Speaking of deniability, one of the things that must of concerned was whether there was something buried deep in the laws which says that only government is allowed to create legal currency, and people offering alternatives would be faced with fines and/or jail terms! Even today we need to be concerned about this issue in various countries, some of which have already gone public to remind people that only the government is allowed to create currencies.

RE: “Just think it would be a REALLY interesting story if the guy who's proto-bitcoin idea sparked the whole thing didn't even have any bitcoin …”
COMMENT: That’s me. I was studying the technology, and even gave books to friends back in 2015, and all the time I never thought of buying any (for one thing I was "all in" at the stock market). My only wish was to use some bitcoin to send remittance payments to relatives and escape Western Union’s heavy fees. That was my only interest in Bitcoin; despite having a much better understanding of what was being promised than most people (due to my background). It’s only late 2017, i decided to get some!

However, as an old-time stock market trader, i know full well that even people buying in at $20,000+ today may get very rich off bitcoin in years ahead! So I’me very happy with just a few hundred already "thrown away" into buying some bitcoin!

Re. Szabo, it is a real lesson in history to hear him talk about money thousands of years ago. So he must have thought very deeply about what was involved.

What would be cute is someone making a movie (or even a documentary) in which Szabo (and the few around him) ARE fingered as being “Satoshi”; but with no legally binding trace from the documentary/movie to those particular guys. Max Keiser is also “rotten rich” with coins, so he might want to make such a movie.

Cheers!