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Source / Sam Cooling x MidJourney x CNBC

A recent development in the cryptocurrency world has sparked considerable interest: billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel has hinted that he may have met the individual or group behind the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin.

Thiel asserts that this encounter took place at a financial cryptography conference in Anguilla 23 years ago.

This revelation comes as Thiel's associate, Balaji Srinivasan, speculates that Bitcoin could achieve a value of $1 million.

Given Thiel's connections at the time, which included Elon Musk, the PayPal Mafia, E-Gold founders, Srinivasan, and Vitalik Buterin, it is plausible that Thiel crossed paths with Satoshi.

The extent of their connection, however, remains uncertain.

Thiel reminisced, "I met them on the beach in Anguilla in February of 2000. We were initiating a revolution against central banks... We intended to make PayPal compatible with E-Gold and overthrow all central banks."

E-Gold came to an end in 2007 when the US Justice Department shut down the project and arrested its founders for unregistered money transmission. The fallout and forfeitures from E-Gold persisted for over seven more years.

The Financial Cryptography conference, a long-standing gathering for cypherpunks, could have offered abundant inspiration for Nakamoto's Bitcoin vision.

Researchers at the conference presented papers like "Electronic Cash Technology Will Denationalise Money" and "Efficient Electronic Cash with Restricted Privacy."

Thiel posits that Satoshi must have gleaned insights from E-Cash, such as circumventing formal organizational structures and adopting MIT's Open Source Licence for Bitcoin.

Thiel was a member of the 'PayPal Mafia' that formed in the early 2000s, consisting of FinTech start-up entrepreneurs who accumulated significant wealth through dot-com startups and IPOs.

Prominent individuals included Elon Musk, X.com founder and early supporter of Bitcoin and Dogecoin, and Balaji Srinivasan, former Coinbase CTO and General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).

Srinivasan has recently attracted attention for wagering that Bitcoin will reach $1 million due to potential US hyperinflation, although some suggest this might be a publicity stunt.

Longtime friends Srinivasan and Thiel share a mutual disdain for the US Banking System and an interest in Seasteading. Both contend that Bitcoin requires a sovereign nation to avoid regulation.

Thiel's Founders Fund astutely relocated billions of dollars from SVB mere days before its catastrophic bank run in an attempt to avoid the crisis.

While some dismiss Thiel's assertions, others highlight reports of him selling his Bitcoin holdings. Regardless of his current involvement in cryptocurrency, Thiel undeniably played a part in the early Financial Cryptography community and continues to criticize banks.

At the 2022 Bitcoin Miami conference, Thiel publicly demonstrated his distrust of the US dollar by tearing up $100 bills while berating the banking system.

Read more from the original source:

New Report Suggests Billionaire Peter Thiel is Connected to Bitcoin ... - Cryptonews