Twelve years ago, Gavin Andresen, a former lead Bitcoin (BTC) developer, announced to the cryptocurrency community at the Bitcoin Talk forum that he was going to visit the headquarters of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which coincided with the disappearance of the Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto.
Indeed, after first surfacing in 2008 with the publication of the Bitcoin white paper, Satoshi mysteriously vanished in 2011, at around the same time when Andresen intended to give a presentation about Bitcoin at the CIA headquarters, which he announced in a Bitcoin Talk forum post on April 27, 2011, exactly 12 years ago to this day.
Andresen announces visit to CIA
According to Andresen’s post at the time, he had expected that his visit would spark conspiracy theories, which is why he wanted to “get [it] out in the open” that he was going to “give a presentation about Bitcoin at CIA headquarters in June at an emerging technologies conference for the US intelligence community.”
As he said at the time, this was a good opportunity to discuss the advantages of the flagship decentralized finance (DeFi) asset, which he believed would align with the government’s goals:
“I think the goals of this project are to create a better currency, create a more competitive and efficient international payment system, and give people more direct control over their finances. And I don’t think any of those goals are incompatible with the goals of government.”
With a “full disclosure,” Andresen revealed he would receive “a one-time fee of $3,000 to cover expenses and pay me for my time,” adding that he was “only very slightly worried that talking about Bitcoin at the CIA will increase the chances they’ll try to do something we don’t want them to do.”
Having said that, he also voiced his opinion that “accepting their invitation and being open about exactly what Bitcoin is will make it less likely they’ll see it as a threat.”
Satoshi truly gone?
Since late 2011, Satoshi has not made any statements or comments in public unless you believe Craig Wright, an Australian computer scientist that claims to be him and who has recently accused Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) of copyright infringement over putting Bitcoin white paper in all devices featuring macOS Catalina or later (now removed).
Interestingly, Andresen lost his commit access to Bitcoin Core on GitHub in May 2016 after he publicly backed Wright’s claims that he was Satoshi (though without substantial evidence other than certain ‘people’ who could prove it). However, he later expressed regret over his involvement in the ‘who was Satoshi’ game, saying he made “a mistake to trust Craig Wright” in a footnote to his original claims.
Meanwhile, Satoshi’s brainchild, Bitcoin, is changing hands at the price of $28,785, down 3.51% on the day, as well as declining 0.17% across the previous seven days but still holding on to the 5.89% gains accumulated over the past month, as per data retrieved on April 27.
