Did the NSA create Bitcoin? – Cointelegraph Magazine

Over the 15 years since Bitcoin was created, there has been no shortage of crazy conspiracy theories about how it was made and where it came from. 

Some believe Bitcoin was the work of “a bunch of engineers” in the Chinese Communist Party — presumably for world domination; others claim Bitcoin is the work of benevolent aliens to help humans evolve.

But one theory with circumstantial evidence supporting it has persisted over the years — and it involves one of America’s most secretive intelligence-gathering agencies. 

There’s a small sect of Bitcoiners that believes Satoshi Nakamoto — the creator of Bitcoin — is, in fact, the United States National Security Agency in disguise.

Many more, of course, think the idea is ridiculous and point out there’s no absolutely no solid evidence to support it.

But where does the theory stem from? Well, one only needs to look into Bitcoin’s source code.

It’s in the code

What makes Bitcoin so secure lies in its use of Secure Hash Algorithm 256, or SHA-256 (read as sha), which is used for everything from deriving transaction IDs and block hashes to addresses and Merkle trees.

Put simply, it’s a mathematical formula that garbles data into a string of seemingly random text, and it’s why Bitcoin is basically impossible to crack.

Well, it just so happens that this algorithm is the direct work of Glenn M. Lilly, a mathematician who, under the direction of the NSA, designed and eventually published the algorithm in 2001. Lilly later became the NSA’s chief of mathematics research.

The NSA was also one of the first organizations to describe a Bitcoin-like system in a 1996 paper titled How To Make A Mint: The Cryptography Of Anonymous Electronic Cash.

In the paper, the authors proposed a system that uses public-key cryptography to allow users to make anonymous payments without revealing their identity. 

Satoshi Nakamoto is code for the CIA?

Of course, some Bitcoiners don’t think the NSA invented Bitcoin…. they reckon it was the Central Intelligence Agency.

The name of Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, can be interpreted as a reference to the U.S. spy agency. Nakamoto, loosely translated from Japanese, means “central,” while the name Satoshi means “intelligent.” 

Speaking of Satoshi, their identity has never been uncovered, prompting some to believe they are likely to have had some form of intelligence training. 

In an interview with Impact Theory’s Tom Bilyeu in June, former Goldman Sachs executive and Real Vision CEO Raoul Pal revealed he’s believed for years that Bitcoin could be the result of the NSA and the United Kingdom’s government experimenting with potential ways to get out of future potential financial disasters. 

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence it came out in the financial crisis. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the halving cycle and all of this is all related.”

So, did the NSA create Bitcoin?

Jeff Man, a former NSA cryptanalyst, tells Magazine that it’s “feasible” that the NSA could have created Bitcoin as a means to gather intelligence about its enemies, but is doubtful. 

Man joined the NSA in 1986 at the tail end of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States. At the time, the NSA was hiring around 100 people a week to fill roles in critical skills, including engineering, mathematics and computer science, he says.

One of the NSA’s main missions is to gather signals (or communications) intelligence necessary for the country’s defense. This became an even higher priority following the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on the World Trade Center.

Asked about whether Bitcoin could have been created to gather intelligence about foreign agents and powers, Man said the agency certainly had the resources to do so. 

“It’s certainly a…