Today, a statue of Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto was revealed in Budapest, Hungary in front of a large and passionate crowd. “The goal of the statue is to honor Satoshi Nakamoto, the founders believe that his work is truly something to be remembered,” said the initiative’s website.
This bronze statue located in Graphisoft Park was sculpted by Gergely Réka and Tamás Gilly. When sculpting this statue, the pair really wanted to capture the mantra of “we are all Satoshi,” making Satoshi’s face reflective, so when you look at the statue you remind yourself that you play just as an important role in Bitcoin as Satoshi and everyone else does. This is also because the gender, height, weight, and age of Satoshi Nakamoto are unknown — making it impossible to sculpt a descriptive face of whoever Satoshi was.
I love how this faceless statue plays into Elizabeth Warren’s comments this past July calling Bitcoiners a “shadowy faceless group of super coders.” Because it does not matter who Satoshi was as an individual. All that matters is that Satoshi created a decentralized protocol that allows anyone to transfer value in real time without permission from anyone. This “faceless super coder” changed the world for the better by giving people financial hope and opportunity where there was none. Just because someone protects their identity online does not mean they have ill intentions, something Warren has yet to understand.
The statue features Satoshi wearing a hoodie with a recent Bitcoin logo on it — but not the “BC” logo that Satoshi originally started out with. Though it’s important to note there is no “official” logo for Bitcoin, and whatever is used most is what has been popularized by Bitcoiners from all over the world.
Earlier this year, in June, a rough draft of the statue was released to the public. And just a few months later, the statue was built and revealed.