Fact check
Is it true: Bitcoin Was Created by the NSA?
There's no solid evidence for it.
There is no documentary, testimonial, or code-level evidence that the NSA created Bitcoin. The theory is built on two genuine coincidences — the NSA designed SHA-256 and co-wrote a 1996 anonymous-cash survey — that are individually true but do not connect to Bitcoin's authorship. Bitcoin's public source code, open citation trail to cypherpunk predecessors, and traceable-by-design ledger all point away from a secret intelligence project.
The claim
The National Security Agency (or another government intelligence agency) secretly created Bitcoin, using its SHA-256 hash function and the ideas in its 1996 paper 'How to Make a Mint: The Cryptography of Anonymous Electronic Cash,' in order to build a surveillance honeypot and usher in a controllable cashless currency.
Key evidence
The NSA genuinely designed SHA-256
SHA-256 is a public, royalty-free, heavily audited standard
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