The inventor of hashcash, a proof-of-work algorithm used in Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) mining, and Blockstream CEO Adam Back thought he missed the boat in 2013 on the apex coin.
What Happened: On the ninth anniversary of Back’s post, Bitcoin Magazine editor Pete Rizzo shared what the cypherpunk said back in the day.
Everyone thinks they're late to #BitcoinBack disclosed in April 2013 that he did not own a single Bitcoin, which he said was “ironic” since bitcoin mining was basically his invention.Even Adam Back pic.twitter.com/ubkhKX6sam
— RIZZO (@pete_rizzo_) April 18, 2022
Back wrote that if he had tried to run a Bitcoin miner in the heydays of the apex coin like Hal Finney, “I may too be sitting on some genesis/bootstrap era coins.”
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Why It Matters: Finney and Back are both persons who have interacted with the pseudonymous creator or creators of Bitcoin — Satoshi Nakamoto. Back denied being Nakamoto in 2020, according to a Bloomberg report.
At the time Back predicted that Bitcoin was slated to reach the $300,000 level. In April 2013, the value of Bitcoin surpassed the $200 mark for the first time. It hit an all-time high of $266 in the same month before plunging to $105, according to a Guardian report.
If Back would have held a single Bitcoin even at the April high, he would have enjoyed a 15215.7% increase by press time when the apex cryptocurrency traded at $40,739.85, according to Benzinga Pro data.
Back said in 2020 that he now keeps the Bitcoin he mines. “I don’t sell them,” he told Bloomberg.
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