Bitcoin Turns 18; Will Satoshi's Legacy Stand the Test of Time?

Eighteen years ago, on October 31, 2008, an unknown individual or group under the name Satoshi Nakamoto published a nine-page document intended to change the way money is transferred over the internet. The Bitcoin whitepaper titled "Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System" proposed an idea where financial transactions could occur without the need for banks or trusted intermediaries.

According to Mihan Blockchain, now a day has passed since the eighteenth anniversary of the publication of this whitepaper, and Bitcoin has traveled a long path from a small project in the cypherpunk community to becoming one of the largest assets in the world. However, its creator remains missing, millions of Bitcoins attributed to him have not been moved, and many questions about the long-term security of the network, from quantum computing threats to mining economics, remain unanswered.

From a Nine-Page Whitepaper to a Global Network

In his first message about this project, Satoshi wrote: "I am working on a new electronic cash system that is completely peer-to-peer and doesn’t need a trusted third party." The main idea was simple yet revolutionary: computers in a network would verify transactions instead of banks, and through a shared mechanism, prevent double-spending of a Bitcoin.

About two months later, on January 3, 2009, the first block of the Bitcoin network was mined, and Satoshi recorded the headline of a Times newspaper about the possibility of saving banks again with government money in the data of that block; a message that depicted the financial crisis of 2008 and the motivations behind the creation of Bitcoin.

In the early years, Bitcoin was mostly known among technology and cryptography enthusiasts, and many referred to it as a scam or the currency of internet criminals. In 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz paid 10,000 Bitcoins for two pizzas; a transaction that later became one of the most famous events in the history of this market and is known as Bitcoin Pizza Day. The value of that amount of Bitcoin at the time was about $41, but at current prices, it is worth several hundred million dollars.

Bitcoin's growth was not without crises. The bankruptcy of the Mt. Gox exchange in 2014 and the loss of about 850,000 BTC was one of the first major shocks to this industry. Three years later, disagreements over increasing network capacity led to the block size war and ultimately the creation of Bitcoin Cash. During this period, China's bans on initial token offerings and exchange activities put additional pressure on the market.

From Repeated Crashes to Wall Street's Entry

Bitcoin entered one of its largest bull runs during the COVID-19 pandemic, coinciding with massive liquidity injections into the global economy, and in November 2021, the price of Bitcoin reached a record $69,000. However, widespread bans on cryptocurrency-related activities in China and the subsequent bankruptcy of the FTX exchange in November 2022 once again affected investor confidence.

The next milestone occurred in January 2024, when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the first spot Bitcoin ETFs in the country. This decision made it easier for traditional investors to enter the Bitcoin market, and in December of the same year, the price of this asset crossed $100,000 for the first time. Bitcoin also reached a peak of $126,000 in October 2025.

This winding path has transformed Bitcoin from a project aimed at reducing dependence on centralized financial institutions into an asset that now includes major companies like BlackRock in its market. However, this institutional interest has raised concerns among some of Bitcoin's early supporters; they believe that the concentration of a large amount of Bitcoin in the hands of financial institutions could contradict the network's original ideals of distributing power and eliminating intermediaries.

Where is Satoshi and What is the Fate of His $85 Billion Bitcoin?

Despite 18 years since the publication of the white paper, no one knows who Satoshi Nakamoto really is. He disappeared from the public eye in 2010, and since then, despite various claims about his identity, no one has been able to credibly prove they are the creator of Bitcoin. One of the most controversial claims was made by Craig Wright, but the High Court of the UK rejected it in 2024.

However, the story of Satoshi does not end with his unknown identity. According to researchers' estimates, about 1.1 million BTC are held in wallets attributed to an early miner, likely Satoshi himself. This amount of Bitcoin is worth approximately $85 billion at current prices; a vast fortune that has shown no signs of movement for nearly two decades.

It is still unclear who holds the private keys to these wallets or if anyone has access to them at all. For this reason, if one day these Bitcoins are moved, the market is likely to react.

What Threats Does Bitcoin Face at 18 Years Old?

The anonymity of Satoshi is not the only major ambiguity surrounding Bitcoin. One serious concern about the future of this network is the advancement of quantum computing. Some researchers warn that sufficiently powerful quantum computers may be able to break some of the cryptographic mechanisms used by Bitcoin in the future, jeopardizing the security of assets. To counter this possibility, proposals like BIP-360 have been suggested; however, any changes to the Bitcoin structure must be approved and supported by a large portion of the network's community.

Artificial intelligence has also made its way into Bitcoin's history. Just this month, a developer used the Claude model to recreate a version of Bitcoin software from 2009 that matched byte-for-byte with the remaining version from that era. However, the original software that Satoshi used to launch the network has still not been found. In a separate project, Claude also helped investigate mysterious numbers in cryptographic standards released by the National Security Agency (NSA), providing clues about their origins. None of these investigations indicate a security flaw in Bitcoin, but they show that AI tools now allow for a more detailed examination of the codes and old puzzles of this network.

Alongside these technical threats, an economic question also impacts Bitcoin's future: When the mining rewards decrease in future halvings, what will incentivize miners to continue their activities and secure the network? With the reduction in block rewards, transaction fees are expected to gradually make up a larger share of miners' income; however, current statistics are not very promising. Fees accounted for only 0.67% of miners' income in the 90 days leading up to October 4. This means the network is still far from the day when it can cover a significant portion of its security costs from transaction fees.

Over the past 18 years, Bitcoin has repeatedly approached the brink of crisis, yet it has continued on its path each time. Now, this network is no longer an unknown project in a corner of the internet and has made its way into traditional financial markets. However, its future depends not only on price and acceptance but also on security against new technologies and maintaining the economic incentive for miners, which are issues Bitcoin must find solutions for.