A Long Secret Bitcoin Key Is About to Be Revealed

No, it's not the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, it's a private key the cryptocurrency's creator entrusted to several bitcoin developers that activates the protocol's so-called "alert system," once used to flash a text warning to those running the software in case something happened that could impact the security of their funds.

If you didn't know bitcoin had a warning system like this, that's because it was retired in 2016 due to security concerns and frequent confusion about its use.

"The alert system was a frequent source of misunderstanding about the security model and 'effective governance,'" well-known Bitcoin Core contributor Greg Maxwell wrote in a public email from September 2016.

In short, some in the bitcoin community thought it could be used to change that network rules that unite users, which isn't really the case. For example, a BitcoinJ developer once wanted to use the key to control fees, while a Bloq staffer pressed for Bitcoin Core developers to use the key to change the network's mining difficulty.

Plus, developers were worried that if the wrong person got ahold of the key, they could broadcast false messages or potentially cause panic.

As such, to some, the reveal – being undertaken by Bitcoin Core contributor Bryan Bishop – is a long time coming.

"Folks, it's going to be an interesting show," Bishop tweeted, followed by a string of tweets cryptographically proving he's in possession of the secret key, without fully revealing it quite yet.

The reveal is the final step to destroying the system. After Bitcoin Core developers released new code in 2016 without the alert system, in January 2017, a "final alert message" was broadcast, which – by law of the code – made that message unable to be overridden by any other messages in the future.