An Open Letter to Satoshi Nakamoto
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An Open Letter to Satoshi Nakamoto
the fate of his fragile wealth
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy: Thejaswini
Translation: Baishuo Blockchain
Dear Satoshi,
Since you vanished from the digital world 15 years ago, you've left behind the biggest mystery in financial history: hundreds of thousands, perhaps over a million bitcoins—untouched, unused.
These bitcoins are immensely valuable and widely regarded as the largest unclaimed digital inheritance in the world.
I’m not writing to ask who you are or where you’ve gone. I’m writing because your bitcoins are about to become the ultimate test case for digital "resurrection"—and the outcome may not be what you intended.
Neighbors in the Digital Graveyard
Satoshi, you’re not the only one residing in cryptocurrency’s afterlife. Conservatively, 3 to 4 million bitcoins are permanently lost in digital graves—forgotten keys, corrupted hard drives, and people who took their secrets to real graves.
James Howells has spent a decade searching through 110,000 tons of Welsh landfill for his 8,000 bitcoins. Stefan Thomas has just two password attempts left before losing access to 7,002 bitcoins forever.
Then there are hardware graveyards: crashed hard drives, lost USBs, discarded computers. The 2017 Parity wallet bug accidentally froze over 500,000 ETH, showing how software flaws can instantly create digital tombs. The collapse of Mt. Gox left 850,000 bitcoins still contested by creditors—the most infamous exchange theft in history.
But your roughly one million bitcoins dwarf them all. This is the ultimate frozen digital tomb since Bitcoin’s inception.
Others lost their bitcoins due to negligence or disaster. You chose to let yours sleep. Every day you don’t move them, the world debates whether you’re dead, imprisoned, or silently watching your creation unfold.
Quantum Tomb Raiders Are Coming
Satoshi, I have something unsettling to tell you: your bitcoins are at risk.
Quantum computers could crack them within years—or even sooner. Experts estimate that 25% of all bitcoins—over 4 million—are stored in quantum-vulnerable addresses. Yours are among the most exposed.
The creator of Bitcoin could become one of the most prominent victims of quantum computing in crypto.
While you remain silent, the Bitcoin developer community is racing to build quantum defenses. BIP-360 proposes quantum-resistant addresses. Teams are exploring reactivating OP_CAT and integrating STARK technology. They're forging armor for your creation. Yet, as of June 2025, no formal BIP for widely adopted quantum-resistant addresses has been finalized.
If a quantum computer cracks your address, the Bitcoin community will be powerless—you know this. No emergency button, no admin key, no way to freeze or destroy the coins. Your bitcoins will remain quantum-vulnerable until you transfer them to a secure address—or a quantum computer does it for you.
Modern inheritance solutions could prevent most future losses, but they can't resurrect existing digital "corpses." Platforms like Sarcophagus offer "dead man’s switches" to release wallet data to heirs. Casa provides multi-signature inheritance planning.
But these require advance preparation. They cannot retroactively recover already-lost bitcoins. For the millions already buried in digital graves, inheritance tech offers no redemption.
Your case is unique. Your bitcoins aren’t technically lost—they’re dormant. If you’re alive and have access, you can move them anytime. This uncertainty makes your bitcoins the most psychologically significant asset in existence.
Legal Excavation Attempts?
Courts are largely helpless against cryptographic finality. James Howells’ £600 million claim against Newport City Council was dismissed. Stefan Thomas can’t compel anyone to crack his IronKey encryption.
Laws recognize bitcoin as property—but without a key, property becomes inaccessible. Courts can issue orders, but they can’t command mathematics to yield.
Yet your case is different. Anyone claiming to be you or your heir would need to prove identity by moving your bitcoins. That’s the ultimate authentication.
Economic Earthquake
Satoshi, your dormant bitcoins are more than digital archaeology.
Lost bitcoins create artificial scarcity. Your million-plus coins, along with millions more permanently lost, effectively reduce Bitcoin’s supply below 21 million. This scarcity underpins higher prices for the remaining coins.
If your bitcoins suddenly re-enter circulation—via quantum recovery, legal action, or your own return—it would trigger a massive supply shock.
Yes, moving your coins doesn’t technically increase supply—they’ve always existed on the ledger. But activating bitcoins that have slept for 15 years would cause profound psychological and market disruption.
Bitcoin’s scarcity narrative partly depends on the assumption that “lost coins stay lost.” Your “resurrection” would fundamentally alter investor perceptions of Bitcoin’s long-term value.
Despite various paths to revival, the most likely outcome is that your bitcoins remain untouched: visible on the blockchain, yet forever still.
Whether by choice, death, or lost access, your bitcoins have become Bitcoin’s most powerful symbol. They represent the permanence of cryptographic promise and the mystery of digital identity.
Moving them might answer questions the community isn’t ready to hear. Keeping them dormant preserves the mythos that elevates Bitcoin beyond mere payment system.
Your Choice, Satoshi
So I ask: what will you do?
If you’re alive and watching, you may still have five years before quantum computers pose a real threat. You could transfer your bitcoins to a quantum-resistant address, proving you’re active—without revealing your identity.
If you’re gone, your bitcoins face an uncertain fate: quantum thieves, community-driven destruction, or eternal dormancy—none of which are your choice.
If "Satoshi" was never an individual but a collective or institution, perhaps these bitcoins were meant to remain permanently unreachable—an ultimate demonstration of Bitcoin’s deflationary nature.
The Bitcoin community debates whether to destroy your coins or protect them, but without your intent, they cannot decide. Are you an individual with digital property rights, or a pseudonym whose assets have become public commons?
Your bitcoins represent Bitcoin’s greatest governance test. Not because they’re vulnerable to quantum attacks—that’s solvable. But because your mysterious absence forces the community to confront its responsibility toward an absent creator, and whether true decentralization means letting mathematics run its course—even when it involves your fortune.
Quantum computers are coming. Tomb raiders are preparing. The community is watching.
After 15 years of silence, perhaps it’s time to say something.
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