About Satoshi Mail
Every email, forum post and commit by Satoshi Nakamoto in a Gmail-style archive, with Satoshipedia and a map of his connections and timeline, 2008–2011.
Satoshi Mail is in beta and still in development. It was founded and made by Tyler Howell (@TylerHowell88), and it is open source under the MIT license: source code on GitHub.
What's here
- 403 conversations: mailing lists, BitcoinTalk, the P2P Foundation and Satoshi's private email, with the replies around his messages.
- 203 commits Satoshi made to Bitcoin's source code, each with its diff.
- Satoshipedia: 52 articles on the people and events, linked to the messages they draw on.
- Satoshi Map: everyone he corresponded with, and his timeline from 2008 to 2011.
Sources
Emails and forum posts from the Satoshi Nakamoto Institute; private correspondence from nakamoto-archive; commits from Bitcoin Core; the white paper from bitcoin.org. The archive was cross-checked against Blocktrainer's archive and satoshin.name, the Satoshi Nakamoto Archive: every message in either is also here. Satoshipedia's articles were written with AI assistance and cite their sources, including Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Why I built Satoshi Mail
Satoshi Nakamoto's emails and forum posts are some of the most important writing in Bitcoin's history, but they're spread across archives, PDF exhibits and old mailing lists. I built Satoshi Mail so anyone can read them the way he would have: in one inbox, in order, with the replies around them. It was inspired by Luke Igel and Riley Walz's Jmail. It's open source, and every message links back to where it came from.
— Tyler Howell, founder (@TylerHowell88)
How Satoshi Mail is made
- Messages are copied exactly, never rewritten. They come from the Satoshi Nakamoto Institute, nakamoto-archive, the Bitcoin Core repository, bitcoin.org, and correspondents' own copies filed as court evidence. Each one links to its original.
- Everything is cross-checked against Blocktrainer's archive and satoshin.name. Dates are corrected only from a correspondent's own copy, and the date as originally sent is kept beside it.
- Other people's privacy comes first. Private addresses, phone numbers and similar details of people who wrote to Satoshi are removed.
- Satoshipedia is written with AI assistance, from the sources listed at the end of each article, and published by Tyler Howell. Quotations come from the archive. On Satoshi's identity it reports who has been named, by whom and how they responded, without taking a side.
- Anyone can verify the archive. Every message has a SHA-256 fingerprint, and the list of fingerprints is timestamped in the Bitcoin blockchain (see Verify).
- Corrections are welcome and are listed in the Update log.
- Independent. No ads, no sponsors, no tracking cookies. Satoshi Mail isn't affiliated with Google, the Satoshi Nakamoto Institute or any other source.
Contact and corrections
Found a mistake, a missing message or a broken link? Email itstylerhowell@gmail.com (address: itstylerhowell@gmail.com) or post to @TylerHowell88 on X.
Licenses and terms
The code and design of Satoshi Mail, Satoshipedia and Satoshi Map are open source under the MIT license. Satoshipedia's article text is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. The archive itself keeps each source's own terms:
| Material | Where it comes from | Terms |
|---|---|---|
| Satoshi's emails and forum posts, and the replies around them | Satoshi Nakamoto Institute | Much of the Institute's content is CC BY-SA 4.0; library documents vary. Each message links to its source. |
| Private correspondence and source files | nakamoto-archive | See that repository; each file lists its original source. |
| Satoshi's commits and their diffs | bitcoin/bitcoin | MIT (Bitcoin Core's license). |
| The white paper | bitcoin.org | See bitcoin.org. |
| Satoshipedia article text | Written for this project, summarising and quoting Wikipedia and the sources above | Shared under CC BY-SA 4.0, because it draws on Wikipedia. |
| Nicholas Bohm's emails with Satoshi | Exhibit NB1 to his witness statement in COPA v Wright, republished on GitHub | Court-disclosed correspondence. Bohm's postal address, telephone numbers, IP address and machine name are removed. |
| Forum staff-board topics (2009) | bitcointalk.org/first_topics | Published by the forum as PDF files. |
| Court records | [COPA v Wright, [2024] EWHC 1198 (Ch)](https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewhc/ch/2024/1198); Kleiman v. Wright (S.D. Fla., 9:18-cv-80176) | Cited in Satoshipedia; public court records. |
| satoshin.name cross-check | Satoshi Nakamoto Archive | Only links to its pages (tools/satoshipedia/satoshin_xref.json) and comparison figures are included. tools/satoshin.py crawls it politely for local use; it publishes no reuse licence. |
| Blocktrainer cross-check | Blocktrainer's archive | Only links and comparison figures are included. tools/blocktrainer.py downloads its data for local use; it publishes no reuse licence, so ask Blocktrainer before republishing its German translations. |
The same list is in NOTICE.md.