Did Bitcoin have a catalyst?
Bitcoin's mysterious creator Satoshi Nakamoto left us few clues to their identity. Who he/she/they are may be a subject worthy of historical mythology, but Satoshi's opinion was that their personal identity doesn't matter. What matters is "a new electronic cash system that's fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party."
The bitcoin whitepaper focused on computer technology, existing digital currencies, and cryptography, but Satoshi's initial email correspondence with members of the community revealed a broader understanding of the political needs for a purely decentralized, anonymous, peer-to-peer currency free from a trusted third party mint or government.
Yes, but we can win a major battle in the arms race and gain a new territory of freedom for several years. Governments are good at cutting off the heads of a centrally controlled networks like Napster, but pure P2P networks like Gnutella and Tor seem to be holding their own. Satoshi
http://satoshi.nakamotoinstitute.org/emails/cryptography/4/
Bitcoin forks and twitter wars are clear signs there is some disagreement in the community about the identity of bitcoin. Is bitcoin an internet transaction coin or a digital store of value? Because of Satoshi's unavailability their vision for bitcoin is cited as an authority for all sides of this debate. While there are some clues to their motivation for creating this new paradigm, we are mostly left with our own assumptions about what they mean.
As I dug further into Satoshi's digital record looking for clues to their complete vision for bitcoin I wondered if there was some type of catalyst, or an event that was a powerful motivator for Satoshi to sit down and write the code for this revolutionary idea.
When Hal Finney asks for more concrete documentation, descriptions, and diagrams Satoshi responds:
I actually did this kind of backwards. I had to write all the code before I could convince myself that I could solve every problem, then I wrote the paper.
http://satoshi.nakamotoinstitute.org/emails/cryptography/6/
In later back and forth exchange with James A Donald over technical details Satoshi wrote:
I believe I've worked through all those little details over the last year and a half while coding it, and there were a lot of them.
http://satoshi.nakamotoinstitute.org/emails/cryptography/15/
If we take these statements at face value then Satoshi is primarily a programmer who worked on the code for roughly a year and a half before November 2008. Did anything happen in the beginning of 2007 that inspired Satoshi to start writing bitcoin's code? We will probably never know with certainty but I was curious to research the time period looking for information that might yield clues to the technological and political need for new cryptocurrency.
Technology
April 2, 2007
Banking Goes Mobile
The electronic wallet got one step closer to reality on Monday when Citibank unveiled a cell-phone-based service that lets customers pay bills, check their account balances and transfer funds, regardless of which wireless carrier they use...We're changing. Banking is changing," said Citigroup CEO Chuck Prince at the launch event in New York City on Monday morning. "I look forward to the competition trying to keep up with us. "A prime concern for potential users is security, which Citi Mobile protects in three ways. First, each time customers access their account by phone, they must enter a six-digit personal identification number (PIN). Second, no personal data, including account numbers, are ever stored on the phone. And finally, all information sent between the phone and the bank has 128-bit encryption. While a cell phone virus could still circumvent such security in theory, it has yet to happen even in countries where mobile banking is already widely used. Once mobile banking catches on, it's likely to pave the way for even more electronic-wallet services like making purchases at department stores, supermarkets and even vending machines. "This is just the first step of making Americans comfortable with using their cell phones as financial instruments," says analyst Entner. To take that next step, phone makers must embed a chip capable of near-field communication (NFC) that will work with special readers in stores, exactly like the contact-less credit and debit cards that are now available. Both Visa and MasterCard have trials under way, but have yet to announce plans for a national rollout.
https://content.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1605781,00.html
Politics
May 18, 2007
Ending Battle, Wolfowitz Resigns From World Bank
That language was agreed upon only after fractious debate among board members, with some, particularly European representatives, dismayed that it appeared to hand Wolfowitz a victory. In the end, however, they swallowed the language as the price of getting Wolfowitz to quit. The ethics scandal that ultimately brought down Wolfowitz was merely the latest in a long list of his infractions in the eyes of many staff members, who accused Wolfowitz of insulating himself behind tyrannical aides, disregarding the counsel of veteran bank officers and running the bank as an adjunct of the Bush administration. Under a tradition dating to the creation of the World Bank in the 1940s, the U.S. president nominates its head, even though that rule is contained nowhere in the bank's governing statutes. Under the same unwritten agreement, Europe gets to pick the head of the bank's affiliate institution, the International Monetary Fund. For years, reformers have questioned this system, asserting that the heads of such important global institutions should be selected on merit. Many academics and pressure groups are demanding that the end of Wolfowitz mark the beginning of a new selection procedure.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/17/AR2007051700216.html
Described as one of the "strongest supporters of Israel," Paul Wolfowitz was considered for head of the CIA after the 2000 election but his relationship with Shaha Riza, the woman at the center of this World Bank scandal, was considered a "national security risk" Wikipedia. According to this speculative Huffington Post article Riza could be a spy. Wolfowitz contributions to the the Iraq War through Project for a New American Century and as Deputy Secretary of Defense in the Bush administration are worth long reads.
While these particular headlines may not have had any effect on Satoshi's inspiration to create bitcoin, they reinforce the argument for a new technological system free from corrupt governments, central banks, and supported private banking systems.
We may never know Satoshi's true identity, and considering the number of bitcoins they could potentially access, I hope we never do. Although he has already denied it, we can all hope it is someone as altruistic & knowledgeable about currency as Nick Szabo, who recently retweeted:
Few leaders can resist to temptations to abuse power. Except George Washington and Satoshi."