Coinbase says unmasking Satoshi Nakamoto might harm its business

Some things are best left a mystery — at least as far as Coinbase is concerned. 

The San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange has been preparing to go public since last year, and in a Thursday prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) it listed a number of issues that could harm its business. Notably, one of those risk factors is the future identification of Satoshi Nakamoto. 

For the unaware, Satoshi is the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin. Satoshi, whose true identity has never been confirmed, published a 2008 white paper titled "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System" and is believed to hold the private keys to around 1.1 million bitcoin. Over the years there have been various efforts to discover Satoshi's true identity, but as far as anyone can tell they have all come up short. Read more...