On January 2, 2001, Jack Dorsey posted a list of 52 “signatures” that he uses online. A number of these had already been discovered through old posts he made on Usenet and mailing lists, but many had never been known before. The most significant one is “bit rot kid.”
As a self-described bit rot kid, it would not take a leap of faith to explain why he would name his p2p ecash system bitcoin.
Upon discovering this signature, a new post of his was found on the alt.cyberbunk Usenet board from 1999.
Using the name “tag dirt” and the e-mail address: [email protected], Jack comments on the Neal Stephenson book Cryptonomicon.
“oh it’s good. it’s really fucking good,” he says.
Oddly, Jack later comments in the same thread under one of his other pseudonyms, “jakdaemon.” His signature “data bomb kid” also appears on his list of signatures.
Now that it’s known that he was the bit rot kid, it pairs well with the discovery of how he chose the name Satoshi and the fact that he was a diehard cypherpunk and a fan of Hal Finney, Adam Back, and ecash since at least 1996.