Before retiring at the beginning of 2011, Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, left us a multitude of messages. These communications come mainly from the various forums dedicated to Bitcoin, including BitcoinTalk. Studying these quotes gives us a glimpse into the history of Bitcoin and, through them, we can better understand how it works. In this article, I invite you to discover or rediscover some of the striking messages of the inventor of Bitcoin.

Obviously, all of Satoshi's original forum posts are in English. Here, I am providing you directly with the French translation of these quotations.

The unique characteristics of proof of work

Proof of work has the advantage of being able to be relayed by unreliable intermediaries. We don't have to worry about a communications chain of custody. Regardless of who tells you what the longest chain is, proof of work speaks for itself.

Here, Nakamoto highlights that proof-of-work consensus differs from other methods, such as proof-of-stake, in its ability to work effectively even through a network of unreliable intermediaries. This characteristic allows the transmission of information without the need to verify the reliability of the transmitting nodes.

Indeed, the validity of a block is intrinsically determined by the amount of work that it required to create it. Thus, the chain that has accumulated the most work is automatically considered valid, a validity that any node can verify independently without additional information. This approach allows all users to connect to the network at their convenience, without the need to maintain a constant connection or to know all the other participants in the network.

In a hostile environment, this proof-of-work characteristic makes Bitcoin more robust. This property is crucial, especially when you consider that bitcoin is competing with fiat currencies, whose monopoly states jealously maintain. In the long term, this robustness provided by proof of work is essential for the sustainability of a system such as Bitcoin.

The social utility of Bitcoin and its ecological impact

The usefulness of the exchanges made possible by Bitcoin will far exceed the cost of the electricity used. Therefore, not having Bitcoin would be a net waste.

In this quote taken from the same message as the previous one, Satoshi addresses concerns about the energy waste of Bitcoin mining. He compares this process to gold mining, which, isolated from any context, can seem like a waste of energy. But if we extract gold, it is in order to be able to then use it, especially for its interesting monetary properties.

However, money plays a fundamental role in any human civilization, solving the problem of the double coincidence of needs. Indeed, in a system based on barter, we must find an individual for our exchange who not only owns the good we are looking for, but who also needs a good of equivalent value that we are in a position to offer him immediately. This equation is often complex to solve. This is why we use money, which makes it possible to facilitate these exchanges between individuals by embodying value that can be moved through space and time.

This social utility provided by gold exceeds the energy cost required to extract it. Satoshi already understood that in the case of Bitcoin, the calculation was similar. Proof of work is an absolutely essential and seemingly irreplaceable mechanism for making the system work, just like gold mining. The social utility that the monetary use of Bitcoin represents greatly exceeds the energy cost of mining, since mining is necessarily adjusted to the use of individuals. This system is therefore a net positive for society. This is why Satoshi indicates that if we imagine a civilization without Bitcoin, the loss associated with its usefulness would greatly exceed the gains associated with the energy savings achieved. The loss of Bitcoin would thus, as he says, be a net waste for humanity.

Bitcoin, the monetary equivalent of strong encryption

Before strong encryption, users had to rely on password protection to secure their files, trusting the system administrator to keep their information private. [...] Then, strong encryption became available to the general public and trust was no longer required. It's time we did the same for money. With electronic money based on cryptographic proof, without the need to trust an intermediary third party, money can be secure and transactions effortless.

In this excerpt from the Bitcoin presentation message on the P2P Foundation website, Satoshi highlights one of Bitcoin's goals, while evoking a motivation aligned with the principles of cypherpunks.

It draws an analogy between Bitcoin and strong encryption, which refers to all modern cryptographic methods that ensure a high level of security through complex algorithms. Historically, encryption was the preserve of governments and the military. With the advent of personal computers and the expansion of the Internet in the 1970s and 1980s, the need for strong encryption for the general public became obvious. However, some governments opposed this democratization of cryptography, fearing complications for the surveillance of individuals. The United States even considered encryption software to be firearm ammunition for a long time, thereby prohibiting its free distribution and export. Cypherpunks fought to spread strong encryption methods, considering them essential for protecting the privacy of individuals. Not being able to trust companies and governments that interfere in the private sphere, they had to be deprived of the ability to carry out this surveillance. That's what strong encryption allows.

In this quote, Satoshi discusses this struggle for the spread of encryption methods and expresses the wish to see a similar change in the monetary field. In the same way that cryptography provides individual protection against surveillance abuse, Bitcoin is proposed as a way to guard against currency abuse.

With this message, accompanied by a link to version 0.1 of the Bitcoin software, Satoshi is spreading to the whole world a method to get rid of state currencies. With its tool, it is now possible to annihilate the need for trust in our monetary exchanges between individuals, and thus to protect our natural rights independently.

Bitcoin in the face of inflation

The fundamental problem with conventional money lies in all the confidence that is necessary for it to function. You have to trust the central bank not to devalue the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of abuse of that trust.

In the same message as the previous quote, Satoshi points to the money printing orchestrated by central banks. He points out that fiat money requires significant trust in these institutions to maintain the value of the currency. Indeed, the continuous issuance of new units inevitably leads to inflation, gradually eating away at the purchasing power of the currency already in circulation. This inflation is reflected in an increase in the prices of goods and services. It acts as a disguised tax, surreptitiously transferring the value crystallized in the saver's currency to the state. This tax, which is insidious in its non-consensual, unvoted, and difficult to perceive, requires a form of blind trust in the issuing institution. However, as Satoshi recalls, that trust has often been betrayed throughout history.

With Bitcoin, the need for that trust is disappearing. The protocol provides for a predefined emission schedule, maintained by the consensus of users. During the first years of Bitcoin, units were gradually created in order to ensure their circulation. But once the threshold of 21 million units is reached, the money supply will be fixed, preventing the phenomenon of loss of purchasing power that can be found in fiat currencies.

Bitcoin privacy

For greater privacy, it is best to use Bitcoin addresses only once.

From the early days of Bitcoin, Satoshi already fully understood the privacy model of his invention. In the White Paper, he already identified two chain analysis heuristics that remain among the most useful today for companies specializing in transaction monitoring.

In this BitcoinTalk thread, Satoshi emphasized the importance of never using the same receiving address multiple times. It also highlighted that anonymity and pseudonymy essentially depend on the association made outside of Bitcoin (as on the web, for example) between these addresses and personal information.

➤ Learn more about the subject of privacy on Bitcoin.

Satoshi's most famous quote

If you don't believe it or don't understand it, I don't have time to try to convince you, sorry.

It's probably one of Satoshi Nakamoto's most famous quotes. It initially came from an exchange with Dan Larimer, future founder of BitShares. Larimer expressed skepticism about the viability of Bitcoin, especially in terms of scaling up in the face of the banking system. Responding to a criticism about the delay in confirming transactions, Satoshi advised Dan to go see another of his messages. In it, he detailed the concept of a payment processing company that, by monitoring the blockchain, would allow merchants to accept transactions more quickly. Obviously tired of Larimer's criticisms, Satoshi wanted to make it clear with this quote that he cared little about the ability of his arguments to convince.

Today, this quote is widely used by bitcoiners who identify with it outside of its initial context. She now embodies the idea that you can't convince everyone, especially those who don't want to make the effort to understand Bitcoin. She suggests that time will demonstrate its value and effectiveness, rather than failed attempts at arguments in the face of impermeable skepticism.

Contrary to what this quote suggests, on the Understanding Bitcoin blog, we take the time to convince you and to enlighten you on how Bitcoin works. Do not hesitate to discover our numerous technical articles if you want to deepen your knowledge on the invention of Satoshi!

What if Satoshi still had access to his million BTC?

Sigh... why delete a wallet instead of putting it aside and keeping the old copy just in case? You should never delete a wallet.

To put this snippet into context, it comes from a message by Satoshi Nakamoto posted on the BitcoinTalk forum, in the thread dedicated to version 0.3.13. This intervention followed an incident in which a user generated a chain of invalid transactions due to a missing history, a problem caused by a bug. Satoshi expressed his frustration with deleting this user's wallet, insisting that a wallet should never be deleted, “just in case.”

This message takes on particular resonance when you think of the million BTC that Satoshi would have mined during the first years of Bitcoin. Through the analysis of certain mining methods specific to Satoshi, we can identify a pattern that is unique to him, referred to as “Patoshi.” The analysis of this Patoshi in the blocks reveals that Satoshi would have accumulated around 1.1 million bitcoins.

Until now, this treasure has never moved. This has prompted a variety of theories: some believe that Satoshi is dead, while others speculate that his wallet was destroyed. However, this message from 2010, where he advised never to delete his wallet, could suggest the opposite. Only the future will tell us the truth.

➤ Learn more about Patoshi

Conclusion

These few messages, among many others left by Satoshi Nakamoto, allow us to better understand his vision of his invention. If you are interested in Bitcoin, I can only advise you to study all these discussions from the early 2010s. It shows why certain technical choices have been made and why it is important to maintain these fundamental principles. To learn more about Satoshi Nakamoto and the technical and ideological origins of his invention, I also advise you to discover this other article: Why was Bitcoin created?

Original quotes:

1. Bitcointalk
2. Bitcointalk
3. P2P Foundation
4. Bitcointalk
5. Bitcointalk
6. Bitcointalk

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