[truantbuick]

I don't know specifically about secp256r1, but in general, I think there were already a lot of suspicions and most people were wary of any ECC curves NIST or NSA had chosen by 2008 when Bitcoin was developed. [1]

In a purported email [2] (reasonably well attested to) from Satoshi Nakamato, he claimed

> I didn't find anything to recommend a curve type so I just... picked one.

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20140621062515/http://archive.wi...

[2] https://archive.is/lHHSk

[bcaa7f3a8bbc]

Interesting, I didn't know the existence of the quote or the mail. So... if what Satoshi claimed is true, this choice was actually a pure coincidence and doesn't really have any significance, hmm. I don't know what to say - yet another strange coincidence in history I guess?

[agustif]

Or maybe he was just covering his tracks to throw off future investigators!

[himlion]

In the framework of this theory that makes pretty good sense.