In August 2017, Mike Hearn’s complete email correspondence with Satoshi Nakamoto was made public. The emails were first shared on BitcoinTalk by a user named CipherionX, and subsequently published on Hearn’s personal website. The emails span from early 2009 to April 2011 and cover topics including:
- How Satoshi envisioned Bitcoin scaling in the future
- The role of simplified payment verification (SPV)
- How mining would evolve from CPUs to specialized hardware
- Satoshi’s thoughts on the alert system
- The transition of project leadership
The correspondence ends with the April 23, 2011 farewell to Hearn. The alert-key handover to Gavin Andresen followed three days later. Together these two messages, Satoshi’s final known emails, are where Satoshi’s verified private correspondence ends.
These emails are an important primary source for understanding Satoshi’s long-term vision for Bitcoin.
