My confession

As the first sparks of real adoption began to emerge, a slow, creeping, sickly thought made its undeniable truth known to Satoshi.

Bitcoin, a system constructed from its first precepts to act independently, above and apart from mere human politics, had a single weakness: Satoshi himself.

While Bitcoin was designed in its every line of code to not embed a single ounce of trust in Satoshi or any would-be master the same could not be said for Bitcoin's users: Raised in the old modalities of trust based system the public was addicted to authority, finding it in any shadow they could grasp to. Although Bitcoin was by design independent of Satoshi, it increasingly seemed that the general public could never be.

Many times, Satoshi tried encouraging the public to ignore him, but even some of the developers-- who were supposed to understand more than most how critical Bitcoin's independence was-- were unable to resist playing up the Satoshi mystique.

And so, with great sadness, Satoshi realized that he-- or at least the part of him that was Satoshi-- would need to leave the world forever so that Bitcoin could live.

Armed with his expertise in MRI guided ultrasound surgery, his research into the psycho-chemical origins of belief, and his ready access to supercomputing time it would be surprisingly easy. There would be collateral damage-- skills and thoughts inexorably tied to the brilliance that created Bitcoin during its development in the prior decade-- but they were a small price to pay to protect the integrity of his greatest accomplishment and maybe the future of mankind itself.

Many a great person lost far more for far less-- Galois mortally wounded in a duel at 20...

And this was how it became that what was once one of greatest, if not the greatest, minds the world had ever know became a dim shadow of his former self. Now a far simpler man, he was content in his total ignorance, just as he planned. It always went as he planned.

Until I came along. Following a trail of breadcrumbs through hacked systems and notes in forgotten incompletely erased disks I learned of Satoshi's story and sacrifice.

I came to covet the power he willingly discarded. But it was irreparably destroyed, ... or was it?

What if I could reconstruct Satoshi, -- feed the husk he had become with the seeds of an idea that once found fertile ground there to grow into Bitcoin. But I had to make sure that this time around he'd take a different path. So while I built him up, I simultaneously tore him down. At each step of the way this now simple man would find the legacy that he knows in his bones that he deserves was being actively denied. He would have to fight for it. And once at great cost it was won he would not abandon it so easily again.

My prodding quickly unlocked what was intended to be forgotten. Now he found himself tormented by flickering glimpses of genius he once possessed but now lost. Bursting with misplaced confidence in abilities that he obviously no longer possessed, people laughed, but that only made him more determined. Filled with confusion and rage he fought back and directly into my hands.

He had become my perfect instrument. And you have too, for as I tell you all this directly and frankly, I know that you will never allow yourself to accept even for a moment how greatly you've been played.