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Ask HN: Do you think a government may have created Bitcoin? why or why not?
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Re: Ask HN: Do you think a government may have created Bitcoin? why or why not?
#2No. That makes no sense. Occam's razor. Etc.
Re: Ask HN: Do you think a government may have created Bitcoin? why or why not?
#3Seems odd to decentralize monetary power away from the government if it were to have been created by a government.
Re: Ask HN: Do you think a government may have created Bitcoin? why or why not?
#4I don't think it's entirely implausible, though I do find it unlikely.
I assume the main purpose for a government creating it would be to get around sanctions. But what countries would be technically sophisticated enough to do this and have the need?
North Korea has always seemed firmly in the realm of copying technology rather than innovating it. They have the motivation, but it'd be very out of character and I don't think the level of technical expertise we see from them lines up with creating Bitcoin.
I'm totally unqualified to speak about Iran, but I don't see much publicly available intelligence indicating they are involved in anything technically clever. Last I heard they were involved in some alleged Reddit influence operations, but that's an order of magnitude less complicated than planning Bitcoin to circumvent sanctions.
China is too authoritarian to even consider such a move, in my opinion. No way they'd risk it, Bitcoin or variants from it could be used by domestic citizens. You could argue that pseudonymity would mean a state with surveillance as widespread as China would allow for the ledger to catch domestic actors, but I think that's reaching.
Russia seems like it'd be the most plausible actor, as they definitely have the level of expertise required, and motivation. It doesn't fit in their modus operandi though, but I can't think of any compelling reason the Russian government couldn't have.
If there were any evidence available to the US intelligence apparatus about a government unfriendly to it making Bitcoin, I feel like there'd be an uproar. It already causes law enforcement problems, so if you wanted to push legislation through, what better way? Of course, this is assuming they'd know a government did it.
Re: Ask HN: Do you think a government may have created Bitcoin? why or why not?
#5I think its much more likely it was an accademic working around this area in the years leading up to bitcoin. Staying anonymous is an extremely clever and mature thing to do, I'd say whoever it is is 30 years old +. Possibly someone notable in the field but I'd say more likely not, it's a radical idea, unconventional thinkers have a hard time in academia in general. So my wild unfounded guess is: someone who did a phd in something similar, worked within a university for a while, left for the corporate world. Got bored and couldnt stop thinking about the ideas from his phd. Ruminated for 1 - 10 years and finally put pen to paper.
Re: Ask HN: Do you think a government may have created Bitcoin? why or why not?
#61996: How to create a mint, the cryptography of anonymous electronic cash. Published by NSA researchers
https://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/classes/6.805/articles/mone...
Re: Ask HN: Do you think a government may have created Bitcoin? why or why not?
#7Looks like this submission has been shadow banned after landing on the front page?
Re: Ask HN: Do you think a government may have created Bitcoin? why or why not?
#8There was a small but strong group of people who even believed that it was possible to create digital cash that can't be simply controlled by a government.
To create a government project you have to make something that makes sense and looks possible (like the atomic bomb).