Warning sounded over potential $100 billion value of Satoshi Nakamoto's Bitcoin wallet as enigma persists
Bitcoin's resurgence in the limelight post-Trump's election has sparked renewed interest in the enigma of Satoshi Nakamoto, the cryptocurrency's creator whose identity has remained a mystery despite Bitcoin's soaring price reaching $100,000. HBO even attempted to unmask him in a documentary, but alas, the secret remains unspilled.
Elon Musk's confirmation of his Bitcoin-inspired Treasury plans has coincided with a Coinbase director's claim that Satoshi's identity might be known to rival crypto exchange Kraken, who allegedly has data putting his Bitcoin stockpile at a staggering $100 billion.
Grogan, the Coinbase director, claimed in an X thread that he had examined Satoshi's wallets, and his best guess was that Satoshi was last active in 2014, potentially using a Canadian Bitcoin exchange. The Kraken might hold the key to unraveling this mystery, Grogan hinted.
Satoshi's last known message, sent to fellow bitcoin developer, Mike Hearn, in 2011, suggested he had moved on to other things.
Paolo Ardoino, the CEO of Tether, warned about the potential threats of quantum computing to inactive Bitcoin wallets, including Satoshi's. Though quantum computing is still far from posing any significant risk to Bitcoin's cryptography, he suggested that all inactive Bitcoin wallet owners, including Satoshi, would need to shift their Bitcoins to quantum-resistant wallets in the near future.
Recent advancements in quantum computing have raised hopes of seeing fully-fledged quantum computers within the next ten years. The University of Calgary scientist-in-residence, Pierre-Luc Dallaire-Demers, projected that quantum computers might be able to break Bitcoin wallet keys as early as five years from now.
Last month, Tether announced a staggering $13 billion in profit through 2024, attributed to a mix of its Bitcoin, gold, U.S. Treasury bonds, and other financial instruments.
In the X thread, Grogan pointed to a Bitcoin address that he believed was linked to the Canada-based crypto exchange CaVirtEx, now a part of Kraken. He speculated that cofounder Jesse Powell or others at Kraken might hold the key to Satoshi's identity due to customer information tied to the wallet. His advice to Kraken was to delete the information for privacy reasons.
The Crypto community echoed its iconic meme, "We are all Satoshi", in response to Grogan's revelations, indicating that the community believes in an ideological Satoshi, irrespective of the individual's identity.
Arkham Intelligence, a blockchain analytics platform, linked new wallets to Satoshi Nakamoto through the Patoshi Pattern, thereby adding 22,000 addresses to their catalog, totaling 1,096,354 BTC, worth roughly $108 billion based on today's Bitcoin prices.
The Coinbase director's claim that Satoshi Nakamoto's identity might be known to Kraken has sparked a new wave of speculation in the crypto community. Elon Musk's Bitcoin-inspired plans and the alleged staggering $100 billion Bitcoin stockpile by Satoshi have contributed to the Bitcoin price reaching new heights, reaching as high as $100,000.
