The inventor of blockchain would like a better Bitcoin

Scott Stornetta expressed admiration for Bitcoin’s achievements and criticism of its perceived limitations

article-image

Ivan Popovych/Shutterstock and Adobe modified by Blockworks

share

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:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

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.

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.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Research Report Templates.png

Research

Ethena Labs is leaping from its flagship synthetic dollar, USDe, to a full product suite—USDtb, iUSDe, and the Arbitrum-based Converge Chain—designed to marry crypto-native yields with TradFi-grade compliance. Our analysis shows how expanding into CME, ETF options, and tokenized Treasuries could lift protocol revenue from sub-$500 million in a bear case to several billion dollars if favorable regulation and institutional adoption align.

article-image

Doing one thing well and leaving everything else out is often what disruptive technologies do best

article-image

Why an analyst is kicking off COIN coverage with “buy” rating

article-image

“Bitcoin does not require a strong equity rally to move higher,” YouHodler markets chief Ruslan Lienkha said

article-image

President Trump’s comments that he will not look to fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell sent stocks higher in after-hours trading Tuesday

article-image

The trading card game will use Immutable’s zkEVM chain