Who is John Galt?

In Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, John Galt is the brilliant inventor, engineer, and philosopher who deems America’s system irredeemably rotten—gutted by corrupt politicians and a complicit public. His moral code demands he opt out, leading a strike of the "men of the mind." These producers abandon society for Galt’s Gulch, a hidden valley where they forge their own world. Galt and his strike stay secret, yet "Who is John Galt?" seeps into the zeitgeist as an enigmatic catchphrase, a riddle haunting a crumbling nation.

Bitcoin is our real-world strike. Satoshi Nakamoto is John Galt. He saw a fiat financial system beyond salvage—rigged by banks and governments—and opted out, igniting Bitcoin as his rebellion. He vanished into cyberspace, founding Satoshi’s Gulch, a digital refuge where others joined him. Like Galt, he’s a ghost; like the strike, most don’t see it. Yet "Who is Satoshi?" echoes Galt’s mystery, a question that tantalizes the public.

In Galt’s Gulch, the strikers ditch fiat for gold, building a hard-money circular economy. Bitcoiners do the same—rejecting debased dollars for a digital gold, aiming to craft self-sustaining networks beyond the old system’s reach. It’s the strike reborn, block by block.

Two other players steal the stage. Michael Saylor is Francisco d’Anconia—the wealthy playboy with one foot in traditional finance, gaming it from within. His MicroStrategy hoards Bitcoin, a Trojan horse in the fiat fortress. Hundreds of interviews lay bare his philosophy, yet he’s an enigma: striker, spook, or Ponzi king waiting to blow? Even Bitcoiners squint at him, unsure. He’s hastening the collapse, one satoshi at a time.

Elon Musk is Hank Rearden—the genius slaving over Tesla and SpaceX, innovating for a world that claws at his heels. Regulators, critics, and leeches hound him, yet he persists, driven by a code he can’t shake. Saylor, our Francisco, dangled Bitcoin’s promise—publicly prodding Elon, who dipped Tesla’s toe in with a $1.5 billion buy. But Elon retreated, sold most of it, even trashed BTC on X, mirroring Rearden’s scorn for the strike. He’s still feeding the parasites he outshines.

Rearden and Elon are flawed heroes—admirable, relentless, but blind to their own chains. In the book, Rearden finally joins Galt. Elon’s turn feels inevitable—worn down by the looters, he’ll see the light. The next decade will be a hell of a show for those of us watching from the security of Satoshi’s Gulch.

Ps. This text belongs to another person.