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Comment by ak_111 | Hacker News Reader

Genuine question, if you are satoshi and not insanely media shy, what would be a real concern for not divulging your identity in 2024?

You are rich enough to manage any security, tax or legal hits that you need to manage.

Furthermore due to BTC being completely mainstreamed, the credit you will get for inventing btc would be epic.

The least of it would be noble prize in economics. You will literally be a living cult leader like no other in history. Think of all those BTC fanatics finally meeting their leader. See the way Elon fanatics follow Musk and multiply that by 100.

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I believe Satoshi was a cypherpunk and a remailer dev. Cypherpunks had a history of doing things anonymously on the mailing list and even trying to out one another (a sort of game).

Furthermore, as a remailer dev Satoshi was all too familiar with what happened with the penent remailer[1]. He knew such services will become a legal target by the powers that be. This is why Satoshi even said we "kicked the hornets nest" when Wikileaks/Silkroad began accepting Bitcoin.

He knew the powers would be coming.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penet_remailer

Most people don't want to be cult leaders. Unless they are an attention hungry person (which we can safely rule out at this point) they have nothing to gain from making their identity known. And I assume the tax authorities might be somewhat interested in their bitcoin stash...

Not wanting the lifestyle that would certainly come with it like harassment, being recognized constantly in public, drawn into lawsuits, controversy, the market hanging on his every word, swatting, etc.

> You will literally be a living cult leader like no other in history. Think of all those BTC fanatics finally meeting their leader. See the way Elon fanatics follow Musk and multiply that by 100.

Didn't you just answer your own question? What sane person wants that?

I would imagine security is one argument. There are plenty of people and groups out there who have lost large amounts of BTC and who would like to believe that satoshi has the power to restore them or otherwise manipulate the currency.

I don't think he will need to worry more about security than say Bill Gates or Elon Musk. Annoying, but certainly doable with the money he has.

But I can imagine that can factor in for lots of people who are risk averse and don't like the burden of having 24/7 tight security around them.

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