Former National Security Agency contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden on Monday said that should he ever claim to be ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’, the pseudonym used by Bitcoin’s BTC/USD founder, the public should scrutinize his claim.
What Happened: In a tweet, he warned, that should he claim to be Satoshi, people should consider if he is “just trolling or if age has finally robbed me of my faculties, because if it is neither of those then it is definitely being used as a duress code.”
A duress code is a signal used when someone is under threat and is forced to act against their will, indicating their distress to an outside observer.
Reiterating his support for Bitcoin, Snowden on Sunday deemed it “the most significant monetary advance since the creation of coinage.”
This isn’t Snowden’s first expression of support for Bitcoin. He has been a vocal advocate for some time. His recent remarks come during a period of Bitcoin’s significant market growth, witnessing nearly a 23% increase in value since the beginning of the year 2024. The cryptocurrency recently achieved a 26-month peak, attaining a price of $52,000, in part due to the optimism surrounding spot Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs).
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Why It Matters: The name “Satoshi Nakamoto” stands at the heart of Bitcoin’s origin story. It belongs to the mysterious figure—or possibly group—who penned the Bitcoin white paper in 2008 and released the initial software that kickstarted the network in 2009. The creator(s) behind this name have managed to keep their identity a closely guarded secret, adding a layer of intrigue to Bitcoin’s legacy. It is believed that Nakamoto accumulated about 1 million BTC during the network’s creation.
The question of whether “Satoshi Nakamoto” represents a single individual or a collective has long sparked debates within the crypto community. Meanwhile, Craig Wright, a computer scientist, has claimed that he is the true Satoshi.
During last week’s Super Bowl LVIII, while sports fans’ attention was fixed on the game, Snowden was engrossed in the cryptocurrency market. He posted, “everybody watching the #SuperBowl and here I am watching the bitcoin chart."
Earlier in January, Snowden took a jab at Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase, in light of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s approval of a Bitcoin ETF. He tweeted, "Wild how the SEC approving a Bitcoin ETF was all it took to transform the CEO of JPMorgan from the King of Money into that guy who spends one half of every interview insisting ‘I don’t care about Bitcoin,’ and the other half sobbing that it stole his wife and shot his dog."
Photo Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
Price Action: At the time of writing, BTC was trading at $51,621 down 0.91% over the past 24 hours, as reported by Benzinga Pro.
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