Who is Satoshi Nakamoto and Why You Should Care

Satoshi Nakamoto is the pseudonym used by the creator(s) of the cryptocurrency, Bitcoin. The true identity of the person or people behind this pseudonym is unknown, and has been the subject of much speculation.

After he published the Bitcoin white paper in 2008 and released the first version of the Bitcoin software in 2009, he handed the project to other developers and disappeared.

Disappeared.

This reminds me of the elusive fictional character John Galt in Ayn Rand’s "Atlas Shrugged".

John Galt is a brilliant inventor who decides to withdraw his talents from society in order to protest the government's actions. He believes that the government system is rigged and over regulated and you can work as hard as you want but in the end get nowhere. In the rigged system, innovation and progress are stifled, and the only way to restore freedom and prosperity to society is for the individual to be free to pursue their own goals and interests. His solution is that you should withdraw your labor from a corrupt economy and disappear to Galt's Gulch, a utopian community.

Why do I mention Satoshi and Galt in the same breath?

They both believe in the power of the individual.

Both believe in decentralization.

But I believe Satoshi has created an even better solution. Instead of withdrawing from the rigged system and starting one’s own economy, Satoshi has created a decentralized financial system that is secure, reliable and accessible to all. A system (Bitcoin) that is rooted in the field of computer science and cryptography and run by a network of decentralized nodes with transactions immutably recorded on the blockchain.

In simple terms, Satoshi’s solution is to withdraw your money (fiat currency) from the rigged currency system where your dollar shrinks in value over time and move it into a currency (bitcoin) that is not being consistently debased.

Bitcoin is a deflationary currency. A currency that gets stronger the more people own it. At the same time while more people start owning it, the supply is increasingly diminishing. As more people realize this, it is inevitable that the value will increase over time. Read about limited supply, unit bias, and the halving here.

This is how Bitcoin fixes the rigged game. This is how you can have control over your economic energy and individual freedoms.

Thank you, Satoshi!