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May 2009 In early May, a few months after Hal Finney’s last messages, Satoshi Nakamoto received an e-mail written in stilted but precise English. “I have a good touch on Java and C languages from school courses (I’m studying CS), but not so very much development experience yet,” read the note, signed Martti Malmi. This was clearly not the voice of a grizzled veteran of the Cypherpunk movement like Hal. But Martti displayed something more important at this point: eagerness. “I would like to help with Bitcoin, if there’s something I can do,” he wrote.
A widespread adoption of such a system sounds like something that could have a devastating effect on the state’s ability to feed on its livestock. What do you think about this? I’m really excited about the thought of something practical that could truly bring us closer to freedom in our lifetime :-) Now we just need some convincing proof that the software and the system work securely enough to be taken into real use.
“The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that’s required to make it work,” Satoshi wrote. “The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust.”
Satoshi quickly gave Martti practical suggestions for how he could help the project. The most important was the simplest: to leave his computer on with the Bitcoin program running.
“Bitcoin forced me to realize I didn’t understand money,” Wences liked to say.
