Adam Back | Crypto

Back said at Paris Blockchain Week that Bitcoin’s post-quantum shift may reveal the true size of the stash held by Satoshi Nakamoto, estimated at between 500,000 and 1 million BTC. Blockstream CEO Adam Back said Thursday that a future post-quantum migration of Bitcoin could help clarify how many coins linked to Satoshi Nakamoto remain accessible, because any owner wanting to protect vulnerable holdings would need to move them to a new address format. Speaking at Paris Blockchain Week, Back said such a migration would likely give users ample time to move funds and argued that coins left unmoved after that process could reasonably be treated as lost. “This migration to post-quantum address format may tell us how many of those coins [Satoshi] still has,” said Back, adding that the pseudonymous creator has an estimated 500,000 to 1 million Bitcoin (BTC). Read more

Back said the safest approach is to build optional upgrades that would allow Bitcoin to migrate to quantum-resistant cryptography once it's needed. Blockstream CEO Adam Back, an early pioneer of the crypto movement, said Bitcoiners should be looking at building quantum-resistant solutions now, even if the threat is still decades away.  “Quantum computing still has a lot to prove. Current systems are essentially lab experiments. I’ve followed the field for over 25 years, and progress has been incremental,” Back said at Paris Blockchain Week on Tuesday. “That said, Bitcoin should prepare,” Back said, adding that the “safest approach” is to build optional upgrades that allow migration to quantum-resistant cryptography if needed. Read more

Another mainstream attempt to identify the creator of Bitcoin has landed on Adam Back, the British cryptographer and Blockstream co-founder. This week, The New York Times published a sprawling investigation arguing that Back is the person behind the Satoshi Nakamoto pseudonym, leaning heavily on stylometric analysis of writing and decades-old online records. Back immediately and […] The post Back to Back: New York Times puts Satoshi target on Adam Back again as $78 billion BTC stash triggers security fears appeared first on CryptoSlate.

A New York Times investigation points to Adam Back as Satoshi Nakamoto, but the Blockstream CEO denies it, and critics say proof is still missing. The New York Times published an investigation on Wednesday arguing that Adam Back, the British cryptographer who invented Hashcash, is the most likely person behind the Satoshi Nakamoto pseudonym used by Bitcoin’s creator. Back denied the claim, telling Cointelegraph he was referring reporters to his post on X after previously rejecting similar attempts to identify him as Satoshi. Back reiterated in the post that he is not Satoshi, adding that he “was early in laser focus on the positive societal implications of cryptography, online privacy and electronic cash, hence my ~1992 onwards active interest in applied research on ecash, privacy tech on cypherpunks list which led to hashcash and other ideas.” The investigation was conducted by John Carreyrou, a French-American investigative journalist best known for exposing the Theranos fraud. In the report, he claims that...

Blockstream's Adam Back said BIP-110 could be used to freeze user funds, but the proposal’s creator argues there are safeguards in place to prevent it. Blockstream CEO Adam Back has opposed a proposal aimed at reducing Ordinals-like “spam” on Bitcoin, warning that the fix could do more harm than good to the network’s credibility. Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP-110) was proposed by pseudonymous Bitcoin developer Dathon Ohm in December. Nearly 7.5% of Bitcoin nodes — all of which are Bitcoin Knots clients — have signaled readiness for BIP-110, according to data. The proposal seeks to temporarily shrink how much data can be stored in Bitcoin transactions to reduce the amount of images, videos, audios and other “data abuse” flooding the network. Read more

Adam Back says Bitcoin faces no meaningful quantum threat for at least the next 20–40 years, adding that NIST-approved post-quantum standards can be adopted in time. Adam Back, the cryptographer and cypherpunk cited in the Bitcoin white paper, said Bitcoin is unlikely to face a meaningful threat from quantum computing for at least two to four decades. Responding to an X user on Nov. 15 who asked whether Bitcoin (BTC) is at risk, Back wrote that “probably not for 20–40 years,” adding that there are already post-quantum encryption standards approved by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) that Bitcoin could implement “long before cryptographically relevant quantum computers arrive.” The discussion began with a user posting a video of Canadian-American venture capitalist and entrepreneur Chamath Palihapitiya, who predicted that the quantum threat to Bitcoin would become a reality in two to five years. He noted that to break SHA-256 — the encryption standard that Bitcoin relies on — quantum c...

Bitcoin’s on-chain activity lit up again as Blockstream CEO Adam Back alerted the Bitcoin community to the return of the so-called “Bitfinex whale.” According to Back, this unknown but powerful entity has been accumulating Bitcoin at a staggering rate, purchasing roughly 300 BTC per day over the past 48 hours using time-weighted average price (TWAP) […] The post Bitfinex whale returns: Adam Back sights massive Bitcoin accumulation appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Cantor Fitzgerald’s blank‑cheque affiliate is in late‑stage talks to acquire more than $3 billion in Bitcoin (BTC) from Adam Back’s Blockstream Capital through a transaction that could exceed $4 billion, the Financial Times reported on July 15.  Cantor Equity Partners 1, a special‑purpose acquisition company that raised $200 million in a January IPO, would issue new shares to Back in exchange for as much as 30,000 BTC. The […] The post Cantor Fitzgerald SPAC nears $4B deal with Blockstream’s Adam Back to amass 30,000 Bitcoin appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Crypto speculators may offset some of their altcoin losses by investing in Bitcoin or BTC treasury firms, according to Hashcash inventor Adam Back. Bitcoin treasury adoption by public companies has become the new altcoin season for cryptocurrency speculators, Adam Back said on Monday. Bitcoin (BTC) treasury season “is the new ALT SZN for speculators,” said Back, co-founder and CEO of Blockstream and the inventor of Hashcash. “Time to dump ALTs into BTC or BTC treasuries,” he added. Bitcoin treasury firms are buying BTC “on repeat to increase Bitcoin per share,” tapping into different funding methods such as convertible note offerings to accumulate more of the world’s first cryptocurrency, making them attractive for investors, Back explained. Read more

Adam Back says that since Strategy typically takes 16 to 18 months to double its Bitcoin per share, the premium on its stock is not "unreasonable.” Blockstream CEO Adam Back says Michael Saylor’s Strategy (MSTR) stock premium is within reason, considering how quickly the firm doubles its Bitcoin per share, which reduces risk for investors. “It turns out in the case of MicroStrategy it’s been 16 months, 18 months,” he told Bitcoin podcaster Stephan Livera at BTC Prague on Saturday, referring to the typical time it takes for Strategy to double its Bitcoin (BTC) per share, noting that the stock has traded at a 2x multiple “on and off.” “So you can see that that’s not an unreasonable premium,” he said. Back explained that if Strategy’s Bitcoin per share keeps growing at the same rate, after about a year and a half, investors “would be at an equivalent” of the market net asset value (mNAV) — meaning the stock price would align with the value of its underlying Bitcoin holdings. Read more

Due to Bitcoin’s volatility, the odds are against those who try to time the market, the Blockstream CEO learned in the early years of Bitcoin. Selling Bitcoin is like “playing in a really bad house-rate casino,” according to Adam Back, CEO of Blockstream and one of Bitcoin’s earliest adopters. In a recent interview with Bitcoin financial services firm Unchained, Back said the odds are stacked against traders trying to time the market. Back came to this conclusion in the early days of Bitcoin, he said, when the price “was going up basically exponentially but it [was] extremely volatile.” “So [...] if you see something that’s going up exponentially but with volatility, if you sell it to time the market a bit falling, the odds are against you,” Back said, adding: Read more

Bitcoin cypherpunk Adam Back has backed a $2.2 million funding round for H100 AB Group to help the Swedish health tech firm buy Bitcoin. Blockstream CEO Adam Back has led a 21 million Swedish krona ($2.2 million) funding round in the Swedish health tech company H100 Group AB, which last week said it would start buying Bitcoin. H100 said on May 25 that the funds, secured through 0% interest convertible loans, will be used to purchase Bitcoin (BTC) in line with its Bitcoin-buying pivot announced on May 22. Back, a longtime Bitcoin cypherpunk, contributed around $1.4 million, while the remaining $800,000 came from investment firms Morten Klein, Alundo Invest AS, Race Venture Scandinavia AB and Crafoord Capital Partners. Read more

Bitcoin OG Adam Back is used to being asked if he’s Satoshi… and has to laugh at some of the crazy conspiracy theories about Blockstream. For a man who many believe could actually be Satoshi, Blockstream CEO Adam Back is surprisingly understanding on the question of normies buying so-called paper Bitcoin via the ETFs. You have to have some empathy for the people who want to buy Bitcoin, but they dont know how to do it, and its too complicated, Back tells Magazine.  There are limits to his tolerance though. You also dont really want 90% of it in ETFs or something because that might start to become a problem, says the London-born, Malta-based cryptographer. Read more