[junto]

I've always found Satoshi's choice of email address interesting. Gmx.com didn't launch until 2008, the same year Satoshi published his Bitcoin paper.

GMX is a German company and the @gmx.de email address is highly popular in here, especially since Gmail was late to the party (legal action over 'gmail'). Web.de and Yahoo are the two other big players.

GMX uses geo-location to direct users to specific GMX TLDs. To use the .com you would need to use Tor or a VPN. Without using some kind of geo-anonymising tool, I am stuck with a GMX.de account.

Why choose GMX.com? Did he/she read about GMX launching in the US as he was looking for a new email account provider specifically to be used for Bitcoin correspondence? Was he/she based in Germany, knew of GMX and in using Tor or a VPN from Germany exited in the US and got a GMX.com account?

It doesn't mean anything in itself, but I always thought the choice of gmx.com was a curious one.

[gwern]

I have been told by people who received emails from Satoshi that he was sending even his emails over Tor. Aren't most Tor exit nodes in the USA? That could explain why he got a gmx.com address rather than gmx.de