Jack Dorsey is Satoshi Nakamoto?
February 25, 2025If you’ve seen the analysis that connects Jack Dorsey to Satoshi Nakamoto floating around the web, that was researched by yours truly. I first proposed the possibility on February 24, 2024 and have since discovered a lot of compelling evidence to really support it. Here is a link to the recent tweet that went viral on the matter and a mirror of that tweet with source links. This is hardly all that I have. I did tag Dorsey so that he could see it but he did not reply to it or directly weigh in.
I have been following Dorsey’s company Square for AltFinanceDaily since 2011.
In early 2024, a legal trial commenced on the matter of Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity (Crypto Open Patent Alliance v Craig Steven Wright) for which Dorsey played a key role to prove that an individual named Craig Wright was NOT Satoshi. Wright had been claiming such for some time.
As part of the trial, a large trove of new emails and testimony surrounding Bitcoin’s founding were disclosed, including many emails written by Satoshi himself (Emails with Martti Malmi / Emails with Nicholas Bohm). Before the judge made a ruling on the outcome, Dorsey made interesting remarks in Block’s Q1 2024 earnings announcement on May 2, 2024. He mentioned Satoshi the person as the basis for the company’s crypto strategy. While skeptics have chalked this up to simple fandom or ideology, it was wholly unnecessary to reference Satoshi the person and potentially risky if he doesn’t know Satoshi’s true identity. Coinbase, for example, lists “the identification of Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous person or persons who developed Bitcoin, or the transfer of Satoshi’s Bitcoins” as a risk factor to revenue. Block makes no such disclosure despite nearly half of the company’s revenue being derived from Bitcoin sales.
From Dorsey’s Block shareholder letter on May 2, 2024:


These statements could have been made without referencing Satoshi by name, especially in an era where longtime Bitcoin advocates have sought to minimize the influence of Satoshi the individual today. However, these statements would be very fitting if the CEO was speaking about himself.
Block has also self-published a book titled My First Bitcoin and the Legend of Satoshi Nakamoto which glorifies Satoshi and concludes by stating that “Satoshi’s vision is having an impact all around the world.” Hard copy print versions of the book were also made and distributed. AltFinanceDaily obtained a copy.
That viral post again with source links can be found here. I am not an investor in bitcoin or Block. My experience with Bitcoin over the past 10+ years is as a payments mechanism, namely as peer-to-peer cash.
My email is sean@debanked.com
Top Stories of 2024 vs 2014
December 30, 2024A lot happened in 2024, but rather than just rehash it all out, let’s revisit the world of 10 years ago. In 2014, both OnDeck and LendingClub went public, Bitcoin landed in the mainstream, Square started funding, securitizations in the industry commenced, and the world was still not totally sold on the concept of MCA. Oh how things changed!

Shopify Capital Originates $837M in Business Loans & MCAs in Q3
November 15, 2024Shopify Capital originated $837 million in business loans and merchant cash advances in Q3, putting the grand total at $2.1B for the first 3 quarters. During the earnings call, Shopify said that loss ratios remained within the consistent range.
Compared to some of their competitors in the online space, Shopify Capital ranks third:
Q3 originations:
Square Loans: $1.38B
Enova: $1B
Shopify Capital: $837M
Whoa, QuickBooks Capital Shoots Up in Business Loan Originations
August 22, 2024Intuit’s fiscal year ending July 31, 2024 revealed a stunning detail, $2.4B in financing through QuickBooks Capital over 12 months. This was up 28% from the prior year. That number likely puts Intuit’s business loan volume ahead of Shopify’s but that’s still less than Enova and Square. Customers of QuickBooks Capital can apply for financing by clicking a button right in their QuickBooks software.
QuickBooks Online accounting revenue grew 17% in Q4 and 19% in fiscal 2024, the company reported. Intuit has the advantage of many related QuickBooks services slowly merging into one such as payments, payroll, capital, and Mailchimp. Intuit also owns Credit Karma.
Shopify Capital’s Funding Business Grows in Q2
August 14, 2024Shopify Capital originated ~$700M in business loans and merchant cash advances in Q2. During the earnings call, Shopify CFO Jeff Hoffmeister referred to its Capital division as a “growth business” that had increased in volume. Shopify has otherwise seemed to downplay mention of this division since early last year. In terms of origination volume, the company is still not as big as Enova or Square Loans.
Shopify’s rival, Amazon, used to offer funding to its clients directly as well, but switched to referring its clients to third party lenders earlier this year.
PayPal Business Loan/Working Capital Volume Down By Half Since Pullback
July 30, 2024
PayPal’s small business financing volume has been roughly reduced by half since the company officially announced a pullback in 2023.
For example, consider that PayPal purchased only $774M in merchant receivables through the first half of 2024 vs $1.4B purchased in the first half of 2022. Though these numbers are not originations per se they are proxy indicators that show just how much has changed.
Of the $774M purchased in the first half of 2024, only $355M of it was from the 2nd quarter. Meanwhile, one of its competitors originated $918M in the same quarter.
Back in early 2022, PayPal announced that it was then one of the top five lenders to small businesses in the United States. It claimed to be doing $4B a year in originations in 2019, at that time making it arguably the largest online business lender in the country. Today the leading online small business lenders are Block (Square Loans) and Enova (OnDeck & Headway Capital).
At the AFBA Conference
June 3, 2024I’ll be moderating a panel on “Hot Topics in Revenue Based Finance” at the Alternative Finance Bar Association (AFBA) conference early Tuesday morning at the office of Covington & Burling in Times Square, NYC. (Agenda here) This is the AFBA’s 6th annual conference. The first day (June 3) of the two-day event was only open to attorneys, while business people are permitted to attend on day two (June 4).
Panelists include:
• Heather Francis, Elevate Funding
• John Viskocil, Fora Financial
• Mary Donohue, Revenue Based Finance Coalition
• Marshall F. Goldberg, Glass & Goldberg
Among the major speakers of the day will be Andrew Smith, a partner at Covington & Burling LLP, who was formerly the Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the FTC.
Broker Fair 2024 Recap
May 21, 2024Broker Fair 2024 in New York City went off with a bang, surpassing attendance of both Broker Fair 2023 and AltFinanceDaily CONNECT MIAMI 2024. The all-Kosher catered event ran a lean format of high impact speakers with an optimized networking atmosphere. The Preshow Party at Somewhere Nowhere NYC sponsored by Triton Recovery Group was also a night to remember! Pictures will go up this week.
Some key highlights
Platinum Sponsors: Triton Recovery Group, Bitty Advance, Lendini
Tech Demonstrations: Ocrolus, Heron Data, Cloudsquare
Featured Speaker: Peter Ribeiro
SBA Lending Speakers: Bob Coleman & Adam Seery
NY Legal and Regulatory Update Attorneys: Scott Pearson, Kate Fisher, Chris Murray, Patrick Siegfried




































