Ripple CTO talks about NSA’s past as Satoshi and CIA theory resurfaces

As speculation resurfaces that the mysterious Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto worked for or was kidnapped by the CIA in the United States, another old story is receiving new attention. Ripple’s chief technology officer (CTO) David Schwartz recalled that he once worked for the National Security Agency (NSA), the intelligence arm of the US Department of Defense.

Three years ago, Schwartz debunked the theory that Satoshi worked for the NSA or CIA when Bitcoin was created, offering his perspective as a former government contractor. At the time, Ripple’s CTO left little doubt that he thought the idea of ​​government-planted Bitcoin was at least plausible, and suggested that it would make sense for the United States to deploy such a system before its adversaries do.

The reminder came after Schwartz’s past received renewed attention after he clarified that he was not exposed to high-level information during his time at the NSA. According to him, most of his role involved making sure the software complied with agency requirements, and he wasn’t even allowed to read it in full.

“It’s pretty boring.”

In his words, one of the only requirements he saw was to ensure that the system could stop processing sensitive data in the event of a loss of control. This was a directive that sounded paradoxical even to him.

Schwartz also told an anecdote about how he learned one of his projects was in use after seeing his work unexpectedly appear on the Discovery Channel. He later explained that the same code was applied for NATO purposes before being applied to the NSA, but its final usage was “pretty boring.”

Asked recently about his confidentiality obligations, Schwartz admitted he didn’t know when or even if his NSA NDA would expire, joking that he never knew the secret to begin with.