A Long-Secret Bitcoin Key Is About to Finally Be Revealed

No, it's not the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, it's a private key the cryptocurrency's creator entrusted to several bitcoin developers that activates the protocol's so-called "Alert system," once used to flash a text warning to those running the software in case something happened that could impact the security of their funds.

A BitcoinJ developer once wanted to use the key to control fees, while a Bloq staffer pressed for Bitcoin Core developers to use the key to change the network's mining difficulty.

Revealing the key is potentially dangerous for any cryptocurrencies that used an older version of bitcoin's code to create their cryptocurrency and have not disabled the alert key mechanism in their own code.

"If the copycats have not disabled the alert system, nor changed the alert key [public key], and if they have not sent what's known as a final alert message, then once the [bitcoin] keys are released, anyone will be able to send alerts on those [other] networks," Bishop told CoinDesk.

"At some point after that, I would then plan to disclose this private key in public, eliminating any further potential of reputation attacks and diminishing the risk of misunderstanding the key as some special trusted source of authority."

Two years later, neither Maxwell - nor any other Bitcoin Core developer - has revealed the key.

If the private key was compromised and used to sign a message with bad intentions, it could be blamed on one of the Bitcoin Core developers who's known to have the key.

"Nobody knows the full list of people that have access to the private key. A message could be signed by the private key, and the secrecy is a liability because some of the people who have the key are known in public to have the key," Bishop said, pointing to the fact that those with the key that are unknown could blame people who are known to hold the key for nefarious messages.

Bishop recently used the alert key to sign a simple text message that he then tweeted out, displaying how it could be used to trick users or cause confusion within the community.

Plus, he told CoinDesk, there are other long-standing vulnerabilities within the alert key setup that he plans to disclose when he reveals the key to the public.