Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto 'Won't Use' His 1.1M Bitcoins Ever: Here's Why

Famed researcher Sergio Demian Lerner, known for his work in finding out the Bitcoin blocks possibly mined by Satoshi Nakamoto, believes the anonymous creator of the world’s first cryptocurrency will never use the coins he mined.

Lerner recently held an AMA Session on Reddit about his work on second layer protocol RSK. He discussed the “Patoshi Pattern”, his research on how to identify the blocks mined by Satoshi himself. The first assumption is that Satoshi was obviously “mining” during the early days of Bitcoin. Since he created Bitcoin, he should be the first one to validate the ideas he mentioned in the original whitepaper, including the solution to the “Double Spend” problem that marred the previous efforts in creating digital currencies.

The second assumption is that Satoshi first mined using v.01 of the Bitcoin Core. Lerner discovered three privacy-related flaws in v.01 that, together, will enable anyone to correlate which blocks are mined by who during the first years of Bitcoin, thus identifying which blocks Satoshi did possibly mine.

Of course, an argument arose -- everyone mining in 2009 had the same “pattern”. Lerner argued that 99.9% of the blocks highlighted by the “Patoshi Pattern” are unspent. If there are many miners, it was unnatural that all of them decided to not sell once Bitcoin had some value. The pattern often ended abruptly and then resumed at the point where it was interrupted. It would be impossible for miners (which are located around the world) to coordinate such interruption, thus, suggesting that only one person is behind the “Patoshi Pattern”.

The Bitcoin Community had renewed interest on the Patoshi Pattern when in May 2020, 50 BTC that was mined during the first days of Bitcoin suddenly moved. The community thought it was Satoshi himself who was transferring the coins. Lerner argued that the block that produced the said 50 BTC was not part of the blocks mined using the “Patoshi Pattern.” Others, like cryptographer Adam Back, while he does not believe in the “Patoshi Pattern,” also did not believe Satoshi suddenly moved his coins.

Lerner said in the AMA that it took him “several years” to discover the nuances that identify the pattern. He also claimed to have found more “clues and rarities” in the Patoshi Pattern but decided not to pursue the research because “digging more may be entering Satoshi’s privacy area.”

A redditor asked him if Satoshi will ever spend his coins. Lerner prefaced with the fact that his research only concluded that “Patoshi” maybe Satoshi himself but it’s also possible that it was not him. But assuming it is indeed Satoshi, he believes Satoshi will never use his coins based on the past history of the coins (They never moved).

“Therefore, I think there couldn’t be a more fairer and more altruistic way for Bitcoin to be born,” he added.