Edward Joseph Snowden remains awestruck by Satoshi Nakamoto’s sustained anonymity 14 years after creating Bitcoin despite the asset’s success.
Russian-American ex-computer intelligence consultant Edward Snowden has highlighted his admiration for Bitcoin’s anonymous founder Satoshi Nakamoto. Snowden’s admiration is majorly fueled by the personality’s decision to remain anonymous despite creating a successful payment system that has revolutionized the financial space.
Snowden took to Twitter to share the Bitcoin white paper introduced by Nakamoto on October 31, 2008. Today would make it exactly 14 years since the white paper was published. “14 years ago today, yet Satoshi remains anonymous. Remarkable,” Snowden mentioned in a separate tweet within the thread.
14 years ago today, yet Satoshi remains anonymous. Remarkable.
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) October 31, 2022
He also confirmed he is not Satoshi.
It’s not.
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) October 31, 2022
He further admired BTC fast transactions on the lightning network.
Transactions are basically instantaneous on lightning-enabled wallets these days. Have you tried it?
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) October 31, 2022
Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies have gained the favour of several notable personalities over the years, and Snowden just happens to be one of them. The President of the Freedom of the Press Foundation recently revealed his usage of bitcoin. Snowden noted in June that he advocates for bitcoin’s usage in everyday payments rather than as an investment.
Additionally, he sought to defend the crypto industry against 26 technologists who had earlier petitioned against cryptocurrencies. Several notable personalities in the tech industry had in June jointly criticized the crypto industry.
Meanwhile, Snowden’s admiration of Nakamoto’s consistent anonymity is not unexpected, as several proponents have in like manner praised the anonymous founder of the firstborn crypto.
Several individuals have sprung up within the space, claiming to be Nakamoto, but these claims have been met with utter skepticism, as none has been able to provide undeniable proof. Craig Steven Wright, Australian computer scientist, also began making such claims as far back as 2016.
Wright’s claims followed two reports from American magazine Wired and tech website Gizmodo in December 2015 suggesting that Wright invented bitcoin. The reports were dismissed, as rumours implied that Wright was behind them.
Furthermore, Crypto proponent Magnus “Hodlonaut” Granath, in 2019, alleged that Wright was a liar for claiming to be Nakamoto. Wright subsequently sued Hodlonaut in a U.K. court for defamation. Hodlonaut received support from the majority of crypto proponents who have also been skeptic of Wright’s claims.
As The Crypto Basic earlier highlighted, Ethereum’s co-founder Vitalik Buterin revealed in January that he does not believe Wright is Nakamoto. He rather asserted that American developer Hal Finney could be the anonymous creator of Bitcoin. Finney received the first Bitcoin transaction by Satoshi Nakamoto, per reports.
To this day, Satoshi Nakamoto remains anonymous, and several crypto proponents are content with the bitcoin creator’s decision, as it further contributes to the asset’s decentralization, seeing as it doesn’t have a known central authority.
