Well, I'm not actually answering the question. :) (and former Bitcoin developer would be more accurate!) Really people can mostly just speculate on the subject

Well, I'm not actually answering the question. :) (and former Bitcoin developer would be more accurate!) Really people can mostly just speculate on the subject, or offer why they might have chosen it: Satoshi never said much about his choice-- he certainly never said in public that he was concerned with NSA tampered parameters. I think it was a good choice at the time, esp. now after the expiration of the GLV patent. And the fact that there is no opportunity for NSA tampering scaremongering is a nice feature, but that's my opinion and I have no reason to believe it was Satoshi's.