# The Bitcoin & Blockchain Redpaper Author: Satoshi Nakamoto Last Updated: 17 Oct 2024 **What is a redpaper?** A redpaper is opposite of a whitepaper, which written to expose all the inadequacies and failings of a technology instead of touting its innovation and promise. ## Introduction **BitCoin as a global financial network never should've been released for public use. It was a hard fail, with documented catastrophic flaws, that was never suitable for reliable, scalable use as real money.** This document elucidates my original design intent, the hard fails, and the architectural limits of BitCoin and block chain. My intent writing this document is to inform those who seek to understand the origins of BitCoin, and to clear my soul of the knowledge burden of which I have remained silent for well more than a decade. Anyone who has seem my v0.1.0 source code will know the correct naming convention for the tech I created is 'BitCoin' as a compounded mixed-case word and 'block chain' as two non-capitalized words. Given the global traction of the technologies and the the fact that other individuals have been the stewards of said for the past fifteen years, transformation to "Bitcoin" and "Blockchain" as proper names is understandable. Since I am the Creator, I choose to use my original naming conventions within this document. ## Original Intent #### Network Synchronization #### Block Chain #### Electronic Cash For details about initial research done on electronic cash, refer to the 1996 NSA document on creating a mint of anonymous electronic cash[^01] ## Hard Fails #### Merkle Tree Duplicate Tx IDs #### Mining Process #### Power Consumption #### Network Synchronization ## Architectural Limits #### Block Size #### Public Ledger Size ## Soft Fails #### Transaction Settlement Times #### Unreasonable Fees for Small Transactions #### Inability to Use as Cash ## Open Source ## Words of Caution ## Conclusion ## Frequent Satoshi Questions **Is Satoshi still alive?** Yes, I am. **Is Satoshi still active?** Yes, I have been quietly creating entirely new technology throughout the past 15+ years. **What is your greatest regret?** My greatest regret is releasing the BitCoin source code through SourceForge on 09 Jan 2009. **Where did you come up with the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto?** I was contemplating a pseudonym while I was eating Chinese food and watching the movie Die Hard. Hmmm... "Nakatomi Plaza" sounded sweet. I also had a Suzuki Hyabusa motorcycle, but Suzuki Nakatomi was not going to work for obvious reasons. Just playing around, it became Satoshi Nakamoto. It's really that simple. There was no deep meaning or symbolism. **What inspired you to create BitCoin?** I was creating a proof-of-concept for networked multi-master database engines. The smallest dataset to replicate is a single value, so I chose a wallet balance. The financial crisis was on the news constantly and I realized that a wallet balance was a simple single value for my PoC. The details are longer, but there's the truncated version. **Will you sell your BitCoins?** No, I will never sell any of my BitCoins... they are toxic to me. **Was this a CIA or NSA operation?** Seriously?... no. **Did you choose a new pseudonym?** Yes I did. I have been known as James Vertisan since 2011. During that time I have created an entirely new decentralized finance ecosystem specifically designed for global scale and worldwide use. Sometimes people also refer to me as 'Prometheus' and 'the Wraith', both of which are quite fitting. **Has anyone known your true identity?** Well... someone with real power must know, because I've experienced four home invasions, four burglaries, and four attempts on my life. I've been run down by a truck, poisoned twice, and stabbed nine times. I've spent more than 180 days in the hospital since 2017 alone. Furthermore, the burglaries were all targeted towards stealing my tech and prototypes, not untraceable valuable things that can easily be sold for cash. My primary bodyguard has known my identity for years, but nobody else knew. Unfortunately, I have a protective detail 24/7/365. I am never alone and every action I take must be planned in advance. I have lived in a gilded cage for years and I'm sure I will for the rest of my life. I would not wish this burden on anyone. **Were you a government agent or a government contractor?** No. This was not a state-sanctioned operation. It was a proof-of-concept for multi-master transactional data persistence over a network. **How did you envision BitCoin to scale?** I knew it never could properly scale to a global infrastructure. It was a proof-of-concept, after which a completely new architectural model would be created that properly address all of the shortcomings. Then the PoC would be decommissioned and work would begin on a commercial-grade implementation. **Did you intentionally create an elaborate construct obfuscating your identity?** Yes, I created a complex story around the Satoshi identity. I intentionally seeded disinformation regarding my location by emulation London for my emails, which I got from my tribute to Adam Back. I also followed that same paradigm with vernacular and spelling that I used in emails. I was actually located on the east coast of the United States and I did the bulk of my BitCoin work early in the morning before my employees arrived. Every morning, the world was on fire trying to herd cats with my employees and deal with customer feedback from my real money-making tech product. **Were you using a separate computer for all of your Satoshi email communications?** Sort of. I was running Parallels Desktop on my 17" MacBook Pro laptop, which was not my primary workstation and I would only crack open the MacBook when I had bandwidth to deal with bitcoin emails and such. I intentionally wanted there to be a hard firewall between bitcoin and my regular life. **How did you conceal your IP address from the network when mining?** I used multiple VPNs and I religiously cycled my connections multiple times per day. I still follow those the same practices now; it has become a way of life for my security. Furthermore, sometimes I will use a mesh net, or Tor, or double VPN. Occasionally I need remote access to specific tools I created, so I remote into one of my jumpboxes, which exist in many countries. I am thorough. **Were you the actual coder of bitcoin and if so, why was your code 'messy'?** People say my original code was very academic, messy, and not very professional. Frankly, I was rusty and I hadn't done any serious C++ coding for more than ten years. I worked heavily with Borland C++ 2.0 when it was first released in 1990. That was my exclusive language of choice for many years, but time marches on. C++ was the right tool for the job for bitcoin, block chain, and the mining process, so I need to reacquaint myself and expand my knowledge base. Furthermore, I was thinking about maximum ability to port to other operating systems, which I never bothered to do in my previous work. It's as simple as that. ## External Links [MathJax basic tutorial and quick reference - Mathematics Meta Stack Exchange](https://math.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5020/mathjax-basic-tutorial-and-quick-reference) ##### Relevant Tags > #bitcoin #btc #blockchain #redpaper #satoshi [^01]: [How To Make A Mint: The Cryptography of Anonymous Electronic Cash](https://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/classes/6.805/articles/money/nsamint/nsamint.htm) [^02]: [YouTube: The Insane World of Bitcoin](https://youtu.be/brABoguf7uc?si=2hVdCH2iU-nH-nx_)