Revelations from Bitcoin’s early days shed new light on Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto’s admiration for Ripple. From one series of emails from 2009 between Nakamoto and Martti ‘Sirius’ Malmi, an important Bitcoin developer at the time, shows that Nakamoto found the Ripple project ‘interesting’. This revelation comes amid a legal dispute in the UK with Craig Wright claiming to be the real identity behind the pseudonym Satoshi Namakoto.
Nakamoto’s recognition of Ripple’s unique approach
The exchange between Nakamoto and Malmi covered several Bitcoin-related topics such as speed planning, total coin supply, denominations, and the concept of bitcoin fractions. In addition to discussing Bitcoin’s scalability and ability to process large amounts of transactions without direct transaction fees, Ripple was also brought up.
Malmi sees Ripple as a potentially game-changing project because of its unique approach to creating a decentralized system of trust in digital transactions, unlike traditional digital currencies that rely on a central authority. Nakamoto responded with admiration for Ripple’s innovative approach, stating that “Ripple is unique in spreading trust rather than concentrating it.”
Malmi’s important role in the early years of Bitcoin
Malmi, who worked directly with Bitcoin’s inventor, played an important role in Bitcoin’s development as its first programmer. As a novice developer in 2009, Malmi quickly became a key figure in the Bitcoin project. His close collaboration with Satoshi resulted in a strong bond between them, which researchers say almost resembled friendship.
Satoshi even entrusted Malmi with some administrative rights on the Bitcoin.org site. In addition, Malmi’s contribution to the second version of the Bitcoin code was also significant. However, after a few years Malmi decided to distance yourself of the project, inspired by Satoshi’s own departure, believed that Bitcoin had matured enough without his further involvement.
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