The Trail That Leads To The Person Who Invented Bitcoin

When you think about it, the idea of creating invisible money is brilliant. In effect, that is exactly what Bitcoin is. The transactions that take place online are between you and your computer. There is no middleman such as a bank and no internal revenue. Bitcoin is a totally unregulated field of finance. It is not too surprising then that lots of people, including the mafia, have taken that cash from under the mattress or wherever else they normally keep it hidden, and invested it in all sorts of cryptocurrency. Crypto of course says it all. The word means 'secret or hidden.' So that is the nature of the beast by name as well as by its modus operandi. I suppose the whole idea is more than a little mysterious to say the least. But it goes deeper than this.

Ever since the idea was launched it has been something of a mystery as to who actually conceived of the idea and launched it on an unsuspecting economic world. Two days ago I read an article by Tim Denning about the identity of the creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. Tim has his own ideas about who exactly that is and made a very convincing argument for who he feels Satoshi Nakamoto is. Tim named various players who are in the frame, and there is an excellent, if not watertight case, as to who Satoshi Nakamoto is based upon Tim's astute observations. Then I had an idea.

For as long as I can remember I have been something of an amateur etymologist, forever intrigued about the history of words and where they come from. In the UK I used to sometimes invent a history for a word if I didn't know what it really was. I would joke around about certain words, like restaurant, and came up with the idea that that word came about as a corruption of the phrase 'Rest your aunt', a place where one could take one's aunt Alice for a bite to eat, somewhere you could 'rest your aunt.'

Living in Spain I continued with this little game figuring out that the area called 'Extremadura' came from the phrase 'Extreme to Hard.' Extrem=extreme, a=to and Dura =hard. Anyway, although I am digressing a little, I just wanted to give you an idea of where I'm coming from.

These days I live in Japan and I play the same little game for my own silly amusement. Then I read Tim's article and suddenly it all got a lot more serious. You see, when I looked up a translation of the name Satoshi Nakamoto, Google came up with, wait for it, 'Central Intelligence.' I have to say that this got me thinking rather deeply about all of this cryptocurrency malarky.

The thought occurred to me the real identity of the creator of Bitcoin, despite what Tim says so convincingly, is not so much a single person but in fact a group of very smart people who operate off the radar for what passes for normal civilised society. And who else is more secretive than the Central Intelligence Agency, or the CIA as they are better known. And really, who else but they could come up with the name for who they really are hidden in what passes for a real sounding name, Satoshi Nakamoto, Central Intelligence.

Now I know that this all sounds very conspiracy theorist, but pretty much all conspiracy theories do have some basis in fact. The question is, why? Why would somebody want to invent invisible money? More to the point, who exactly would have a very good motive for doing so?

Well the mafia for a start, but I'm not too sure that they have the technological wherewithal. Then you've got the corrupt super-rich who would dearly love somewhere to hide their undeclared income which runs into millions. Again, I have my doubts that they have the intellect to execute such an idea. Finally it occurred to me that one of the other big players, the biggest of all in fact, would have to be a government.

The idea of a government is attractive in more ways than one. Not only do corrupt politicians have a great deal of self interest in mind, but potentially a series of cryptocurrencies could be used for all manner of altruistic reasons such as undermining another country's economic well being. Or it could possibly be used to fool all those mafia guys and corrupt rich folk to trust their ill gotten gains to a hiding place that one day will all be swept up into government coffers. What a brilliant idea. The only weak point in this theory is that I am not that certain that politicians have got the brain capacity to think this through.

Of course, I like Tim's reasoning about the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, but, sorry Tim, I like mine even more. Of course I could be wrong. On the other hand......The more I think about this I realise that my theory is the work of a total and utter madman (me) or the concept of a genius at play (also me). There is absolutely no point at this time in my long life hiding behind false modesty, ahem. However, genius as I might be at working this all out, the Nobel Prize for having the economic smarts to make or ruin the world economy by actually coming up with the idea of invisible money in the first place has to go to.......Central Intelligence, or Mr Satoshi Nakamoto if they prefer. After that, who knows. My younger brother always tells me to 'Follow the money.' Not that easy when the said money is as invisible as Scotch Mist. So for my money, what little there is of it, I'm sticking with the CIA, or Satoshi Nakamoto.