Who really is Satoshi Nakamoto? It is the name – probably false – of the person (or group) who invented bitcointhe first digital cryptocurrency: a currency that does not exist physically, is not issued by states or central banks and circulates only online. The question is back in the news after an investigation by New York Times That points to British computer scientist Adam Back as a possible face behind that pseudonym. He denies it, like everyone before him. But the point, perhaps, is not just identity. It is the system that that signature has generated: a universe without central controls, which has grown dramatically in recent years, capable of producing enormous profits but also of swallowing up the savings of thousands of people. A world that is both fascinating and dangerous, where innovation and fraud often intertwine. To understand what all this really means, we need to look at what has happened in recent years.
The dividing line was Covid. Bitcoins existed beforebut many people discovered them when, locked at home, they spent much more time than usual in front of a computer. So, between a video of kittens and one of recipes, it was fascinated by the advertisements for these mysterious coins not minted by any mint and not controlled by any Central Bank, but which exist only on the Web and whose performance is determined, always on the basis of the law of supply and demand, from other computers scattered who knows where in the world.
Coins that promise to multiply, in a technological version of Pinocchio’s field of miracles, as Consob president Paolo Savona defined it, the real money of those who purchase them. The beautiful fairy tale still lasts today. Since 2010, when these coins were used in the real world for the first time (two pizzas for 10 thousand Btc in a fast food restaurant in the United States), their value has grown by approximately 100 million times. A bargain, therefore, for those who believed in it, starting with Donald Trumpwho, after repeating during the election campaign that he wanted to make the United States the world capital of cryptocurrencies, launched one once elected president, $TRUMP.
In a few months, while the world’s stock markets were tossed up and down depending on his tariff announcements, according to the news agency Bloomberg Trump has made over $620 million (real) with his bitcoins. Yes, but for an American Pinocchio who is doing very well, there are many Pinocchios who have found Cats and Foxes on their way who have buried their money so that they will never come back. As a rule, following a very classic fraud scheme, the so-called Tom Ponzi method, whereby investors are made to believe that their earnings are the result of the investment of their capital, while in reality they derive from the withdrawal of shares of subsequent investors. Example: Tizio invests 100. After a month he thinks he has 110. The extra 10, however, are not the result of an investment, but were taken from the 100 that Caio invested after him. The system thus swells until the scammer decides he has had enough and at this point he disappears. Sandro Cutrignelli, coordinator of the Cyber Crime Department of the District Prosecutor’s Office of Florence, managed the two most important investigations in this world in Italy from the office where we meet him, those into the crashes of the Bitgrail and The Rock Trading platforms.
How does the solicitation of potential victims take place?
«On the Internet and in particular on social networks: without them bitcoins could not exist. There are countless groups or, as they say, communities on cryptocurrencies. Or you try on the phone. An unknown voice says: “We are the so-and-so online trading company, we offer you this very profitable investment. Leave us your email and we will send you your credentials, which will become the gateway to your account for purchasing cryptocurrencies on our platform”. There have also fallen for people who are not exactly naive, professionals, entrepreneurs, convinced that they have a flair for business and who have invested up to 500 thousand euros. Because scammers, under the guise of financial brokers, can be very convincing. And then they ensnare you because on the first money you invest they actually tell you the profits. The first investment usually returns very well, even 20% monthly, because the bitcoin market has very high volatility. Out of a thousand euros, you put 200 in your pocket, but even more. From here you can easily go from a thousand euros to 10 thousand, 50 thousand and even 100 thousand euros. At this point, if the investor asks for even part of the money he sees in his account, problems arise. In the best cases, the interlocutor tells him: “How much have you invested, 15 thousand euros? If you try to sue, who knows when you’ll see them again. I’ll give you 3 thousand straight away.” Many accept.”
And where does the money go?
«Tracking them is very difficult, because it is a pyramid system: the first broker only has the task of finding the customer and then passing credentials and money, again through cryptocurrencies, to others he doesn’t know, who in turn transfer them to still others. Everything always happens online.”
Is this the only scam system?
«No, there is another one that is even more insidious, because it concerns not wealthy people, but normal families. There is always a pyramid structure, but on a family/friend basis. The first broker convinces family and friends to join the game. After seeing that the business seems profitable, they contact other family members and friends and so on: a classic chain letter. Also in this case some investments are partially remunerated. And those who are better at finding new contacts move up the organization’s pyramid: from this moment they earn more and are therefore even more motivated to find other customers. Until, at a certain point, here too the top of the pyramid, hidden behind fictitious companies, decide to pull the plug. Then there are those who, in the intermediate levels, find themselves both an accomplice and a victim, because perhaps at the beginning they operated in good faith and then got caught up in the game. And finally there are hundreds of families who have lost their life savings.”
This opacity makes cryptocurrencies perfect for money laundering by organized crime…
«It’s like this. Organized crime has a mountain of money. Not being able to spend it is equivalent to not having it. Through cryptocurrencies, however, it is possible to obscure the origin of incoming money and clean outgoing money, because they also pay taxes on it. Without, obviously, taking the risks of a normal investor. In the Bitgrail investigation we intercepted the phone call of the lawyer of a ‘Ndrangheta boss who said to a broker: “My client is worried about his money…”. In this case he recovered them all.”
Are there laws to regulate the sector?
«We are only at the beginning. The regulatory interventions made serve at least to track for tax purposes who enters and leaves the platforms. And something is starting to be done on the recycling front. But there is still a lack of crime types present in traditional finance such as market manipulation or insider trading and above all there is a lack of coordination between the legislation of individual states, even in the fight against organized crime. The various groups rely for logistics, so to speak, on control centers located in Eastern Europe and Russia. Russia, in particular, has paid for itself and is paying for a large part of the war in Ukraine through cryptocurrencies.”
At what stage are the investigations you followed?
«Due to the collapse of The Rock Trading, responsibility has now passed to colleagues in Milan. The first degree trial is underway for the bankruptcy of Bitgrail, but regardless of how it ends we managed to seize 70 million euros and all creditors have been satisfied.”
Could this very liquid system explode as happened in the past, for example, in 2008 with the collapse of Lehman Brothers?
«I believe that it could happen that a cryptocurrency that is worth 10 thousand euros today is worth zero tomorrow. But I believe that the system will remain standing, at least in the short term.”
Ultimately, do you advise against investing in bitcoin?
«I don’t demonize the world of cryptocurrencies. There are many serious platforms. I’ll mention one: Young Platform. They are a group of guys from Turin who stand out for the transparency of their offer. But before investing, you need to be well aware of the risks: volatility is very high and, given that there are no centralized control authorities, the danger of speculation is much higher than in traditional finance.”
