In the early days of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous inventor figure of Bitcoin, maintained a lively e-mail correspondence on the "Cryptography Mailing List", including with people known in the Bitcoin scene such as Hal Finney and Wei Dai. These quotes are from Satoshi's emails and his message in the Genesis block.
1. “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on Brink of Second Bailout for Banks. ” - Satoshi Nakamoto
On 03.01.2009 at 7:15 PM, the Bitcoin blockchain started with the Genesis block. In this block, Satoshi Nakamoto hid a message, the front page headline of the New York Times, which was published that day. Satoshi drew attention to the bank bailout in the USA, which was accompanied by an easing of monetary policy. Bitcoin was created as a direct response to this event and suggests an alternative monetary system based on a money with a limited supply.
2. “I've been working on a new electronic cash system that's fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party. ” - Satoshi Nakamoto
This quote is from his email to the “Cryptography Mailing List,” where he published the Bitcoin white paper. Satoshi talks about a digital means of payment that works without a central party and where transactions can be carried out without trust.
3. “Most of the value comes from the value that others place in it. Gold, for instance, is pretty, non-corrosive and easily malleable, but most of its value is clearly not from that. Brass is shiny and similar in color. The vast majority of gold sits unused in vaults, owned by governments that could care less about its prettiness.” - Satoshi Nakamoto
Gold had a lower absolute inflation rate than Bitcoin before the fourth Bitcoin halving in April 2024 and served as a store of value and price for centuries. It is not its beautiful appearance that makes gold one of the most valuable goods in the world, but its scarcity and the great effort involved in extracting this raw material. Satoshi used the properties of gold when designing the Bitcoin code.
4. “If you don't believe it or don't get it, I don't have the time to try to convince you, sorry. ” - Satoshi Nakamoto
This is a common quote from Satoshi Nakamoto. In a discussion about Bitcoin, it takes less energy and time to make a claim than to make a rebuttal. While many Bitcoin advocates try to refute negative claims, they have a limit of energy and time expended, when exceeded, the discussion ends. Some then close the discussion with this quote.
5. “Lost coins only make everyone else's coins worth slightly more. Think of it as a donation to everyone. ” - Satoshi Nakamoto
The issuance rate of Bitcoin and the maximum amount of all units ever existing are openly visible, i.e. open source. With a limited supply of Bitcoin, a unit becomes worth more if, for example, other shares are lost. Anyone who owns Bitcoin after losing someone else's shares automatically becomes wealthier. Every loss can therefore also be regarded as a donation to the general public, says Satoshi.
6. “When someone tries to buy all the world's supply of a scarce asset, the more they buy the higher the price goes. ” - Satoshi Nakamoto
Critics of Bitcoin claim that states or rich individuals would be able to buy up all Bitcoin holdings in the world and Bitcoin would lose its use case as a result. However, this fallacy overlooks the fact that if the supply falls after the initial purchase of Bitcoin and the resulting demand, the price in dollars/euros per Bitcoin would continue to rise, making buying up all Bitcoin an indefensible idea.
7. “It might make sense just to get some in case it catches on. ” - Satoshi Nakamoto
Satoshi wrote in an email that it would make sense to part with a 0% allocation and keep at least some of his assets in Bitcoin if Bitcoin became established as a global payment system. GET OFF ZERO!
8. “Bitcoins have no dividend or potential future dividend, therefore not like a stock. More like a collectible or commodity. ” - Satoshi Nakamoto
Bitcoin doesn't guarantee returns or regular cash flow. Bitcoin is not a profitable company, but can be viewed more as a commodity. It is an asset that can be collected without expanding the quantity, as is the case with stocks.
9. “I'm sure that in 20 years there will either be very large transaction volume or no volume. ” - Satoshi Nakamoto
At the time, Satoshi was certain that 20 years after the launch of the Bitcoin blockchain, the transaction volume would either be very high or non-existent. Today, around 15 years after the genesis block, the mempool, the queue of transactions that want to be inserted into a block, is never empty.
10. “Writing a description for this thing for general audiences is bloody hard. There's nothing to relate it to. “- Satoshi Nakamoto
Bitcoin is a new invention and the discovery of absolute scarcity. Describing the entire workings of Bitcoin in less than 9 pages proved to be a difficult task for Satoshi, particularly for a wide, non-specialized audience. Nothing that existed before is comparable to Bitcoin, making this invention very difficult to describe. Satoshi Nakamoto describes Bitcoin as follows: Bitcoin white paper.
You want to read more about Satoshi Nakamoto? Even more emails appeared earlier this year, as a developer of the early Bitcoin days, Martii “Sirius” Malmi, published his entire email correspondence with the Bitcoin inventor:
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/newly-revealed-satoshi-email-correspondence-with-martti-malmi
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