Departure of Satoshi Nakamoto
From Satoshipedia, the Satoshi Mail encyclopedia
Satoshi withdrew from Bitcoin gradually between December 2010 and April 2011, handing the project to Gavin Andresen and other developers.
Last public activity
His last forum post, on 12 December 2010, announced version 0.3.19 and its denial-of-service limits (the post). It came a day after his warning that “WikiLeaks has kicked the hornet's nest” (WikiLeaks and Bitcoin). His last commit followed on 15 December (r202).
Last emails
He kept writing privately into 2011. To Mike Hearn, on 23 April 2011: “I've moved on to other things. It's in good hands with Gavin and everyone.” (the email). To Andresen, on 26 April 2011, with the alert key: “I've moved on to other things and will probably be unavailable.” (the email). This archive holds no later email from him.
Timeline
- 10 January 2009 – Last email to Wei Dai: Citation of your b-money page
- 10 January 2009 – Last email to Adam Back: Citation of your Hashcash paper
- 24 January 2009 – Last email to Hal Finney: Re: disk full
- 25 January 2009 – Last email to Dustin Trammell: Re: Bitcoin v0.1 released
- 21 July 2009 – Last email to Nicholas Bohm: Bitcoin
- 4 March 2010 – Email to Jon Matonis
- 17 May 2010 – Email to Laszlo Hanyecz
- 12 December 2010 – Last forum post: Added some DoS limits, removed safe mode (0.3.19)
- 13 December 2010 – Last mailing-list email: [bitcoin-list] Bitcoin 0.3.19 is released
- 15 December 2010 – Last commit: get external ip from irc
- 22 February 2011 – Last email to Martti Malmi: Re: 0.3.20 release : shipped
- 23 April 2011 – Last email to Mike Hearn: Holding coins in an unspendable state for a rolling time window
- 26 April 2011 – Email to Gavin Andresen
Live, interactive version: open in Satoshi Mail.
See also
Primary sources
The messages and commits this article draws on, in Satoshi Mail and where they were first published.
- Added some DoS limits, removed safe mode (0.3.19), BitcoinTalk forum, 12 December 2010. Original source
- get external ip from irc, commit by Satoshi Nakamoto, 15 December 2010. Original on GitHub
- Holding coins in an unspendable state for a rolling time window, Private email with Mike Hearn, 20 April 2011. Original source
- Email to Gavin Andresen, Single emails to Gavin Andresen, Jon Matonis and Laszlo Hanyecz, 26 April 2011. Original source
Published by Tyler Howell for Satoshi Mail. Written with AI assistance from the sources listed above and checked against them. Last updated 22 October 2026. Spotted an error? Email itstylerhowell@gmail.com (how articles are made).
Categories: Events · Satoshi Nakamoto