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The identity of Satoshi Nakamoto remains a mystery that fascinates many crypto investors. After launching Bitcoin, Nakamoto disappeared without a trace shortly thereafter. However, in the period leading up to his disappearance, he remained actively involved in the project. He wrote his final message exactly fifteen years ago, preoccupied with one particular problem.
The Very Last Message from Satoshi Nakamoto #
Satoshi Nakamoto first appeared in 2008 with the Bitcoin whitepaper. In the years that followed, he was notably active on mailing lists and forums. He explained Bitcoin, fixed bugs, and answered questions from developers. In these early days, Bitcoin was largely built by a small group of enthusiasts, including Hal Finney.
Yet, after about two years, Satoshi chose to take a step back. On December 12, 2010, fifteen years ago, his last public message appeared on a Bitcoin forum. It concerned what occupied Nakamoto most: technology and, specifically, security.
Satoshi warned that Bitcoin was still vulnerable to so-called denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, where the network is flooded with traffic to take it offline. He wrote:
There’s more work to do on DoS, but I’ll do a quick build of what I have so far.
With the above post, the crypto legend meant that DoS protection needed improvement on many fronts. First, however, he was making a working version of what was already available.
Satoshi also shared his vision for Bitcoin’s development: the cryptocurrency needed to grow quietly and become technically stronger before the general public would get involved.
A Mysterious Figure in the Shadows #
Around that same period, WikiLeaks began using Bitcoin after the platform was cut off from traditional payment networks. This suddenly brought a lot of attention, something Satoshi was actually afraid of.
Shortly thereafter, he disappeared completely from view. There were a few more private emails to developers, but no more public communication. His very last email was sent to developer Gavin Andresen on April 26, 2011. In the email, he explained how he wanted people to talk about him and Bitcoin:
I’ve asked you to stop talking about me as a mysterious shadowy figure. The press just turns that into a pirate currency angle. Maybe instead make it about the open source project and give more credit to your developers; they don’t get enough credit.