Wild Bitcoin conspiracy theories: are we all being spied on?
Earlier this week we witnessed the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain experiencing its third block reward halving. From that moment on Bitcoin miners get 6.25 BTC per block rather than the 12.5 BTC they acquired before the halving.
For many, the news about Bitcoin halving marks the very first foray into the world of cryptocurrency simply because, well, it’s been talked about in the news everywhere.
Searching the world wide web about cryptos and especially Bitcoin, there’s a lot of ‘crazy’ information one can discover. But, as we all know, sorting facts from opinion and the downright crazy on the internet can be a hard task and sometimes hilarious task - especially when it comes to crypto.
Added to that, Bitcoin over its time of existence, has consistently been involved in wide-ranging predictions and plethora of conspiracy theories. The mysterious origins of the cryptocurrency have sparked the imagination of theorists and will probably continue to do so for years to come.
Even though the conspiracy theories are highly improbable, they are pretty humorous, to say the least. Entire books have been written about them, so as we celebrate another milestone for Bitcoin, we thought we’d brighten up your day with some of the most bizarre conspiracies we’ve found so far!
The NSA is behind it all
The NSA Bitcoin conspiracy claims that the National Security Agency (NSA) invented the SHA-256 algorithm which is the mathematical protocol that BTC’s Proof-of-Work system functions within. This theory surfaced back in 2013 after the revelations that the NSA is spying, or at least has the capabilities to spy, on all mobile web activity via a built-in backdoor. Believers in this theory claim that it’s possible the NSA installed a similar backdoor algorithm within the SHA-256 protocol.
This theory does not hold up well though considering that SHA-256 is an open-algorithm that the best cryptographers in the world have examined for over seventeen years without discovering flaws.
The One World Currency
A different story conspiracy theorists have up their sleeves is the “One World Currency” scheme. Some believe that the whole globe will share one single currency, likely owned by the Rothschilds and the Bilderberg group. The one world currency will be trackable, and everyone on the globe will likely be forced to use these funds. That’s where Bitcoin comes in, and some speculators believe that because the blockchain is traceable and the technology is part of the ‘cashless society’ paradigm shift — Bitcoin will be the one world currency.
AI Satoshi
Bitcoin contains 31 thousand lines of coding and by professional coders this isn’t a large amount. To put this into perspective, Windows has 50 million lines of code. However, the quality of the coding and impact of the technology has led some Bitcoiners to believe that Bitcoin was actually developed by Artificial Intelligence.
There are plenty of Bitcointalk discussions regarding the probability of this theory but to date, no hard evidence has surfaced, and it’s hard to imagine someone could program an AI so advanced. Despite the lack of evidence, this conspiracy theory will still exist in the minds of many Bitcoiners until Satoshi Nakamoto comes forward, if he or she or even them ever does.
Governments are buying all the Bitcoin
According to believers of this theory, governments around the world are secretly buying up all of the Bitcoin in the world. Although it’s difficult to prove precisely how much BTC governments own, there has been an uptick in crypto confiscations. These confiscations have led to some serious funding boosts for the countries involved. There is a list of countries, including the US, which isn’t officially storing BTC but has made millions from selling confiscated coins.
Taking a step even further, some Bitcoin conspiracy theorists have long suspected the U.S. government, among others, would actually like to shut down Bitcoin. This idea has been fueled by the claims that the U.S. attorney’s office did actually look into shutting it down in 2012.
Whatever the future holds for the world’s most well known cryptocurrency, we can surely expect to see even more Bitcoin conspiracies develop as the effects of blockchain technology continue to spread globally.
For now though, it’s wise to take these concepts with a big grain of salt. 😊