Eighty-eight years ago today, the United States Federal government issued Executive Order 6102, making citizen’s private ownership of gold illegal. This egregious overstep of government-mandated monetary policy is, coincidentally, the chosen date of Satoshi Nakamoto’s birthday, according to the verified profile for the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin on the P2P Foundation Forums. It isn’t by accident that the profile reflects this date; Satoshi also chose the year as 1975, the year in which Executive Order 6102 was cancelled.
The choice is representative of Satoshi’s understanding of the government’s historical treatment of monetary policy and the citizens it impacts. One could even extrapolate that by choosing the birth year as 1975, Satoshi wanted their own pseudonymous identity to symbolize the ending of government control of money. As Satoshi has disappeared, last heard from in 2010, they are unable to explain or detail why they chose this date specifically.
Still, we can collectively learn from the experience of Satoshi’s appearance and disappearance. To celebrate the pseudonymous creator’s chosen birthday, we have gathered some of Bitcoin Magazine’s best Satoshi Nakamoto-focused content; we hope you enjoy it. Happy birthday, Satoshi Nakamoto.