We do not know the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto. We don't even know if a single person or a group of researchers and developers was hiding under this pseudonym.
So where does this belief that the NSA could be behind the development of Bitcoin come from?
We find the first clue in the hash algorithm used in Bitcoin: the SHA256.
SHA is a term that designates a family of cryptographic hash functions invented by the NSA, in which we also find the SHA256.
But then if the NSA invented these cryptographic functions and if this agency is known for its espionage even on private citizens, surely there must be some sinister in Bitcoin!
Let's start by saying that many of the technologies we use today have actually been the subject of research by state or parastatal agencies.
An example of this is the Internet, derived from Arpanet, an interconnection network created in 1969 by the Defense of the United States.
And yet we use the Internet, and we can also do it by fighting the censorship imposed by states. Why?
The concept of open source, already analyzed previously, returns.
These are open technologies, realized by actors who could exploit them for anti-ethical purposes but usable by everyone and, above all, analysable.
Returning to the SHA256 it must therefore be said that it is an open standard and that over the years it has been analyzed by hundreds of thousands of researchers and developers.
It therefore becomes unlikely that the NSA has inserted a backdoor in the code and that this has not yet been identified.
In addition to the technical reasons that led to the belief, by someone, that the NSA may be behind the development of Bitcoin, there are also documents that, if poorly analyzed, can lead to certain conclusions.
One above all is HOW TO MAKE A MINT: THE CRYPTOGRAPHY OF ANONYMOUS ELECTRONIC CASH by Laurie Law, Susan Sabett, Jerry Solinas[33].
This is not a whitepaper describing a technology proposed or created by the authors of the document, but it's an interesting study by the NSA on existing technologies, in particular on the critical issues of the cashless monetary system and the tradeoffs of the new electronic cash system.
NSA inventions are not illustrated.
The blind signatures system invented by David Chaum, then applied in eCash, is analyzed, but above all the term Electronic Cash is well described which, as in Bitcoin, indicates the portability of the concept of material cash in the digital world, with all due respect of those who still believe that cash means only "spendable money" and therefore oppose it to the concept of Store of Value.
With hindsight it's interesting to see that there was not so much to get to Bitcoin and that the tradeoffs and the criticalities illustrated here could be solved with the "simple" decentralization of the system.