My First Million
The best business ideas come from noticing what's working and doing it better, faster, or for a different audience.
The world is better off never knowing who Satoshi Nakamoto is, despite intense curiosity about Bitcoin's creator.
The Reasoning
Revealing Satoshi's identity would create personal danger for the individual, undermine Bitcoin's decentralized credibility, and satisfy curiosity at the cost of the technology's foundational principles.
What Needs to Be True
- Bitcoin's value depends partly on its decentralized nature
- Powerful institutions would target a known founder
- The mystery contributes to Bitcoin's mythological appeal
- Revealing identity serves no constructive purpose
Counterargument
Historical accuracy matters, people deserve to know who created something so influential, and recognition could benefit the creator.
What Would Change This View
Evidence that revealing identity would strengthen rather than weaken Bitcoin, or that the person wants recognition and can handle the consequences safely.
Implications for Builders
Consider whether anonymity serves your technology's long-term interests
Plan exit strategies that preserve technology independence
Build systems that can survive without founder involvement
Weigh personal recognition against institutional targeting
Example Application
“A founder building a privacy technology chooses to remain pseudonymous permanently, ensuring the technology can't be compromised through personal pressure.”
Related Knowledge
Three-Stage Currency Adoption Framework
A currency must pass through three distinct stages to become truly functional: store of value, medium of exchange, and unit of account.
Launch a potentially system-threatening technology while avoiding personal targeting
Technology achieves widespread adoption while founder remains unknown and safe from retaliation by threatened institutions.
High-Profile Criminal Capture Through Minor Mistakes
Sophisticated criminals with otherwise perfect operational security are frequently caught through small, seemingly unrelated errors rather than major investigative breakthroughs.
Anonymous founders are strategically superior for system-threatening technologies
Builders of technologies that challenge power structures should prioritize anonymity over personal recognition
You can't be the guy behind it because you have too much power
Being a known founder of system-threatening technology makes you a target for institutional retaliation
Government is now pro crypto, political suicide to be anti-crypto
US political landscape has shifted so significantly that opposing cryptocurrency is now politically disadvantageous