Did the NSA create Bitcoin? – Cointelegraph Magazine

In the 15 years since Bitcoin was created, there has been no shortage of wild conspiracy theories about how it was created and where it came from.

Some believe Bitcoin is the work of a ‘group of engineers’ in the Chinese Communist Party – presumably to rule the world; others claim Bitcoin is the work of benevolent aliens helping humanity evolve.

But one theory, backed by circumstantial evidence, has been around for years — and it involves one of America’s most secretive intelligence-gathering agencies.

A small group of Bitcoin supporters believe that the creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, is actually an NSA pretender.

Of course, many more people think the idea is ridiculous, pointing out that there is absolutely no hard evidence to support it.

But where did this theory come from? Well, one just has to look into Bitcoin’s source code.

it’s in the code

The reason Bitcoin is so secure is that it uses the Secure Hash Algorithm 256, or SHA-256 (pronounced sha), which is used for everything from deriving transaction IDs and block hashes to addresses and Merkle trees.

In simple terms, it’s a mathematical formula that scrambles data into a string of seemingly random text, which is why Bitcoin is basically impossible to crack.

As it happens, this algorithm is the direct result of mathematician Glenn M. Lilly, who devised and eventually published it in 2001 under the direction of the NSA. Lilly later became the NSA’s Director of Mathematical Research.

The NSA was also one of the first organizations to describe a Bitcoin-like system in a paper published in 1996 How to mint money: Cryptography for anonymous electronic cash.

In the paper, the authors propose a system using public-key cryptography to allow users to make anonymous payments without revealing their identities.

Satoshi Nakamoto is the code name of the CIA?

Of course, some Bitcoin proponents don’t think the NSA invented Bitcoin…they think it’s the CIA.

The name of Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, can be interpreted as a reference to U.S. spy agencies. Translated from Japanese, Nakamoto means “central,” and the name “Satoshi Nakamoto” means “smart.”

Speaking of Satoshi, their identities have never been revealed, prompting some to believe they may have had some form of intelligence training.

In a June interview with Impact Theory’s Tom Bilyeu, former Goldman Sachs executive and Real Vision CEO Raoul Pal revealed that he had believed for years that bitcoin could be a potential way for the NSA and the U.K. government to try to shed future potential The result was financial disaster.

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that it came out during the financial crisis. I don’t think the halving cycle and all of this is related, it’s not a coincidence.”

So, Did the NSA Create Bitcoin?

Former NSA cryptography analyst Jeff Man told the magazine that the NSA’s creation of Bitcoin as a means of gathering enemy intelligence is “feasible,” but questionable.

In 1986, at the end of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, Mann joined the NSA. At the time, the NSA was hiring about 100 workers a week to fill positions in key skill areas, including engineering, mathematics and computer science, he said.

One of the main missions of the NSA is to gather signals (or communications) intelligence needed for national defense. This issue became even more important after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

Asked whether bitcoin could be created to gather intelligence on foreign agents and powers, Mann said the agency certainly has the resources to do so.

“It’s certainly possible. It’s certainly doable,” Mann said.

“It’s not impossible to come together to build something like this.”

However, based on his experience at the agency, Mann strongly doubts that. He noted that one of the results of the 1972 Watergate scandal focused Congress’ attention on America’s three-letter agencies, which were found to be spying on American citizens without proper authorization.

Mann argues that, at least based on his experience with the NSA, the agency has since been careful not to violate its charter, and designing bitcoin could be viewed as spying on its citizens.

“Historically, in my experience, the NSA takes its charter very seriously and only does what the NSA does to aliens, not U.S. citizens.”

“Because it’s hard to prove or disprove who the target was, or who the potential target was. It’s hard to say definitively, ‘We didn’t implement any of this capability — we didn’t set it up and target any U.S. citizen. “It made me wonder if this ever happened.”

However, Mann noted that he left the agency in 1996, acknowledging that the 2001 terrorist attacks and subsequent Patriot Act may have changed that.

The 2013 Edward Snowden leaks claimed that the NSA was collecting data on domestic internet communications without proper authorization, a claim the U.S. government has denied.

No, the whole idea is stupid

Of course, most Bitcoin proponents completely dismiss the idea that the NSA invented Bitcoin.

While SHA-256 is used in Bitcoin, it also happens to be one of the most widely used hashing algorithms, found in everything from digital signatures to cryptographic authentication.

It was made public in 2001, meaning it was available to everyone long before Bitcoin was invented. No one has discovered a secret backdoor in the SHA-256 algorithm, and no one has come up with a reliable way to break it.

silicon horn Melissa Tolentino Talking about the idea that “Satoshi Nakamoto” may be alluding to “Central Intelligence”, and wrote that this argument is “not very convincing.” Satoshi Nakamoto is a fairly common Japanese name, and spy agencies don’t leave Easter eggs to call attention to the fact of their involvement.

“Would the NSA really give such an obvious name to the creator of the ‘secret project’? If the NSA really supported Bitcoin, it wouldn’t be a very smart move to name it ‘CIA’ .”

Others argue that Bitcoin’s first proof-of-concept software is more like a “clever patchwork” of old cryptographic algorithms, not something an organized intelligence mogul would come up with.

Given that Satoshi has remained anonymous for many years, the idea that Satoshi must have intelligence training qualifications also falls apart as you look closer.

“It ignores the fact that thousands, if not millions, of people manage to remain anonymous online every day,” Ian DeMartino wrote in a Cointelegraph editorial.

“I have some internet friends that I have talked to for years on message boards and elsewhere but have never met in person or talked on the phone. I doubt many of you reading this have had a similar experience. I don’t It is suspected that they were all CIA agents.”

Will we know if the NSA invented Bitcoin?

It seems unlikely, Mann said, that we will know for sure whether the NSA was involved in bitcoin transactions, at least not in our lifetimes.

“Unless it no longer matters, you’ll never get a definitive answer.”

“If it’s this honeypot type of scenario where it’s an information resource (…) and still provides results and information, then you’re never going to get a definitive answer,” he added.

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Felix Wu

Felix Ng first started writing about the blockchain industry in 2015 through the lens of a gambling industry reporter and editor. He has since started reporting on the blockchain space full-time. He is most interested in innovative blockchain technologies designed to solve real-world challenges.