[wolfgke]

> So, why would discovering the real-life identity impact the exchange rate?

If we came to conclusion that Satoshi was a "I mined lots of early blocks who gave a really high block reward. And you all were all parts of this 'Ponzi scheme' which made me rich" kind of person - I can image quite well the consequences for the BTC exchange rate.

If we found out that Bitcoin was an experiment by some CS genius that got a little bit out of control in scope, the trust many have in the Bitcoin protocol (reflected by the exchange rate) would probably decrease, since people could conclude that Bitcoin wasn't as thought-through as many Bitcoin advocates want the world to believe.

On the other hand, if we concluded that Satoshi was some computer scientist whose expertise simply rather lies in cryptography and who secluded himself from Bitcoin simply for the reason that he knows that the next steps will need an expert for scaling of systems for which he will be no help, but he is sure the further development of Bitcoin is in good hand, this would probably increase the trust people have in Bitcoin and thus increase the exchange rate.

I could write down lots of other fictional examples, but I think the idea is clear.

[informatimago]

Indeed, several sci fi books and movies can be written until revelation of the actual Satoshi. :-)

[bobwaycott]

That's a great response, and extremely helpful for understanding what's going on from the outside. Thank you very much for taking the time to explain.