Thought experiment about Bitcoin

For many years I have been following the bitcoin story. There has always been a disjointed collection of information decimated over the years that did not sit right with me. I have this thought in my head  for a very long time that I want to share. And I think this is the forum for it.

We know that:

  • A mysterious man named Satoshi Nakamoto is the Bitcoin founder.
  • He is in possession of 1.1 million bitcoins.
  • He is altruistic and hence will never spend his bitcoins.
  • His coins have not moved since 2009.
  • He is worth $55 billion dollars if Bitcoins are priced at $50,000 / bitcoin.
  • That would make him the 9th richest man in the world.

I am going to be a fiction writer for the next few minutes.

Imagine if in 2006-2007 (or there about), the US government (FED, Treasury, Etc.), are in the early stages of the financial crises. They mount a think tank with the likes of Rickards and so forth. They come to the realization that the entire global financial system is about to implode. That all they could do is kick the can down the road for a few more years.

What if they realized that a newly revamped currency was needed that would give them more control such as an electronic currency controlled within a network. Supposed they knew that the Chinese and Russians and other ‘enemies of the state’ would be racing to create said technological advancement before the USA. Imagine faced with this task and knowing that the government is totally incompetent to create a robust, bullet proof and functional system (but all too competent to destroy one).

What would you do … how would create a system quickly and test it and then introduce it?

How do you get the massive number of brilliant geeks around the world to work cooperatively and feverishly at developing this new financial network?

Do you create a fictitious character that no one has ever met? Do you create an anti-establishment narrative?

‘Shatoshi’ gets the ball rolling with a rudimentary system and makes it open code. He launches it on the eve of the largest global financial crises known to man (…so far) in 2009. You make it the ANTI-Bank & ANTI-Government movement. You encourage geeks around the world to work on it for free … as a labor of love. You let it keep going until you get all the bugs worked out. You make it bullet proof. In the meantime you keep the economy going at all costs. You throw endless trillions at it because you know this money has a short expiry date.

You also get the added benefits of distracting the masses. They are not focused on gold and silver. They think they are sticking it to Wall street and big government. You create a feeding frenzy. You don’t let anything falter in the stock market and you don’t let any banks go down because you need this block chain network up and running tickety-boo. And then you wait for the right moment.

The altruistic mystery man story just doesn’t jive for me at all. An altruistic man is so interested in banking that it leads him to create bitcoin and block chain but he never cashes out a single Bitcoin? Or a government in a frenzy to create a solution to an impending problem … and $50 billion is a drop in the bucket?

I welcome all positive and negative commentaries, should you care to offer one. Be gentle :))

Cheers

Rob