Blockstream CEO Adam Back stated that Bitcoin should not be viewed as a product invented from scratch by Satoshi Nakamoto alone; its underlying architecture is closer to the result of years of collaboration within the cypherpunk community. According to him, discussions surrounding decentralized digital cash began as early as around 1997 on small mailing lists.

Early ideas emerged as early as 1997.

Back says that the concept of decentralized currency based on proof-of-work had been repeatedly discussed by researchers for years before the Bitcoin white paper was published. At the time, some developers mentioned attempts to "create Bitcoin," but this was more of a general term used within the industry, referring to an independent peer-to-peer digital cash system rather than the Bitcoin network itself as we know it today.

He posted on social media that back in 1997, some people in the industry were already trying to discover or build a kind of "cyber cash" that was not yet named. This means that before Bitcoin appeared, several teams were already exploring in parallel in similar directions.

Hashcash becomes an important foundation

Back noted that Satoshi Nakamoto did not write all the key components of Bitcoin from scratch, but rather continued to advance existing technologies. The most direct example of this is Hashcash. This algorithm was proposed by Back in 1997 and was initially used to combat spam.

Satoshi Nakamoto directly referenced Hashcash in the Bitcoin white paper, citing Back as the source. Back believes that Satoshi Nakamoto's most important historical contribution was not inventing all the modules individually, but rather integrating the decentralized ideas of Adam Back, Hal Finney, Nick Szabo, and others into a working protocol, while simultaneously solving the double-spending problem.

The statement again denied speculation about Satoshi Nakamoto's identity.

Back was previously listed by The New York Times as one of the possible candidates for Satoshi Nakamoto. He once again denied such speculation, saying that the similarity in writing style between different authors was more due to the small circle of communication at the time, resulting in highly similar professional terminology and expressions.

Developer Peter Todd also supports this claim. The report mentions that an HBO documentary previously identified Todd as Satoshi Nakamoto. Todd believes that the media and outside world's continued pursuit of Nakamoto's identity is posing a real security risk to early participants in the industry.