Introduction
In the vast universe of digital currencies, Satoshi Nakamoto—the creator of Bitcoin—is undoubtedly the most mysterious figure. Like a modern myth, he left behind an invention that reshaped the world, then vanished into the mist of history. However, when we peel away the layers and trace the deep structures of mathematics, logic, and culture, a shocking inference begins to surface: the true creator of Bitcoin may, in fact, be the genius who brought non-cooperative game theory to its pinnacle—John Nash. This is not merely an intellectual adventure, but a profound exploration of rational spirit itself.
From the deep structures of mathematics, logic, and culture, the creator of Bitcoin—Satoshi Nakamoto—is very likely the embodiment of modern rational spirit himself: John Nash.
Throughout his life, Nash was deeply influenced by Eastern philosophy, especially by the Shinto idea of “self-generating order.” This belief in the spontaneous emergence of order aligns perfectly with the cultural imagery of the Japanese-style pseudonym “Satoshi Nakamoto.”
During his time at MIT, Nash deliberately emulated Norbert Wiener—the father of cybernetics—by studying parallel control systems and turbulence models based on collision functions. This period laid the foundation for his later understanding of distributed stability in complex systems.
Nash’s most important mathematical contribution—the embedding theorem—achieved a unification between Euclidean and Riemannian geometry. Logically, this abstraction corresponds to his attempt to integrate the formal reasoning of Turing machines with non-formal intuitive judgment.
Furthermore, Nash’s work in partial differential equations—particularly on the stability and regularity of nonlinear elliptic equations—provided the analytical framework for “solvability in elliptic structures.”
Although this formally differs from Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), at a higher structural level, both point to the same conceptual core: achieving local-to-global reversible mapping through elliptic symmetry.
Bitcoin is built upon precisely such an elliptic structure. Through the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA), it establishes a mathematically grounded form of “reversible trust” within a globally distributed system.
In 1993, Nash proposed the Layered Introspective Structure as a revision of Turing’s ordinal logic system.
This system unifies formal logic, oracle judgment, and game-theoretic equilibrium within a recursive and self-reflective hierarchy. It describes a logical machine capable of self-verification, continuous evolution, and global convergence—precisely the scientific-philosophical prototype of the Bitcoin node network.
Bitcoin’s consensus mechanism is the natural extension of Nash’s non-cooperative game theory. Within this system, each node maximizes its own benefit, yet the overall outcome automatically converges to a stable equilibrium.
Nash not only created non-cooperative game theory but also inherited the intellectual lineage of Princeton—Turing, von Neumann, Gödel—making him the only thinker capable of merging computability, logical completeness, and economic incentives into one unified system.
When Nash received the Nobel Prize in 1994, he remarked:
“I want to make up for the 25 years I lost.”
After that, he published no further academic work. However, the Layered Introspective Structure (1993) marked a pivotal turning point in his thought. From this, one may infer that between 1994 and 2015, Nash was secretly building a system unifying logic and game theory—the conceptual prototype of Bitcoin.
From a global knowledge perspective, only Nash possessed all the theoretical components required to create Bitcoin:
formal logic, non-cooperative game theory, nonlinear dynamics, and the philosophy of spontaneous order.
Bitcoin is not the creation of an engineer—it is the final world experiment of a philosopher-mathematician. Thus, Satoshi Nakamoto is not a name, but a manifestation—the ultimate rational testament John Nash left to humanity.
