⚡️👀 FLASHBACK -14 years ago today, on April 23, 2011, Satoshi Nakamoto gave his last sign of life.
His last words, to Mike Hearn in a private exchange, were:
🗣️ "I've moved on to other things. It's in good hands with Gavin and everyone."
Discussion
Legend 🫡🧡
That’s arguably not the last message from Satoshi. Someone send an email from one of his emails in 2015 during the Blocksize War. It reads pretty much like something that he’d write.
Hello nostr:nprofile1qqsrzsrjc9h6jse7zd60vtjmqtypvw2xa55c48x78v25z5fu98gellcprfmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumnnv43kyatwddjhytnrdakszxrhwden5te0wfjkccte9eekummjwsh8xmmrd9skcwjzllt this message is widely considered to be a fake.
Here’s why:
1. Suspicious date — 2015
Satoshi Nakamoto stepped away from the public scene in April 2011 and has never published an authenticated public or private message since. The message you’re showing is dated 2015, which is 4 years after his disappearance.
2. Unverified email address
The email used here is satoshi at vistomail.com — this is not a verified or known address associated with Satoshi (he used satoshin@gmx.com and satoshi@vistomail.com before 2011, but there’s no indication this one is legit). He never signed this message with a PGP key, which would have allowed cryptographic authentication.
3. Context of the debate: Bitcoin XT
In 2015, Mike Hearn and Gavin Andresen launched Bitcoin XT to increase the block size. This fork sparked intense debate. Several people tried to impersonate Satoshi during this time to influence the discussion. This message is believed to be part of that.
4. No cryptographic proof
Satoshi holds cryptographic keys linked to the earliest mined blocks. If he wanted to prove his identity, he could simply sign a message with one of those keys. That has never been done for this message.
Come on nostr:nprofile1qqsy67zzq5tc9cxnl6crf52s4hptdwhyaca5j7r8jwll535tdadedvcpzpmhxue69uhkummnw3ezumrpdejqz9rhwden5te0wfjkccte9ejxzmt4wvhxjmchwgylm, that sounds like something ChatGPT would spit out. That’s why I said “arguably” — it’s still a debated topic, and we’ll probably never know for sure if the email is authentic. But before you dismiss it outright, consider a few things:
1. There’s nothing weird about the timing — this was a literal civil war over the future of Bitcoin. If there ever was a time Satoshi would speak up, this would be it.
2. Just because the email address hasn’t been used since 2011 doesn’t mean it’s not his or “unverified.”
3. Sure, there was a massive propaganda war from both camps, but a lot of what was said in that email has aged well — especially the stuff about charismatic leaders and the security issues with pooled mining. Thank God for the nostr:npub1qtvl2em0llpnnllffhat8zltugwwz97x79gfmxfz4qk52n6zpk3qq87dze team for launching Datum.
4. Satoshi never signed his emails — so there’s no reason he would’ve done so in this case either.
And one last thing — this email was actually cited in The Blocksize War by Jonathan Bier. The book doesn’t claim it’s 100% authentic, but it does note that it hasn’t been proven fake either.
The rule is simple: if there's a doubt, there's no doubt 🫡
Don't forget the "I am not Dorian Nakamoto" interjection.
What were the other things? It's hard to imagine something bigger