Not since the U.K. street artist "Banksy", has the identity of a creative person's affect on society drawn such intrigue. The creator of bitcoin's identity has fully captured public imagination and the speculation is of a recreational nature born of curiosity and fascination.
Recently TIME magazine published an article suggesting that U.S. Intelligence agencies have 'solved the bitcoin mystery'. The U.S. department of homeland security (and the N.S.A.) are not prone to recreational speculation in the same way that the general public might be.
Perhaps it is time see through the identity of "Satoshi Nakamoto" in order to ask a more obvious question. The first question.
What is purpose of the anonymity ? Whose interests does it serve ?
Anonymity is abstraction. Absence. The lack of something (0) is usually equated with the undesirable, yet who wouldn't prefer a few more 'zeros' on their bank account ?
Banksy the world's most famous-anonymous artist created one million pound notes with the face of Princess Diana as queen. These million banknotes were created years after the tragic Aug 30th 1997 incident which claimed the life of the UK's most popular Royal. The production or distribution of these could have caused the artist far more problems than the illegal yet highly valuable street stencils, apparently leading to his decision not to distribute them.
Eventually these notes served another purpose. The notes like genuine bank notes bare unique numbers. The notes are cut in half with one half issued to owners of Banksy works and the other half kept by the issuers as an authoritative way of positively identifying his work from similar or forged works.
Thus an anonymous artist, employed the use of displaced sovereign id bank notes, to positively identify artistic works. NOW THATS WHAT I CALL A BLOCKCHAIN VOL II!
Although this was not a real attempt at counterfeit currency it is possible that the artist could have been charged under strict laws relating to it. The act itself emphasizes the controversial nature of placing or substituting identities of currency. The fact that many people suspect the popularity of Diana as one of the reasons for her demise may have been an initial reason for the creation of the Banksy Bank notes.
Placing the face or head of a sovereign ruler on currency is an advertisement for the value, structure and hierarchy of society itself.
Therefore displacing or removing identity from currency could be viewed as a treasonous act of sedition. Technology was pushing forward the boundaries of currency transactions a long time before the internet age. Western Union telegrams began in 1851 and only ceased business in 2006, the Western Union money transfers continue. Technology pushed forward with credit companies cards, American Express, Venture, Capital One. Paypal. These proliferating technologies have helped normalize the blurring of the lines concerning currency's relationship with sovereignty.
Roman numerals do not contain a symbol for zero at least not up until 2018 - MMXVIII "Zero" at one time in history, was widely considered an abstract concept. Why would you need a symbol to represent nothing ? An abacus does not have a 'zero bead' . Arabian culture perhaps the most famous trading and bartering culture.
Ancient Greek mathematicians famously employed abstract concepts in order to advance human understanding. Algebra. The notion that an unidentifiable quantity could hold importance whilst remaining unknown. X=? The extent of the Ancient Greece's noble mindedness toward abstract concepts included making statues to as yet unknown, undiscovered deities.
One failed artist in history whose painting and philosophy known for being devoid of abstract concepts. Adolf Hitler. If the Greek mathematicians advanced the interests of humanity by embracing abstraction the Nazis as anti-humanists might be said to have regressed Humanity by their wholesale rejection of abstraction.The international financial system might be transformed by crypto concepts. Ironically Jewish people are sometimes blamed wholesale for the international financial problem as Jewish people have suffered greatly through history as an abstracted people.
The Romans appear to have adopted many things from the Greeks including Their gods renamed. The Romans did not adopt abstract concepts so much from the Greeks although employing them in their engineering. A Roman road is a straight road. A Roman nose is a straight nose. All road leads to Rome. When in Rome do as the Romans. Lateral thoughts. Perhaps this is why history did not endow Rome with the great philosophers and mathematicians famed of the Greeks.
In conclusion we might do well to consider the value of the anonymity of Satoshi Nakamoto as the faceless face of the coin. The non-sovereign. The non-Caesar.
"We promise to pay the barer". "In God we trust." Money is connected with sovereignty and trust endemically. Adding a crypt-abstract element to the culture of currency might serve the interests of the people.
At zero interest.
"The ‘creator’ of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, is the world’s most elusive billionaire (worth more than $7B as of November 2017). Very few people outside of the Department of Homeland Security know Satoshi’s real name. In fact, DHS will not publicly confirm that even THEY know the billionaire’s identity." - Time Magazine