On April 26, 2011, Satoshi Nakamoto sent what would become his last known private email. Addressed to Gavin Andresen with the subject line “alert key,” this message marked Satoshi’s final transfer of authority and his farewell from the project he created.
Satoshi wrote:
I wish you wouldn’t keep talking about me as a mysterious shadowy figure, the press just turns that into a pirate currency angle. Maybe instead make it about the open source project and give more credit to your dev contributors; it helps motivate them.
He then announced his departure:
I’ve moved on to other things and will probably be unavailable.
Finally, he transferred the critical network alert key:
Here’s the CAlert key and broadcast code in case you need it. You should probably give it to at least one or two other people. There are a few long time users who are always around all the time.
The CAlert key was a powerful tool that enabled its holder to broadcast emergency messages to all Bitcoin clients on the network, warning of critical security issues or required upgrades. By transferring this key, Satoshi was completing the final piece of the leadership handover.
This email reveals several important aspects of Satoshi’s thinking in his final days of involvement: his discomfort with personal attention, his desire for Bitcoin to be recognized as a collaborative open source project rather than the creation of one mysterious individual, and his conviction that the project could sustain itself without him.
Satoshi never replied to Andresen’s subsequent response.
Source: Published by Gavin Andresen on his blog on April 26, 2022, the eleventh anniversary of the email. Originally sent from satoshin@gmx.com.