An intriguing theory swirling in the crypto-sphere argues that the genesis of Bitcoin might be linked to the United States National Security Agency (NSA). A repeat advocate of this view, Nic Carter, suggests Bitcoin might be a monetary bioweapon that escaped from a clandestine NSA lab.
In one thread of the story, the co-founder of Iris Energy, Daniel Roberts, revitalised the assertion by referring to a paper from 1996 discussing Bitcoin-like systems with public-key cryptography for anonymous transactions. Interestingly, NSA employees wrote this pioneering discourse. Furthering this narrative, Carter imagines Bitcoin being a tantalising research project which a solitary anonymous researcher chose to secretively release.
However, Carter isn’t implying an all-powerful U.S. government controlling Bitcoin covertly or creating a backdoor into the cryptocurrency. Instead, he pictures a rogue researcher aiming to preserve his anonymity by leaving the coins behind.
Others intertwine the name of Tatsuaki Okamoto, a cryptography scholar named in the 1996 text, into the tale of Bitcoin, drawing parallels to the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. Despite these assertions, Carter clarifies that these elements of the origin story don’t truly matter.
On the contrary, experts like Matthew Pines, Krebs Stamos’ intelligence director, believe that Bitcoin’s creation likely involved a blend of NSA crypto enthusiasts and cipher punks. While he concedes connections between Bitcoin’s brainchildren and NSA staff, he doesn’t believe the cause received official approval.
Former financial guru Raoul Pal also has a theory: both the UK and US governments – respectively represented by the NSA and GCHQ – developed Bitcoin. Speaking to the probability of this hypothesis, ex-NSA analyst Jeff Man posits that while feasible, it seems doubtful.
Regardless of these speculations, even if the NSA was involved in the creation of Bitcoin, the likelihood of discovering the truth of this digital behemoth’s creation may have passed. As time progresses, the urgency in unmasking Bitcoin’s saga seems to fade. In the end, the mystery behind the creation of the world’s most popular digital asset adds to its allure.
Source: Cointelegraph
