According to Wikipedia’s account of Gavin Andresen’s early role in Bitcoin, in September 2010 Satoshi Nakamoto privately told Andresen he was working on other projects:
In September 2010, Nakamoto told Andresen he was working on other projects, and over the next few months, he gave Andresen control of the SourceForge code repository, and the project’s “alert key” as well.
This September 2010 communication is the earliest documented signal of Satoshi’s intent to step back from active leadership of Bitcoin. The exact date within September is not preserved in the public record, and the message itself has not been published verbatim. The fact is referenced in Andresen’s later interviews; the biographical entry on Andresen in this archive likewise notes that “by approximately September–October 2010, Satoshi granted him commit access to the Bitcoin source code repository on SourceForge, along with the network alert key.”
The September signal preceded by three months the more visible transition events:
- December 3, 2010: Satoshi recommended Andresen to Martti Malmi — “It should be Gavin. I trust him, he’s responsible, professional…”
- December 12, 2010: Formal SVN handover and Satoshi’s last public BitcoinTalk post closing with “I plan to pass the baton.”
- December 19, 2010: Andresen’s public acceptance of the project-management role.
- April 26, 2011: Final email to Andresen (alert-key handover).
Recognizing September 2010 as the chronological start of the documented withdrawal — rather than December 2010 — substantively shapes how the December events read. The “pass the baton” line on December 12 is not a sudden announcement but the public conclusion of a transition that had been underway privately for three months.