Did Bitcoin’s Founder Leave A Code In A Crypto String?

While block hashes don’t always generate tons of internet chatter, TheNextWeb has reported that a peculiar string has caught the attention of crypto enthusiasts. The presence of “21e8” in the middle of the string is raising a question: Was it the work of bitcoin’s purported founder Satoshi Nakamoto?

There are multiple theories circulating around the internet. One is that the string refers to the “E8 Theory” about fundamental interactions occurring in the universe. As a result, Twitter user Juan Galt conjectures that Satoshi Nakamoto’ means the “one who is enlightened (Satoshi) at the centre of the origin (Nakamoto).” And it just so happens that “21” represents the maximum number of bitcoins in millions. But it would take an inordinate amount of time to mine that particular hash, leaving one Twitter user to say that Satoshi might have “time traveling.”

What do we know about Nakamoto? He (or she … or groups of people), invented bitcoin and published a paper about it in 2008. For years, Nakamoto worked with people, allegedly, but never made an identity known. Nakamoto was last heard of in the spring of 2011 and was said to have “moved onto other things.”

The New Yorker even tried to uncover Nakamoto’s identity and suggested Michael Clear, a graduate cryptography student at Dublin’s Trinity College, was the real man behind bitcoin. But Clear came out to publicly deny being bitcoin’s inventor in 2013. Others have been questioned since, and in February 2014, Newsweek claimed that Dorian Nakamoto was the creator — and he also denied the claims. And, in 2016, Craig Steven Wright, an Australian entrepreneur, has laid claim to the “creator of bitcoin” mantle. Either way, if Satoshi wanted to make his/her/their identity/identities known, that could take olnly a matter of minutes.

“It would take the real Satoshi about five minutes to provide conclusive proof to the entire bitcoin community, if the real Satoshi wanted to do that,” Joseph Bonneau, a researcher at the Applied Crypto Group at Stanford University has told the The New York Times.