Scott Stornetta expressed admiration for Bitcoin’s achievements and criticism of its perceived limitations
Ivan Popovych/Shutterstock and Adobe modified by Blockworks
This is a segment from the Supply Shock newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe.
A physicist and researcher cited three times in Satoshi Nakamoto’s seminal white paper for his work on digital timestamping is speaking out on the subject of Bitcoin.
Scott Stornetta, better known as W. Scott Stornetta, sat down with Blockworks for an episode of the Supply Shock podcast this week, where he discussed his work inventing blockchain record-keeping with Stuart Haber.
In an interview with host Pete Rizzo, Stornetta expressed both admiration for Bitcoin’s achievements and criticism of its perceived limitations, offering insights into how he believes Satoshi discovered Bitcoin and how it could evolve further.
Stornetta says he first learned about Bitcoin in an unusual way — through unsolicited emails and letters from strangers asking if he was Satoshi Nakamoto (a claim he continues to deny).
While Stornetta praised Nakamoto for brilliantly melding his blockchain concept with a financial system, he admitted feeling let down by his execution in some areas.
“If you read the title [of the white paper], you realize it’s not truly peer-to-peer,” he said, pointing out that mining incentives quickly lead to economies of scale that make the performance of certain protocol functions cost prohibitive.
He also critiqued Bitcoin’s claim to be “cash,” arguing that its traceability undermines its ability to function as true digital money. “What we were looking for was a kind of atomic decentralization,” he said, “something that carried its credential[s] with it. Whereas what we have here is still in effect a single database [that is] widely distributed.”
Despite his critiques, as well as the decade of failed attempts to improve on Bitcoin, Stornetta remains optimistic about the future of cryptocurrency and blockchain broadly, and offered thoughts on smart contract execution blockchains like Ethereum and Solana, as well as use cases like NFTs and stablecoins more generally.
He also discussed his most recent work on SureMark Digital, an AI deepfake protection service that builds on his pioneering work in immutable records.
Text for this article was produced in part with an AI-enabled tool and was subject to verification and edits by Blockworks staff prior to publication.
Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:
- Blockworks Daily: The newsletter that helps thousands of investors understand crypto and the markets, by Byron Gilliam.
- Empire: Start your morning with the top news and analysis to inform your day in crypto.
- Forward Guidance: Reporting and analysis on the growing intersection of crypto and macroeconomics, policy and finance.
- 0xResearch: Alpha directly in your inbox. Market highlights, data, degen trade ideas, governance updates, token performance and more.
- Lightspeed: Built for Solana investors, developers and community members. The latest from one of crypto’s hottest networks.
- The Drop: For crypto collectors and traders, covering apps, games, memes and more.
- Supply Shock: Tracking Bitcoin’s rise from internet plaything worth less than a penny to global phenomenon disrupting money as we know it.
Industry City | Brooklyn, NY
TUES – THURS, JUNE 24 – 26, 2025
Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.
Mon – Wed, October 13 – 15, 2025
Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.
Research
Utilizing a ‘DeFi Mullet’ approach, Coinbase’s Bitcoin-backed loans integration with Morpho demonstrates a powerful blueprint for CEXs to monetize dormant assets by expanding adoption of wrapped products (cbBTC, USDC) while also supporting native and/or preferred DeFi ecosystems (Base) which can further lead to downstream growth in onchain liquidity and increased utilization of the related assets.
news
Breaking headlines across our core coverage categories.
BTC’s price went down, but institutions were buying the dip at “astounding” levels
Markets recoiled on Trump’s tariff talk, and crypto’s resilience was short-lived
Over 70 public companies already hold bitcoin, including Tesla and Block, though for some major tech stocks, this pivot might be easier than others…
The S&P 500 quickly erased gains spurred by optimism that President Trump may push back the start date for his new tariff policies
A new report from Centrifuge and Keyrock sets out the bull, bear and base cases for tokenized private credit and RWAs.
Exploring theories behind April 5, Satoshi’s cryptic “birth date” – and potential clues about his real age
