Bitcoin. Satoshi Nakamoto who did not reveal his identity is interesting.

Interesting about Satoshi Nakamoto

The man known as "Satoshi Nakamoto" is the founder of Bitcoin. We can see his name in the articles about virtual currency and blockchain, but he is a veiled figure whose identity is not even known. By all appearances, it is a Japanese name, but even though Japanese media doesn’t report on Satoshi Nakamoto.

Most books start with the story of how he created a new electronic currency called Bitcoin, the history of the exchange between gold and currency, and the story of trust at the national level.

Simply put.
"We can't do it if our money is worthless just because the country's credit is down." 　He proposed, "I've come up with a way to create a new currency, so let's all create one together" and then he and many programmers got together to play around with it, but then the rich people started operating it, and things got so big.
Satoshi Nakamoto was disappointed with it and he disappeared.

What an interesting person he was, I thought.
No wonder foreign media is after him and fake Satoshi Nakamoto emerged. “I've come up with this great idea. Won't you try it with me?". I wanted to know what kind of person he was, imagining that he must have recruited his friends with a twinkle in his eyes in the online community.

The paper that started Bitcoin

However, just reading his paper brought me back to reality.
May be this is an illusion....

Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System
https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

"Abstract. A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution. Digital signatures provide part of the solution, but the main benefits are lost if a trusted third party is still required to prevent double-spending. We propose a solution to the double-spending problem using a peer-to-peer network. The network timestamps transactions by hashing them into an ongoing chain of hash-based proof-of-work, forming a record that cannot be changed without redoing the proof-of-work. The longest chain not only serves as proof of the sequence of events witnessed, but proof that it came from the largest pool of CPU power. As long as a majority of CPU power is controlled by nodes that are not cooperating to attack the network, they'll generate the longest chain and outpace attackers. The network itself requires minimal structure. Messages are broadcast on a best effort basis, and nodes can leave and rejoin the network at will, accepting the longest proof-of-work chain as proof of what happened while they were gone."

What is double spending problem on the electronic cash system?

Frankly, I felt as if the illusion had been shattered, but then I reconsidered and looked up what the problem of double spending was. It seems to be an essential issue when operating an electronic cash system. Here is the problem that actually happened.

スマホ決済で二重決済や勝手な口座引き落としが相次ぐ、市場拡大にブレーキの恐れ

The news is that the Japanese electronic cash service LINE pay caused 25,000 double payments.

The direct cause was a system failure at the operator, LINE Pay. According to the company, LINE Pay card sales data from the credit card companies is imported once a day, and the increase or decrease of the charge balance is processed by comparing it with the data at the time of payment. Originally, on November 26, 2021, the sales data recorded on the 25th, the day before, had to be imported and processed.

What are Satoshi Nakamoto's thoughts?

This does not happen with cash. You cannot make copies, because you have the bills and coins on your hand. So, I think Satoshi Nakamoto thought, "The reason why this kind of mistake happens with electronic money is because there is no digital signature for each unit of currency.” That is why this paper is titled "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System, I think. What I am trying to say is that Satoshi Nakamoto just wanted to solve the problem of double spending related to electronic cash.

It did not seem to me that he wrote this paper with such a grand dream of creating a new currency and changing society. I just think that he came up with this kind of technology and wanted to demonstrate it by asking for everyone's cooperation.

I've recently become interested in virtual currency and have read only a few books, so nothing is beyond my imagination. However, the blockchain technology he advocated is spreading not only to virtual currency but also to NFT and Web3, and although people say it is not suitable for handling personal information, I have already seen this technology being implemented in some financial institutions. I think this is the state he wanted to be in.

Writing this article, I am thinking about the engineering community, which has a culture of sharing knowledge and expertise.