Bitcoin Early Adopter Gave Away BTC Worth $100M: The Endless Dilemma

Jeff Garzik, one of the earliest Bitcoin developers who started writing code for Bitcoin in July 2010, stated that he had given away 15,678 BTC (worth over $100 million) for developer bounties seven years ago.

No regrets at all

Mr. Garzik stated that he has “no regrets at all” about the giveaway as he was donating his millions-worth of

BTC for the sake of Bitcoin’s future. According to him, what matters is that Bitcoin is still around.

The Bitcoin pioneer, who is known as the third-largest contributor for the Bitcoin’s code by date, stated that ten

years after the birth of the leading cryptocurrency – he is proud of Bitcoin, even though the digital currency has not precisely become what he had envisioned.

 

“As a father, I enjoy watching my kids grow up, even as they make mistakes or grow in ways that I wouldn’t expect,” he said.

Working tight with Satoshi

During the initial period of the crypto era, Garzik worked with the anonymous Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, communicating with him via private emails as well as on Bitcointalk until Satoshi disappeared in 2011.

Since he had disappeared, the crypto community – but even mainstream media outlets – has been actively searching for the real identity of the Bitcoin creator. There have been claims suggesting different persons as “the real Satoshi Nakamoto,” including the cryptographic pioneer Hal Finney, smart contracts creator Nick Szabo, the Japanese-American man Dorian Nakamoto, Australian academic Craig Wright, but even Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk.

Despite the rumors, no real proof yet to show that any of the people listed above is the real Satoshi. However, Garzik has a new theory on this:

“My theory is that it’s Floridian Dave Kleiman. It matches his coding style; this gentleman was self-taught. And the Bitcoin coder was someone who was very, very smart, but not a classically trained software engineer,” the Bitcoin pioneer stated.

Mr. Kleiman, a former Florida sheriff’s officer who continued his career as a computer forensics experts, deceased in 2013. Since then, the Australian academic Craig Wright – who we mentioned earlier as one of the possible identities for Satoshi Nakamoto – has been in a legal fight with Mr. Kleiman’s estate for allegedly seizing billions of dollars’ worth of BTC as well as intellectual property from the former Florida sheriff’s officer. Mr. Wright denied this claim.

The early day’s dilemma: Giveaway or ‘no value’ risk?

In Bitcoin’s early stages the developers – who have accumulated a nice amount of BTC – had to choose between two options: giving away a part of their digital currency funds for bounties to support the development and contributors for the newborn coin or risk the possibility that Bitcoin will face no future value.

What if early adopters like Garzik didn’t donate any of their BTC funds to incentivize devs? Would Bitcoin still be as popular as today? How would this community-based decision affect the value of the cryptocurrency? Strengthen the community? Would have been any significant flaws, such as malicious attacks, or multiple splits in the community? These are the questions we can’t surely know how to answer.