Satoshi Nakamoto’s Last Messages Before Disappearing, The Odds Of $250K BTC In 2023
3 min readFor two years following the publishing of the now-famous Bitcoin whitepaper in October 2008, the person or people calledSatoshi Nakamoto (presumed to be a pseudonym)who created the cryptocurrency corresponded regularly with the growing community, explaining the concepts behind a decentralized global digital currency.
What Happened: Thelast-known message from Nakamoto was sent on Jan.10, 2011.
This message was an email to Bitcoin developer Mike Hearn andgave no indication that Nakamotowas about to make an abrupt exit.
Nakamoto stated in theemail: I must admit, this project was 2 years of development before release, and I could only spend so much time on each of the many issues. I was concerned about whether the bandwidth and storage sizes would be practical even with ECDSA. RSA's huge keys were out of the question. When I presented it, I was surprised nobody else was concerned about size, though I was also surprised how many issues they argued, and more surprised that every single one was something I had thought of and solved.
Why It Matters: In 2023, Bitcoin BTC/USD remainedthe worlds most popular cryptocurrency. As people in the crypto community wonder when this chilly crypto winter will end, they are speculating about the price of BTC, with #bitcoinprice trending on Twitter.
Bloomberg Markets'John Erlichmanpointed out that Bitcoin has grown more than122,000% in the past 10 years.
Some increases in the past decade:
Uber’s revenue: +152,281%
Bitcoin price: +122,825%
Tesla vehicle sales: +50,315%
Amazon’s cloud business: +3,738%
MCU box office: +642%
Netflix subscribers: +509%
Apple’s dividends: +489%
U.S. money supply: +103%
Here are the charts Jon Erlichman (@JonErlichman) December 30, 2022Erlichman tweeted: 0 years ago, Bitcoin was less than $15. After falling 75% from its all-time highits still up 122,000% in the past decade.
He showedBitcoingrowth surpassed Uber Technologies UBER , Tesla Inc TSLA and the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), a subisdiary of Walt Disney Co DIS .
@ChartsBTC called predicting Bitcoin price a fool's errand, but went on to show how if history was our guide, the halvening in 2023 could bring Bitcoin to a high of $250,000.
Billionaire investor and Bitcoin enthusiastTim Draper hadbeen making correct predictions about Bitcoin prices for 10 years. In 2018, he said Bitcoin would hit $250,000 by end of 2022 to the first quarter of 2023. He adjusted the timing just slightly in December, saying BTC will reach the $250,000 mark by end of 2023.
When asked about the built-in scarcity of Bitcoin, with a maximum of 21 million to be issued, Nakamoto explained:
Educated guess, and the maths work out to round numbers. I wanted something that would be not too low if it was very popular and not too high if it wasn't.
What's Next: It remainedto be seen whether the limit on BTC will stifle its growth as a global currency and whether the secret creator or creators of Bitcoin will ever pop up again to give advice and explanation to its growing community.
If they do wish to share some insights, Benzingawould be happy to speak to them, and the whole community will listen with anticipation.
Nakamoto made his own oblique prediction concerning Bitcoins growth, which doesnt seem to account for the reality of its global adoption, but perhaps hadsome wisdom for the crypto pundits of today.
Whatever the current capacity of the software is, it automatically grows at the rate of Moore's Law, about 60% per year,Nakamoto stated.
Though Bitcoin may still be in its infancy, it seems to have exceeded its creators expectations.
Cover image by mhouge from Pixabay
