Surprise Bitcoin Easter Egg Fuels Wild Satoshi Nakamoto Identity Theory

by James · April 9, 2023

Bitcoin’s mysterious creator Satoshi Nakamoto left the bitcoinbitcoin project shortly after it was launched – leaving a trail of theories in his wake.

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Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity is one of the internet’s most tantalizing secrets, with great interest surrounding the author of the bitcoin white paper, who is potentially one of the world’s richest people and may be about to get a lot richer.

Now, the discovery of the bitcoin white paper hidden on nearly every new AppleAAPL Mac computer has sparked wild theories about the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto.

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Nakamoto was unveiled in Budapest, Hungary in 2021.

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“Was Steve Jobs Actually Satoshi Nakamoto the Creator of Bitcoin,” asked bitcoin investor and blogger Lark Davis on Twitter, adding that the “timelines fit” with Satoshi Nakamoto’s disappearance in December 2010 and the death of Apple CEO Jobs in October 2011.

“Steve Jobs is Satoshi Nakamoto. I’m serious,” Jason Williams, author of Bitcoin: Hard Money You Can’t F*ck With, posted to Twitter.

Speculation began when technologist Andy Baio posted about his accidental discovery of Satoshi Nakamoto’s bitcoin white paper on every Mac computer shipped after 2018.

“Of all the documents in the world, why was the bitcoin whitepaper chosen,” Baio asked. “Is there a secret bitcoin maxi working at Apple?” Baio also found an Apple Community post from 2021 that mentioned the hidden bitcoin white paper.

Since Jobs’ death, Apple has steered clear of bitcoin, even as other tech giants tip toe toward crypto. “Apple had a problem with crypto from day one,” said Apple’s former App Store director who worked with Jobs, Phillip Shoemaker. Decrypt. “They thought it was a Ponzi scheme.”

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in recent years, making many early bitcoin investors, including the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto, very wealthy.

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Steve Jobs’ successor Tim Cook has said he personally owns some cryptocurrencies, but said Apple would not follow the likes of Elon Musk’s Tesla and Jack Dorsey’s Block in buying bitcoin.

Meanwhile, Steve Wozniak, who co-founded Apple with Steve Jobs almost 50 years ago, has praised bitcoin as “pure gold mathematics” but also suggested in an interview with Yahoo Finance that he is not aware of who created it. “Bitcoin doesn’t even have a creator that we know of.”

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I am a journalist with significant experience in technology, finance, economics and business around the world. As founding editor of Verdict.co.uk, I reported on how technology is changing business, political trends and the latest culture and lifestyle. I have covered the rise of bitcoin and cryptocurrency since 2012 and have charted its rise from a niche technology to the greatest threat to the established financial system the world has ever seen and the most important new technology since the internet itself. I have worked and written for, among others, CityAM, the Financial Times and the New Statesman. Follow me on Twitter @billybambrough or email me at billyATbillybambrough.com. Disclosure: I occasionally hold a small amount of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.