Adam Back

$100K BTC? Don’t undervalue Bitcoin ETF influence, says Adam Back

Resolving recent systemic failures in the cryptocurrency ecosystem and the prospect of spot Bitcoin ETF approvals could drive Bitcoin to $100,000 in 2024.

The COVID-19 pandemic, rampant inflation and regional conflicts directly influenced Bitcoin’s (BTC) drop in value over the past two years. However, 2024 promises to be a resurgent period, according to Blockstream CEO Adam Back.

The cryptographer, who pioneered the proof-of-work algorithm applied in Bitcoin’s protocol, tells Cointelegraph that the preeminent cryptocurrency is trailing below the historical price trend line of previous mining reward halving events.

Back weighed in on the potential price action of Bitcoin as the next halving approaches, which will see Bitcoin miners’ block reward reduced from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. Block reward halvings are programmatically hardwired into Bitcoin’s code, taking place after every 210,000 blocks.

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7 people who could be Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto

To this day, the exact identity of Satoshi Nakamoto remains a mystery.

Satoshi Nakamoto is the pseudonym used by the creator(s) of Bitcoin, whose true identity remains unknown. The name was used to author the original Bitcoin (BTC) white paper in 2008 and to create and deploy the first Bitcoin software in 2009. Nakamoto’s true identity has never been revealed, and they have remained an enigma in the world of cryptocurrency. They are estimated to have mined around 1 million BTC in the early days of the network, which would make them one of the wealthiest people in the world.

Some believe that Satoshi Nakamoto is a pseudonym for an individual, while others maintain that it could be a group of people. Below is a list of people believed to be the best possible candidates for the creator, with some having already refused or embraced the identity.

Nick Szabo

Nick Szabo is a computer scientist, legal scholar and cryptographer known for his research on digital contracts and digital currency. He is credited with developing the concept of smart contracts, which are self-executing contracts with the terms of the agreement written into the code. Szabo first proposed the idea of smart contracts in 1994 in an article titled “Smart Contracts: Building Blocks for Digital Markets.”

Szabo is also known for his work on digital currency and cryptography and is considered a pioneer in digital money. He created a precursor to Bitcoin called “Bit Gold,” which he described in a series of blog posts in the late 1990s.

Szabo speaking at an event. Source: The U.S. Sun

Szabo is considered by many to be a likely candidate for the true identity of Nakamoto, but he has denied it.

He is also a legal scholar and has written extensively on the legal implications of digital contracts and digital currency. He is an advocate of digital freedom and privacy and has written on the intersection of cryptography and civil liberties.

Hal Finney

Hal Finney was a computer programmer and early Bitcoin contributor. He was one of the first people to run the Bitcoin software and was an active member of the community in the years following its creation. Finney was also a developer of the Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) encryption software, which is widely used to secure email communications.

Hal Finney and his wife Fran Finney. Source: Braiins

He was a well-known figure in the Bitcoin community and was recognized for his contributions to its development. He was also a vocal advocate for Bitcoin and wrote extensively on the technology’s potential in various forums and social media platforms.

Finney denied the claims that he created Bitcoin but acknowledged having received the first Bitcoin transaction from Nakamoto. He passed away in 2014 due to complications from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a degenerative disease of the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that control muscle movement. He was widely respected and honored within the Bitcoin community.

Dorian Nakamoto

Dorian Nakamoto is a retired Japanese-American engineer and physicist whose name was put forward as a potential Satoshi Nakamoto in a 2014 article by Leah McGrath Goodman in the magazine Newsweek.

Dorian Nakamoto denied the allegations, stating that he had never heard of Bitcoin before the article was published and that he had no involvement in creating the cryptocurrency. He also said he was not fluent in English and felt that the interviewer had taken his statements out of context.

Nakamoto thanks the Bitcoin community in a YouTube video. Source: Dara Kerr/CNET

Despite his denial, the article sparked a media frenzy, with journalists and members of the public staking out Dorian Nakamoto’s home and attempting to contact him for interviews. The attention caused a great deal of stress for him and his family, and he later sought legal advice to deal with the situation. Dorian Nakamoto’s name was later removed from the list of potential candidates. He has been a private person since then, and not much is known about him or his activities.

Craig Wright

Craig Wright is an Australian computer scientist and businessman who has publicly claimed to be Nakamoto. Wright first made the claims in 2016 and later provided some technical evidence to support them.

Wright has been a controversial figure in the cryptocurrency community, and his claims to be Nakamoto have been met with great skepticism. Many experts in the field have stated that the evidence presented by Wright is insufficient to prove his claim, and some have accused him of fraud.

Craig Wright. Source: Financial Times

Wright is also known for his involvement in various lawsuits and legal disputes, including a multibillion-dollar lawsuit against the estate of Dave Kleiman, a computer scientist and cybersecurity expert who was also considered a potential candidate for Nakamoto, and several conflicts with other members of the cryptocurrency community.

Adam Back

Adam Back is a British computer scientist and cryptography expert who has been involved in developing various blockchain and digital currency projects. He is best known as the creator of Hashcash, a proof-of-work system used to prevent spam and denial-of-service attacks, which was proposed in 1997 and later served as an inspiration for Bitcoin’s mining mechanism.

Adam Back. Source: Blockstream

Back is a respected figure in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry and has been involved in various projects and companies. He is also an active member of the cypherpunk community, a group of activists and technologists who advocate for using cryptography to protect privacy and civil liberties.

Back has denied being Nakamoto but remains a vocal advocate for privacy and has spoken out against government surveillance and the erosion of civil liberties. He is also known for his research on distributed systems, writing several papers and articles on the subject.

Wei Dai

Wei Dai is a computer scientist and cryptographer known for his contributions to the development of digital currency. He is best known for his work on digital cash and electronic payment systems and is considered one of the field’s pioneers.

Dai’s most notable contribution is the creation of B-money, an anonymous, distributed electronic cash system proposed in 1998. The concept of B-money served as an inspiration for the development of Bitcoin, and many of the ideas presented in Dai’s B-money paper were later incorporated into the Bitcoin white paper.

Dai has denied being Nakamoto. He remains a member of the cypherpunk community.

Vili Lehdonvirta

Vili Lehdonvirta is a Finnish economist and researcher on digital culture and economies. He is a senior research fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute of the University of Oxford, where he researches digital labor, platform economies and digital currencies. Lehdonvirta has published several papers and articles on digital currencies and online marketplaces and has been a speaker at various conferences and events on the topic.

Professor Vili Lehdonvirta. Source: Oxford Internet Institute

Lehdonvirta’s name has been suggested as a potential Nakamoto due to his early research on digital currencies and online marketplaces. However, there is no concrete evidence linking him to the creation of Bitcoin, and Lehdonvirta himself has denied being Nakamoto. He has also been involved in various policy-making processes and has provided expert testimony on digital economy-related issues to governments and international organizations.

Tucker Carlson outlines wild theory to explain Bitcoin price rise: ‘Maximum tin foil’

Members of Crypto Twitter were quick to mock Tucker Carlson, who provided no supporting evidence to back his claims.

Controversial Fox news television host Tucker Carlson has proposed a curious conspiracy theory that seeks to link airline delays in the United States and Canada with a surge in the Bitcoin price.

He suggested the computer outage behind the widespread delays may have been caused by ransomware and theorized the US Government may have bought a large amount of Bitcoin to pay the ransom.

However he did not provide any evidence for his claims.

Speaking on his “Tucker Carlson Tonight” segment of Fox News on Jan. 17, Carlson argued that the Bitcoin (BTC) price increased 20%+ soon after the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed the disruption on Jan. 11:

“Almost all ransoms like this are paid in Bitcoin. So if the US government was buying huge amounts of Bitcoin in order to pay a ransom, Bitcoin prices would surge, of course. So the question is has that happened? Well yes, it has happened.”

“Since the nationwide ground stop last Thursday the price of Bitcoin has shot up about 20%. Is that a coincidence?” he added.

While Tucker’s fanbase online appears to believe the theory is plausible, it was less well received by the crypto community. Nick Almond, the founder of FactoryDAO described Tucker’s wild theory as “maximum tin foil” to his 13,500 Twitter followers:

Almond replied to supporters of the theory that he doubted very highly that the U.S. government would buy billions in Bitcoin on the open market to pay for the ransoms.

Blockstream CEO and cypherpunk Adam Back also mocked Carlson to his 506,000 Twitter followers in stating that the two events were exactly what Carlson described them to be — a coincidence:

Other arguments made against the theory on Crypto Twitter included that the US government already has a large amount of confiscated Bitcoin, that it would buy it OTC if it did buy it, and as Bitcoin is traceable and transparent, large ransoms are more likely to be paid in Monero.

Stack Hodler pointed out to his 30,000 followers that the recovery of $5B in assets by FTX was a more likely explanation for the recovery in crypto markets:

More than 1,300 flights were cancelled with an additional 10,000 flights being delayed in the first two days of the disruption.

Related: Ripple CTO shuts down ChatGPT’s XRP conspiracy theory

The FAA stated on Jan. 11 that the disruption was caused by a “damaged database file” in its Notice to Air Mission (NOTAM) system, which they said was not wasn’t inflicted by a cyber attack.

The issue has reportedly been fixed and most flights have since resumed normal operations.

Tucker Carlson outlines wild theory to explain Bitcoin price rise: ‘Maximum tin foil’

Members of Crypto Twitter were quick to mock Tucker Carlson, who provided no supporting evidence to back his claims.

Controversial Fox news television host Tucker Carlson has proposed a curious conspiracy theory that seeks to link airline delays in the United States and Canada with a surge in the Bitcoin price.

He suggested the computer outage that caused thousands of grounded flights on Jan. 11 may have been caused by ransomware and theorized the US government may have bought a large amount of Bitcoin to pay the ransom.

However he did not provide any evidence for his claims.

Speaking on his Tucker Carlson Tonight program on Fox News on Jan. 17, Carlson argued that the Bitcoin (BTC) price increased by over 20% soon after the travel chaos:

“Almost all ransoms like this are paid in Bitcoin. So if the US government was buying huge amounts of Bitcoin in order to pay a ransom, Bitcoin prices would surge, of course. So the question is has that happened? Well yes, it has happened.”

“Since the nationwide ground stop last Thursday the price of Bitcoin has shot up about 20%. Is that a coincidence?” he added.

While Tucker’s fanbase online appears to believe the theory is plausible, it was less well-received by the crypto community. Nick Almond, the founder of FactoryDAO, described Tucker’s wild theory as “maximum tin foil” to his 13,500 Twitter followers:

Almond replied to supporters of the theory that he doubted very highly that the U.S. government would buy billions in Bitcoin on the open market to pay for the ransoms.

Blockstream CEO and cypherpunk Adam Back also mocked Carlson to his 506,000 Twitter followers, stating that the two events were exactly what Carlson described them to be — a coincidence:

Other arguments made against the theory on Crypto Twitter included that the U.S. government already has a large amount of confiscated Bitcoin, that the government would buy it over-the-counter if it did buy it, and thaas Bitcoin is traceable and transparent, large ransoms are more likely to be paid in Monero.

Stack Hodler pointed out to his 30,000 followers that the recovery of $5 billionin assets by FTX was a more likely explanation for the recovery in crypto markets:

More than 1,300 flights were cancelled with an additional 10,000 flights being delayed in the first two days of the disruption.

Related: Ripple CTO shuts down ChatGPT’s XRP conspiracy theory

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration stated on Jan. 11 that the disruption was caused by a “damaged database file” in its Notice to Air Mission system, which the agency said was not harmed by a cyberattack.

The issue has been fixed and flights have resumed normal operations.

Crypto Stories: Dr. Adam Back shares his life of hacks

A cartoon version of Dr. Adam Back recounts stories of hacking coded doors at university and the inception of Hash Cash in the latest of Cointelegraph Crypto Stories.

It’s been a life of hacks for Dr. Adam Back, the CEO and co-founder of Blockstream. One of the few people quoted on the Bitcoin Whitepaper, hacking highlights of Back’s life are brought to life in the latest animated Crypto Story from Cointelegraph’s video team. 

Over a game of Jenga in a park, Back told Cointelegraph that he’s always had a “kind of security mindset.” From his days as a student, he tinkered with door codes, pin pads and locks, testing out code and gaining access to places he “wasn’t supposed to have access to.”

Back talks through the creation of Hash Cash, one of the early attempts at digital money. He uses the “Birthday collision” as an allegory for hash functions, demonstrating his aptitude to breaking down complex functions into intelligible language:

“If you have a room full of people at a party or something, there’s a question which is how many people need to be in the room before there’s 50/50 chance that there are two people with the same birthday.”

He explains that while people would expect the outcome to be related to the number 365–because of how many days there are in a year, the reality is far lower. This line of thinking, combined with an understanding of spam email, led to Back’s coding up of Hash Cash.

Related: Blockstream CEO Adam Back talks Bitcoin over a game of Jenga

Bitcoin stands on the shoulders of Hash Cash, but Bitcoin caught on because Bitcoin ˙as a high level of decentralization, vital for the cryptocurrency’s success. Back adds that Bitcoin is also “Understandable at lots of different levels, right?”

“You can understand it from a user level or from an economics level. It’s surprisingly complex to fully appreciate all of it, including the game theory and things like that.”

The cartoon interview comes to a close with a reference to Blockstream’s decision to beam Bitcoin into space and an affirmation that there will be “More Bitcoin,” from one of the Bitcoin economy’s OGs.

Blockstream raises funds for mining at 70% lower company valuation

CEO Adam Back said the fresh funding will be invested into expanding the firm’s mining capacity.

The depths of a bear market may not be the best time to raise funds but that is exactly what Blockstream is doing.

The crypto infrastructure firm has received fresh funding, but at a much lower valuation than previous rounds, according to a Dec. 7 Bloomberg report.

Blockstream was valued at $3.2 billion when it held its last Series B funding round raising $210 million in August 2021. Today that valuation may have fallen almost 70% to below $1 billion according to the report.

The company, founded in 2014, has raised a total of $299 million in funding over four rounds, according to CrunchBase.

Blockstream CEO and cryptographer Adam Back did not share details of the latest funding round but did reveal that the capital will be invested into expanding the firm’s mining capacity.

“We rapidly sold out all of the capacity and have a big backlog of existing and new customers with miners seeking large-scale hosting with us.”

The firm is working with Jack Dorsey’s Block (formerly Square) to develop a solar-powered Bitcoin mining facility. The mining farm will have 3.8 megawatts (MW) of electrical capacity using Tesla’s solar technology and its Lithium-ion 12 MWh ‘Megapack’, as reported by Cointelegraph in April.

Back acknowledged that BTC prices and mining profi tability were down but added “hosting rates have risen over the last quarters and our mining services are a rapidly expanding, high-margin enterprise business for us.”

Bitcoin miners are currently suffering a triple whammy of high hash rates and difficulty, high energy prices, and low BTC prices. This has caused profitability, or hash price, to fall to near-record lows of around $0.064 per TH/s per day, according to Hashrate Index.

Related: Blockstream CEO Adam Back talks Bitcoin over a game of Jenga

In its monthly newsletter on Dec. 5, Blockstream revealed that its Blockstream Mining Note (BMN) token has earned around 5.37 BTC cumulatively in returns nearly halfway into its three-year term.

BMN is an EU-compliant security token that provides qualified investors access to Bitcoin hash rate at the firm’s U.S. enterprise-grade mining.

The firm has also been promoting a new limited edition ‘Jade Transparent’ hardware wallet claiming that it is “hodling our Bitcoin into the 2090s and beyond.”

Blockstream CEO Adam Back talks Bitcoin over a game of Jenga

Back was one of the few people cited in the original Bitcoin white paper.

Ever since his childhood years, Adam Back, now CEO of Blockstream, would spend his time fidgeting with programming code to look for encryption keys embedded in the software. Born in 1970, the London native completed his A-levels in mathematics, physics and economics before focusing on computing science and earning a Ph.D. from the University of Exeter. Having devoted his career to applied cryptography, Back invented HashCash in 1997, a proof-of-work system used to limit email spam and denial-of-service attacks that later became more renowned for its use in Bitcoin (BTC). In fact, Back was one of the few people to be cited in the original Bitcoin white paper.

Nowadays, Back manages his digital asset custody firm, Blockstream, which is based in Victoria, Canada and raised $210 million in a Series B round last August. During an interview with Cointelegraph reporter Joe Hall, Back explained that what fascinated him so much about Bitcoin at first was its fertile ground for a lot of applied research and development. “It covers lots of interlayer topics or people, like mathematics, computer science and programming,” he said.

When asked what advice he could give to the new generation of Gen Zs and Boomers approaching Bitcoin alike, Back suggested first getting to know the people in the industry. “I think the good way to get involved is to sort of try to contribute to something as a volunteer, as you learn things when you get to interact with people. You know there could be many different things to come across, like user interface, documentation or educational materials.”

The 52-year-old cryptographer is also exploring new physical boundaries for the use of Bitcoin, literally. For a few years now, Back has been operating the Blockstream Satellite Network, which broadcasts the entire Bitcoin blockchain around the world 24/7 through its leased satellites. “You could sync a node from scratch by the satellite; it will take a week or two,” he said, continuing: “But it actually fetches all the history as well and reassembles it. And it’s some pretty cool kind of tech in terms of error correction and redundancy.” According to Blockstream, the setup can “protect against network interruptions” and “provide areas without reliable internet connections access to Bitcoin.” Though, for the privilege of not needing internet to use Bitcoin, one would need a satellite kit in order to receive transmissions.

Bitcoin in space is good for user privacy, says Adam Back

In an exclusive interview with Adam Back at Bitcoin Amsterdam, the co-founder of Blockstream shared his vision for the Bitcoin space.

Adam Back, the co-founder of Blockstream, took a timeout from the mainstage of Bitcoin Amsterdam, a three-day Bitcoin conference in the Netherlands, to talk with Cointelegraph. 

Perched at a park table amid tulips and bicycles, the man behind the proof-of-work algorithm challenged Cointelegraph to a game of Jenga and made a case for beaming Bitcoin into space. One of the few people to be cited in the Bitcoin (BTC) white paper, Back also discussed his childhood and his first interactions with computers. The video will soon be published on Cointelegraph’s YouTube channel. 

But why do we need the Bitcoin blockchain — a decentralized peer-to-peer network already secured by nodes on earth — in space? Do aliens need Bitcoin the way humans do? Back joked with Cointelegraph nonchalantly:

“Well, I mean, there are a few reasons [to having Bitcoin in space]. One because it’s cool, and you can.”

However, it also brings benefits such as privacy: “You can receive the data anonymously because it’s broadcast, and basically nobody can tell you’re receiving it. So that’s good for privacy,” Back continued, moments before winning the game of Jenga.

Adam Back with Cointelegraph reporter Joe Hall. 

Furthermore, having Bitcoin in space is also “Good for companies because they really need to make sure they’re on the right blockchain. If there’s a local network issue or if a router is hacked,” then the satellite Bitcoin connection ensures that companies can continue to transact and use the Bitcoin blockchain without hindrance.

Indeed, the news is awash with governments and groups intent on inhibiting access to Bitcoin or cryptocurrency-related activities; so having a connection to a satellite Bitcoin protocol is invaluable and enables a greater resistance to censorship.

For the global south, the argument for connecting and downloading the backlog of Bitcoin data to synchronize a node is the price. Whereas in the developed world, the cost of downloading and synching Bitcoin core could be negligible:

“For emerging markets, the cost of an internet connection fast enough to keep up with Bitcoin is actually expensive compared to salaries.”

Back explained that you can sync a node at no cost in the developing world using Blockstream satellites. While the process is undoubtedly slower — taking a week or two to update — it means that the barrier to entry for participating in the Bitcoin protocol trends lower and lower.

Related: Adam Back Denies Having a Beer With Satoshi Nakamoto

Finally, Back is still very bullish on Bitcoin. In a tweet on Monday morning, the mathematician shared that Bitcoin will “conservatively” do a 10x in the next five years. That means the Bitcoin price would reach over $200,000 before 2027.