The origins of covid-19 remain unknown. Most scientists think it jumped from wild animals to humans at a meat market in Wuhan. But it is also possible it escaped from a virology research lab in the same city. Now a similar argument has broken out around bitcoin, the first and most used cryptocurrency. Bitcoin’s accepted origin is that it was invented by Satoshi Nakamoto, a pseudonymous coder, who published a paper describing it in 2008 before later vanishing from sight.
But the paper is more smoke than gun. It is merely a survey of cryptographic ideas that might be used in digital cash. Unlike bitcoin, whose big innovation was its decentralised design, the schemes in the paper rely on an overseeing authority. It discusses the risks that electronic cash would pose to taxation and law enforcement.