Bitcoin Pioneer Adam Back Wants Much More Than Digital Gold

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Blockstream CEO Dr. Adam Back, a British computer scientist, is a bitcoin pioneer who has been communicating with Satoshi Nakamoto since before the pseudonymous bitcoin creator wrote his seminal white paper in 2008. While Satoshi stepped away more than a decade ago, Back continues to work on the chain through Bitcoin development company Blockstream.

Now, fresh off of a $210 million convertible note fundraise, Back has big plans to bring everything from professional-grade trading to stablecoins to Bitcoin.

Oh, and he also does not think that it matters anymore whether Satoshi ever comes back.

“I don’t think it matters whether Satoshi comes back,” Back told me in an interview earlier this week. “I think the community has taken ownership of bitcoin for for 12, 13 years now. It’s decentralized.”

Back’s comments come as bitcoin fiyatı had a late October (Uptober) surge that pushed the asset past $73,000 for the first time since March. The burst coincided with growing expectations of a victory for former president Donald Trump in the election on Tuesday, who has come out as a major crypto supporter after castigating the industry years ago.

According to the prediction betting site Polymaket, the odds of a return to office for the 45th president are now at 61%. But are these sentiments accurate?

Recent reporting has suggested that Polymarket is rife with wash trading and that the recent boost in Trump’s chances is largely due to the bets of a very small percentage of large traders. But here is the good news.

For as much talk as there has been about what either candidate has said or not said about crypto, it may not matter much for the industry’s trajectory over the long term. The $2.4 trillion industry has proven itself to be antifragile in the face of legislative uncertainty and a regulatory climate that has varied from cloudy to outright hostile. Either through the courts or laws, clarity is coming. And the industry will be better off for it.