The Eastern European nation of Hungary has unveiled a statue in honor of Bitcoin creator(s) Satoshi Nakamoto. Despite a 12-year-long life span that has seen Bitcoin become one of the most revolutionary and disruptive inventions of all time, the true identity of its pseudonymous creator remains unknown.
BREAKING: Hungary just debuted its statue in honor of #Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto ðŸ‡ðŸ‡º pic.twitter.com/IZpXlD9or0
— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) September 16, 2021
For many years now, Internet culture has adopted an image of Californian resident Dorian Nakamoto as a placeholder for Bitcoin’s creator due to a news article released in 2014. However, Dorian Nakamoto has vehemently denied the claims, and additional evidence that has arisen since suggests it unlikely that he was the creator.
In lieu of a lack of visual evidence or identifying characteristics, Hungarian sculptors Gergely Réka and Tamás Gilly forged the statue to exhibit non-specific features with a reflective surface. This was done in order for people to see themselves in the statue and highlight the commonly held theme within the crypto community that “We are all Satoshi.”
In addition to this, the statue dons a dark, hooded jumper – a common clothing aesthetic associated with the underground coding and cryptography community. Flying in the face of recent criticism from US senator Elizabeth Warren painting crypto community members as “shadowy, faceless super coders”, the Nakamoto statue embraces these comments.
A large crowd turned out to watch the revealing of the statue, indicating the far-reaching and strong support for Bitcoin in some of the world’s lesser-known nations. As the first statue of its kind to be installed anywhere in the world, the momentous occasion is sure to cement Hungary’s place in the history of cryptocurrency.
