On Nov. 15, 2022, a post was created on the forum website bitcointalk.org and the thread’s creator asked people to share signatures tied to some of their oldest mined bitcoin blocks. 11 days later, a newly created bitcointalk.org profile, called “Onesignature,” shared a signed message tethered to an extremely old block reward created on Jan. 19, 2009. The key was associated with bitcoin block 1,018 which was created 16 days after Satoshi Nakamoto launched the network.
Mysterious person signs a message attached to a block reward created on Jan 19, 2009
An anonymous bitcointalk.org user known as “onesignature” signed a message associated with bitcoin block 1,018, the oldest bitcoin block reward created on January 19, 2009. Block signing was discovered by the owner of bitcoin.org. The pseudonymous character became known as “Cobra”. Cobra tweeted, “A user ‘OneSignature’ has appeared and posted a signature for a key associated with block #1,018.” “For reference, there are probably only a handful of people in the world who can sign with a January 2009 key,” Cobra couple,
The bitcointalk.org post shows the user Onesignature’s shared signed message was a bitcoin address that was first seen on Dec. 2, 2022. The BTC address “1E9Yw” has seen a few dust transactions sent to the wallet since the day it was first seen. The signature (HCsBcgB+Wcm8kOGMH8IpNeg0H4gjCrlqwDf/GlSXphZGBYxm0QkKEPhh9DTJRp2IDNUhVr0FhP9qCqo2W0recNM=) is associated with the bitcoin address “1NChf.” The address held the block reward (1,018) in the wallet up until June 14, 2011.
Furthermore, a user found that the mined coins transferred in 2011 also contained “private keys of addresses mined earlier than the above”. The post led people to wonder whether the user OneSignature was in fact Satoshi Nakamoto, but Cobra elaborated on Twitter that the address was not the “Patoshi Block”, a block associated with the creator of bitcoin, and commented that it “appears to be Satoshi Nakamoto”. Wasn’t likely.”
“While many people *could* have mined Bitcoin that early, the overwhelming evidence suggests that barely anybody did,” Cobra added. “Bitcoin was obscure, irrelevant, and seen as a dumb idea, why install some random .exe?” In Cobra’s Twitter thread, the pseudonymous whistleblower known as “Fatman” said the old address could have been purchased from someone later in time. Fatman shared an old bitcointalk.org screenshot that shows someone noting that “many old keys have been sold or leaked.”
Additionally, it was also discovered that a Twitter account exists and it uses the name “”.@onesignature, The Twitter account, also named “Andy”, coincidentally was created in October 2009 and the account’s profile image says “Trust no one.”
In the bitcointalk.org thread, a user also noted that the signed address was associated with a number of block rewards mentioned and photographed in a Forbes article written by Andy Greenberg. The article is about one of Bitcoin’s earliest adopters, Hal Finney. Bitcointalk.org members also speculated that the address was somehow associated with the now-deceased Bitcoin developer.
Responding to Fatman on Friday, Cobra Told that if OneSignature “bought the January 2009 key, they’re going to be inundated with massive offers.” “Someone Trying to Make a Bold Statement,” Cobra couple,
