Few people will ever encounter an undiscovered natural wonder, and then have the pleasure of naming it. That’s what happened to Guido Turricchia and his intrepid band of explorers deep within the Papua New Guinean jungle and deep beneath the earth. The speleologist found a new cave and had the honor of christening it. The epithet the environmental engineer and bitcoin enthusiast chose? Why, Satoshi.
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Blockchain meets Rockchain
For the past month, Guido Turricchia, Andrea Felici, and Maurizio Buttinelli have been AFK and thus divorced from bitcoin price moves and cryptocurrency drama. On December 10, the trio of experienced explorers left Italy to embark on their most ambitious trip yet through the dense rainforest of Papua New Guinea. The southwest Pacific nation, which lies north of Australia and to the east of Indonesia, is famed for its biological diversity.
Guido and his group witnessed many enchanting sights as they trekked through the jungle, but they were saving themselves for the beauty that lay within the earth. From Guatemala to Costa Rica, the speleologists have traveled the world, frequenting some of the most remote and exquisite underground caverns, caves, and rock formations these territories have to offer. After journeying for days, the group, led by a local guide, came to a cave formation in the heart of the Papua New Guinea jungle.
Guido explained to news.Bitcoin.com how locals used the entrance to hunt flying foxes, but hadn’t forayed any further. The explorers roamed deeper into the caves, descending a total of 2km, before coming to a huge cave system comprising a series of vaults, the greatest of which measured 120 x 80 x 50 metres, with extensive concretions and an underground river flowing through it. Due to the rocky formations, Guido dubbed it Blockchain Valley.
Enter the Cave of Satoshi
The trio, who now found themselves in one of the remotest places on earth and confronted by sights that had never been seen with the human eye, went deeper into the earth. After passing through Blockchain Valley, they came to the largest cave of all. “It’s common practice to name new caves after important people,” explained Guido, “but there was nothing for Satoshi”. There was only one name on his lips, and thus the cave of Satoshi was born.
Guido first learned about bitcoin and blockchain in 2013 and, like many people, was instantly hooked. In the years since, he’s balanced an interest in the technology with operating a crowdfunding platform, which provided relief to victims of last year’s Italian earthquake, and exploring with Circolo Speleologico Romano, a caving organization founded in 1904. The Papua New Guinea trip, aided by sponsors such as Powerfilm Solar, was the group’s most ambitious yet.
All told, they spent one month in the Folopa territory, hiked for 60km into the rainforest, and explored 4km of caves, discovering 25 new entrances in the process. The blockchain created by Satoshi Nakamoto has now been into space and, thanks to the efforts of an Italian caving group, his name has resonated in the depths of the earth. Satoshi Cave will now live on for millennia.
How do you think Satoshi would feel about having a cave named after them? Let us know in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Guido Turricchia.
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