Digital Gold Chapters Speech
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Nov 24, 2024
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I.
Chapter 29
Chapter 29 of the book
Digital Gold: Bitcoin
focuses on events that occurred during the month
of February 2014. The central character in the chapter is Mark Karpeles who at the time owned a
Bitcoin exchange company based in Japan. The company was experiencing financial difficulties
because of withdrawals for customers outside Japan were being declined by banks in America.
The company was forced to halt all withdrawals altogether because of issues with the Bitcoin
software. The decision by Mark’s company resulted in a plunge of Bitcoin price across the
world. Later on, it was revealed that hundreds of thousands of Bitcoins worth hundreds of
millions of dollars had been stolen by hackers. The company was forced to declare bankruptcy.
However, the truth is that the loss was as a result of unethical behavior and irresponsibility on
the part of Mark. When this was explained, the fall of the price of Bitcoin ultimately slowed
down. The story of the failure of Mark’s Bitcoin exchange has since become familiar. Bitcoin
continues to show resilience even with the recent collapse of FTX where people lost all their
investments. The failure of Bitcoin exchange companies brings the question of how the
cryptocurrency will be sustainable and be able to compete with the dollar if it continues on the
periphery of financial regulation.
II.
Chapter 30
The setting of this chapter is March 6, 2014. In this chapter, the author narrates the events
surrounding the efforts to unmask the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious figure
behind Bitcoin. The author explains how Satoshi had managed to hide his identity by using
anonymizing software. Many journalists had given up on their efforts to uncover his true
identity. Reporters had mistaken a Japanese immigrant for the Bitcoin founder because of the
name similarities. They were, however, disappointed when they realized the man was not even
familiar with Bitcoin. When experts examined the Bitcoins that Satoshi had mined during the
first year of Bitcoin’s foundation, they realized that he had not sold any of it. So, the question is
how does he benefit from the Bitcoin that he founded? The hunt for Satoshi goes on without any
success. It is amazing how someone does not want to take credit for a disruptive invention such
as Bitcoin. The reasons for this are not clear. However, one may want to speculate that what
Satoshi is doing is not to necessarily hide his identity but to show the world how smart he is for
them to trust the infallibility of the blockchain technology that he created.
III.
Chapter 31
Chapter 31 is the final chapter of the book and explains events of March 21, 2014. This chapter
concerns a Bitcoin conference in which many people in the Bitcoin world had been invited.
Some of the attendees had been under investigation for various violations. Other would-be
attendees had been denied visa by the American government. This chapter brings together the so-
called misfits who are behind the story of Bitcoin. The story in this chapter revolves around one
particular attendee who the author speculates that he is most likely Satoshi Nakamoto. His name
is Nick Szabo. The author speculates this because of the mysterious life that he had lived full of
privacy. According to the author, Nick had hinted at developing Bitcoin years before it was
released. This is apparently the author’s most significant evidence that Nick is the person behind
Bitcoin. While the author’s intuitions could be true, it cannot be said with certainty that Nick
Szabo is the mysterious character named Satoshi Nakamoto. What stands out for me in this story
is how Satoshi has been able to operate without leaving online footprints that could trace his
identity. He might not have anything to hide but surely he does value his privacy.
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