- Newly released emails show Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto predicted Bitcoin's energy use.
- “I still think it’s less wasteful than traditional banking, which is labor and resource intensive.”
- The 2009 emails were made public as part of a legal battle over Satoshi's identity.
Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin's enigmatic inventor, predicted the debate over Bitcoin's energy use more than a decade ago, stating that mining cryptocurrencies is energy-intensive, but still less so than traditional banking systems. He said no.
“Even if it grows to the point where it consumes a lot of energy, I think it will be less wasteful than the labor- and resource-intensive traditional banking it replaces,” Satoshi said. In a 2009 email published by Marti “Sirius” Marmi, Part of a trial in the UK High Court.
The email was published by Wired on Thursday.
Bitcoin uses energy-intensive “proof of work” to increase security, verify transactions, and prevent double spending. Satoshi mentioned peer-to-peer transactions and said this is “the only solution I've found to make p2p electronic cash work without a trusted third party.”
According to Galaxy Digital's 2021 report, Bitcoin uses less than half the energy of traditional banking and less energy than gold mining.
“It would be ironic if I had to choose between economic freedom and conservation,” Satoshi wrote in an email.
The document dump was part of a legal battle in the UK over Satoshi's identity. At the center of the courtroom is developer Craig Wright, who claims to be Satoshi, although this claim is widely disputed.
Wright's claims are being challenged in a lawsuit filed by an industry consortium called the Crypto Open Patent Alliance.
The stakes in the trial are high. If he emerges victorious, Wright could become a key decision-maker regarding how the Bitcoin code develops in the future.
COPA argues that Wright has fabricated evidence that he is Satoshi Nakamoto, and that the court should limit Wright's ability to pursue legal claims based on that fact.
