Fourteen years ago, Satoshi Nakamoto, the enigmatic mind behind Bitcoin, signed off with a final post on the Bitcointalk forum. In this farewell, Nakamoto emphasized the need for continued work on the network’s defenses against denial-of-service (DoS) attacks.
Bitcoin’s Creator Speaks One Last Time: A Look Back 14 Years Later
Fast forward to today, and it’s been 14 years since that pivotal final message moment. Come Jan. 3, 2025, Bitcoin will celebrate its 16th anniversary since the Genesis block’s creation. Nakamoto’s brief message addressed updates to Bitcoin’s software, including the integration of DoS attack limits and the removal of safe mode alerts—signaling steps toward bolstering the network’s security.
This post was part of a larger dialogue about fortifying Bitcoin against potential vulnerabilities. It also became Nakamoto’s final contribution to the forum, marking the end of public engagements by the mysterious inventor.
Following Nakamoto’s exit from the public eye, key responsibilities shifted to developers like Gavin Andresen. While this was the last forum post, evidence suggests Nakamoto remained in contact via email until 2011. On April 20 and 23 of that year, Nakamoto informed Mike Hearn that he had “moved on to other things,” expressing confidence in Bitcoin’s future under the stewardship of Andresen and the broader community.
A few days later, on April 26, Nakamoto reached out to Andresen again. This time, the creator urged Andresen to downplay the narrative of Nakamoto as a “shadowy figure” perpetuated by the media, which framed bitcoin as a “pirate currency.” Instead, Nakamoto encouraged focusing on Bitcoin’s open-source nature and crediting the community’s contributions to inspire ongoing development.
Though the Dec. 12 forum post was Nakamoto’s last public statement, records show the inventor logged in the next day, possibly to monitor responses or tie up loose ends. That final post was Nakamoto’s 575th on the platform, capping a prolific presence that began with the registration of the username “Satoshi” on Nov. 19, 2009.
By 2011, communication with Andresen and Hearn ceased, signaling the end of Nakamoto’s direct engagement with the Bitcoin community. Yet, the creator’s presence was felt once more in 2014, when a message surfaced on the P2P Foundation forum: “I am not Dorian Nakamoto.” This declaration, tied to Nakamoto’s original email, squashed rumors that wrongly identified the California resident Dorian Nakamoto as Bitcoin’s architect, relieving him from unwanted media scrutiny.