had burnt his wallet keys in order to preserve Bitcoin’s decentralization. After all, Bitcoin has a maximum supply of 21 million coins. If Satoshi had millions of BTC himself, that would make up a very large amount of the Bitcoin supply. The end result is that Satoshi could pose an enormous threat to Bitcoin in the future if he ever decided to sell.
In fact, that has been considered one of the largest potential FUD threats that Bitcoin could possibly face in the future.
Many claim that Satoshi walking away from Bitcoin and never touching his coins is arguably his most significant contribution to Bitcoin aside from actually creating it.
Other theorists believe that Satoshi somehow got unintentionally locked out of his wallet. Losing the keys, device, or both. Those two theories on why Satoshi never touched his Bitcoin have a lot of merit. But, I think everyone has it wrong.
There was a different and much more important reason why he never touched that Bitcoin wallet.
He was giving Bitcoin its biggest test right out in the open.
The Ultimate Test to Bitcoin’s Security
Anyone can easily see how much Bitcoin Satoshi holds in his wallet. BTC is a public ledger after all. Knowing the wallet contains millions of Bitcoin currently equal to several billions of dollars.
He was inviting hackers to give everything they had to crack the code and hack his wallet to take control of his Bitcoin.
The largest pirate treasure in the history of this world was out in the open and ready to take. All they needed to do was find a weakness in the Bitcoin blockchain to make it happen.
This would have been the biggest test for Bitcoin that will determine its success in Satoshi’s mind.
As long as his wallet remained secure and untouched. That meant Bitcoin’s future remained bright with unlimited potential. However, if his wallet had been infiltrated, resulting in his Bitcoin being transferred or sold. That would have meant Bitcoin had a fatal weakness and was now a dead project.
One thing is certain in this world. It revolves around money. You can bet that hackers have already tried everything they possibly could to hack Satoshi’s wallet, but still haven’t been able to. That is a true testament to how secure the Bitcoin network is.
How about you? Why do you think Satoshi never touched his Bitcoin?
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As always, thank you for reading!
This article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial, tax, or legal advice. You should consult a financial professional before making any significant financial decisions.
