Last week, my Blockchain for Entrepreneurs class started back up; a 8 week introduction to all the things starting with Bitcoin. I created this course in the Fall of 2021 and it launched as a special topics course at FGCU's School of Entrepreneurship in January of 2022. Since leaving my full time position in 2024, I've kept teaching this course as I didn't want to see it die.
No two semesters have been the same. I've said many times that a student could have taken this class every semester I've taught it and still learned something new each time. The only module that has remained somewhat constant has been Week 1: Bitcoin.
After watching an interview with the documentarians of Finding Satoshi, the latest exploration on the mystery, I decided to add a new assignment for week 1: Who is Satoshi. The online Discussion Assignment reads as follows:
Who do you think is Satoshi Nakamoto? Many have speculated that Adam Back, Hal Finney, Nick Szabo, Len Sassaman, Wei Dai, Peter Todd, Paul Le Roux, Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto, Craig Wright, Jack Dorsey or even Elon Musk could be Satoshi. BUT who do you think it is?
Review the resources found in the Bitcoin Module including the NY Times article and Coindesk interview and do your own research (yes, you may use your favorite ai to assist but please write your own response here and cite all sources) and support your conclusion with those sources.
Answer these questions in a brief but well written response and then reply to a minimum of two classmates:
Who do you think is Satoshi?
Why? cite your sources AND be sure to review biographical information about your choice(s)
Does it matter who it is? why or why not?
If you were Satoshi, would you keep it anonymous? why or why not?
Complete your initial post by Sunday and all replies before class on Monday.
I've been teaching since 2010 and have seen a decline in critical thinking skills long before the launch of ChatGPT. When you've carried the answers to everything in your pocket since near birth, reading seems to be an annoyance to most. I know my reading appetite has declined as well over the years. Where I once read multiple books a month, I maybe read only a couple a year, replaced by blogs, audio books and podcasts.
I know at this point that getting them to read is tough and it was likely they would drop this assignment into their favorite LLM for an answer. And I could tell that most did indeed do that. We also did watch most of the interview in class so at least they would have a baseline.
So I added a part two to this online Discussion -- an in class one. There were essentially two camps that appeared: Those who thought Adam Back was Satoshi and those who thought it was either Hal Finney, Len Sassaman, Nick Szabo, or a combination of these. I broke them into these two groups and had them work in teams to develop their argument.
This was the most interesting part of the assignment -- getting them to support their view. I had to do some coaching, probe, poke holes in their arguments but they got there. And of course at the end both sides were questioning their conclusions because there really isn't a definitive answer.
But that wasn't the point of the assignment anyway. There is no answer, only the thought exercise that provides students unfamiliar and just learning about Bitcoin the opportunity to think about who could have created it, their motives for doing so, and to learn more about the environment from which it was created. And to think about the impact of Bitcoin on technology, finance and entrepreneurship.
So, who do you think Satoshi is? Does it matter?
*Image in header: NakamotoFreedom from The Memes by 6529, cc0, https://opensea.io/item/ethereum/0x33fd426905f149f8376e227d0c9d3340aad17af1/4
Hello dear reader! It's been a minute but I'm committing to getting back to Unpacking with Prof at least weekly. I lost my drive to write for a bit there but I think it's back. Thanks for joining me on this journey. I'll also be publishing these over on Substack if you'd like to follow me there as well.