Holy cow, rereading Satoshi's OP of all forum posts, I just discovered that you were the second poster on this forum ever. Mad props to you!
It seems that by this point Satoshi is now more legend than man, taking into consideration that:
- His total public presence spans less than 3 years
- Nobody could ever definitively pinpoint who he/she/they were
- They were probably more than 1 person
Perhaps this was all by design, perhaps Satoshi really did lose access to his private keys.
If the former is true, it stands to reason that whoever created bitcoin already has more money than whatever they could gain from bitcoin, or else is sworn under some kind of blood oath never to reveal themselves or cash out their BTC.
If the latter is true, maybe he's too embarrassed to admit he lost them? How could you move on to "other things" after bitcoin?? I'm genuinely curious as to what they might be. (Guess I should ask Mike Hearn).
The overlapping features of other mythological figures and Satoshi are substantial. He can definitely be made into some kind of libertarian, anti-authority prophet, if people are inclined to do so. Why not? People need something to believe in.
There is nothing simpler than someone proving he is Satoshi.
There is zero reason, gain or advantage in speculation.
True, but its fun anyway. Just like its fun to speculate about the originator of anything anonymously created that had a substantial impact on reality.