The Ostracism of a Leader

Exactly 13 years ago Satoshi Nakamoto passed away.

His last public communication was on April 26, 2011, an email to Gavin Andresen (one of Bitcoin's early developers) saying:

“I wish you wouldn't keep talking about me as a mysterious and shadowy figure, the press just puts it in the light of a pirate currency. Instead, try to talk about it as being an open source project and give more credit to the developers; it helps motivate them.” (my translation)

Satoshi's last words show his discomfort with being seen as some kind of “leader” behind Bitcoin, let alone a shadowy leader. He had already started preparing the ground. Since December 2010, Satoshi had already updated the bitcoin.org website, giving more prominence to the most active developers, including Gavin Andresen himself.

Their discomfort reflected the paradox of the project as a whole: how can we create a decentralized currency if it needs to be developed by flesh-and-blood human beings like you and me? How to choose the rules of a system that is theoretically not regulated by anyone?

In the early years between 2009-2011, this paradox made Satoshi's authority over Bitcoin a problem to be solved. And as brilliant as he was as a programmer, it was a problem that Satoshi himself could not solve.

We often say, somewhat jokingly, that Bitcoin had an immaculate conception, unlike other projects, like Ethereum, which not only have a leadership behind it, but a very active leadership that treats its network like benevolent dictators, changing rules unilaterally at all times. However, when we study Satoshi's correspondence during this period, it is more accurate to say that the sin of his conception was being purged in the two years that Satoshi was among us. Little by little, Satoshi's authority over the project was challenged by the users themselves and his disappearance in 2011 is the culmination of this process.

The excellent article that Pete Rizzo published recently makes this very clear. I recommend reading.

Satoshi not only disappeared, Satoshi was ostracized.

The bitcoiners were the first to expel Satoshi, they did something that the ancient Greeks called ostracism. This procedure consisted of giving each citizen an ostracum (piece of ceramic) to write on it the name of the citizen they wanted to remove from the city. Whoever had the most ostraca with their name should be ostracized, that is, expelled from the polis for ten years.

The most incredible thing about Greek ostracism practice is that it was applied to anyone who compromised the equality of all under the law. For example, if a warrior leader stood out in a battle and had high political ambitions, it was quite possible that he would be ostracized for being someone capable of subverting political equality within the polis.

Satoshi Nakamoto was that leader who needed to be removed. His authority was incompatible with the equality that a truly decentralized currency needed.

There was no formal vote for Bitcoin users to shout “Satoshi Out!”. Seeing that his authority, in addition to being challenged, endangered the very project he helped create, Satoshi had the greatness to disappear from the map. Fortunately.