In a recently published video, founder of IOG and the Cardano blockchain Charles Hoskinson addressed several major issues, mainly striking back at Bitcoin maximalists who call ADA and all other crypto that is not Bitcoin a scam or a security.
Hoskinson also shared several curious facts about Bitcoin and its mysterious creator Satoshi Nakamoto. In particular, he shared a guess as to why Satoshi chose to stay anonymous.
This video, Hoskinson specified, was to continue the recent AMA video session he had made about multiple accusations of ADA allegedly being a security in the U.S.
On Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Cardano https://t.co/ooeZ1IgfLT
— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) November 30, 2023
Reason why Satoshi remained anonymous, per Hoskinson
Hoskinson began his video talking about the old times when Bitcoin had only just emerged and there were no crypto exchanges, and mining was done by means of GPUs and/or CPUs. Everyone in the crypto space (which was not as diverse as now) was more or less on good terms with each other.
The reason why Satoshi Nakamoto chose to stay anonymous, according to Hoskinson, who said he cited Nakamoto himself, was that admitting that he was the real creator of BTC would make him face the legal ambiguity of issuing a currency. Here Hoskinson named privately issued Liberty Dollars, Dollar Coins, Ron Paul coin, and many others – "they did not fare so well," Hoskinson stated.
In the U.S., creating a digital asset and distributing it is ambiguous, the Cardano founder emphasized. He ended the discussion at this point without adding anything else to make his point clearer.
"Bitcoin was heavily centralized at the start"
Hoskinson moved onto another subject, which was still about Bitcoin and Satoshi. He stated that the Bitcoin maximalists these days believe that Bitcoin had an "immaculate conception," whereas in reality, Hoskinson stressed, on day one and until Satoshi taught the community how to mine BTC, there was only one person who controlled 100% of the Bitcoin hashpower and the BTC network – Satoshi Nakamoto.
Later on, when just a few people, including Hal Finney (for whom it took multiple attempts to get the network working properly, allowing for transactions to be made), mined Bitcoin, it was done in a completely centralized way, the Cardano creator insists. Still, back then, Satoshi Nakamoto (before he went under the radar and gave the BTC code to the tiny community) was basically able to change the Bitcoin network in any way he pleased. Since then, the network has grown greatly, and now there is no individual that would have so much power over the BTC network, Hoskinson stated.
Everything outside of Bitcoin claimed to be security: Hoskinson
Since then, more than 10 years have passed and now, Hoskinson stated gravely, Bitcoin, which indeed changed a lot and started the crypto industry, has turned into "almost a cult," while a small group of people (Bitcoin maximalists) say that every new cryptocurrency that appeared after BTC and keeps appearing is either a scam, an s-coin or a security. They also said that anyone who works outside of Bitcoin in the crypto space is a criminal or misguided, Hoskinson added. They call Bitcoin the only asset that is going to be valuable in the long run, and everything else is dismissed as a security.
Hoskinson stated that these accusations are absurd. Cardano's ADA has also been claimed to be a security many times – by the SEC regulator and Bitcoin maximalist Max Keiser.