TexasBitcoin

People · the missing stitch

Pierre Rochard: The Institute, the Mine, and the Job That Left

The theorists on this site have a Texas address or they do not. His does, until the job after Riot.

By TexasBitcoin · Published October 27, 2026 · Updated October 27, 2026

The short answer

Pierre Rochard discovered Bitcoin in 2012 at the University of Texas at Austin, co-founded the Satoshi Nakamoto Institute, and on March 28, 2023 testified against Senate Bill 1751 as Riot's vice president of research. A September 24, 2025 SEC filing identifies him as chief executive of The Bitcoin Bond Company and a Strive director. No Texas office or filing for that company was located.

Key facts

  • CoinDesk's April 7, 2025 profile says Rochard discovered Bitcoin in 2012 while studying at the University of Texas at Austin, and that he co-founded the Satoshi Nakamoto Institute.[1]
  • The Institute's author page archives his essay “Speculative Attack,” dated July 4, 2014.[2]
  • The Senate Business and Commerce witness list for March 28, 2023 records Pierre Rochard, Riot Platforms, against SB 1751.[3]
  • Bitcoin Magazine's account of that hearing, published March 29, 2023, identifies him as Riot's vice president of research and says he testified that the company's presence benefited rural communities, employment, and energy production.[4]
  • A Strive Form 425 filed with the SEC transcribes a September 24, 2025 appearance. The filing header calls him a Strive board member. The introduction calls him chief executive of The Bitcoin Bond Company.[5]
  • No Texas address, filing, or statute for The Bitcoin Bond Company was located in the documents read for this page. The company's own site did not render.[5]

The people cluster on this site ran out of authors of bills. Rochard is the other kind of record: a person who wrote the argument, then sat in the hearing for the company that owned Rockdale, then took a job this page cannot place in Texas. The Satoshi Nakamoto Institute page is the institution. This one is the man, and the limit of what “Texas” still means in his title.

What did Austin actually produce?

A student, then an archive. CoinDesk's April 7, 2025 profile says Rochard discovered Bitcoin in 2012 while studying at the University of Texas at Austin, at the intersection of Austrian economics and open-source software, and that he co-founded the Satoshi Nakamoto Institute to house foundational writings.[1] The Institute's own page on this site dates that founding to November 2013, with Michael Goldstein and Daniel Krawisz. This page does not re-try the founding. It links the institution that already sourced it.

The essay the hearing never quoted, and the reserve later rhymed, is “Speculative Attack,” dated July 4, 2014 on the Institute's author page.[2] The Institute page quotes the argument as Bitcoin overtaking weak currencies “through speculative attacks and currency crises, not through the careful evaluation of tech journalists.” A state reserve is a different instrument. The rhyme is the Institute's to draw. The date is the author page's.

CoinDesk also lists BitPay and Kraken before Riot. Those are not Texas facts. They are the years between the essay and the witness table.[1] The Institute page's timeline places the Riot job in 2022 and cites that CoinDesk piece plus a Presidio Bitcoin note. CoinDesk's April 2025 profile, re-read for this page, does not give the year. This page will not add a month the witness list does not give. By March 28, 2023 he was in the room as Riot's man.[3]

What did he tell the Senate?

He was against the brake. The witness list for Senate Business and Commerce on March 28, 2023 records Pierre Rochard, Riot Platforms, against Senate Bill 1751.[3] That is the document. Bitcoin Magazine's account the next day says the bill would have prohibited certain flexible-load arrangements in which miners are paid to turn off, and that Rochard, identified as vice president of research, testified that Riot's presence benefited rural communities, employment, and energy production.[4]

The employment sentence the Riot page carries — that miners were Rockdale's largest employer and the largest taxpayer to the school district — is that page's quotation, sourced there to Bitcoin Magazine. This page did not re-read that sentence in the Magazine body, and does not repeat it as if it had. The fact re-read here is the witness line and the Magazine's paraphrase of the argument: rural jobs, rural taxes, and the grid, offered against a bill that would have cut the payments for turning off.

He came back for the reserve. The Riot page records a February 2025 appearance in which he told the Senate a state bitcoin reserve was the preparation for a downturn. This page links that record and does not re-quote it. The reserve is the Comptroller's statute, not Rochard's company. His role in the hearing is advocacy. It is not custody.

Is The Bitcoin Bond Company a Texas fact?

No document read for this page makes it one. CoinDesk's April 7, 2025 profile calls him chief executive of The Bitcoin Bond Company and describes the project as bankruptcy-remote, bitcoin-only credit structures, with a stated aim of acquiring $1 trillion of bitcoin over 21 years, market conditions permitting.[1] That article says parts of it were generated with AI tools and reviewed by editors. The job title is the sentence this page needs. The trillion-dollar aim is CoinDesk's account of his goal, in a piece that discloses machine assistance. It is not a Texas filing.

The later document is a securities filing, and it still has no Texas address. Strive, Inc. filed a Form 425 containing a transcript of Rochard's September 24, 2025 appearance on the Treasury Orange podcast. The header identifies him as a board member of Strive. The host's introduction calls him chief executive of The Bitcoin Bond Company. In the transcript he says he comes from an accounting background and that he would chair the audit committee.[5] The filing's identification is “board member.” The chairmanship is what he said in the interview. This page does not promote the second into the first.

Strive is not a Texas institution. The filing is about a stock combination with Semler Scientific and a bitcoin-treasury strategy. Nothing in the portion read places The Bitcoin Bond Company in Austin, or anywhere else in the state.[5]The company's own website did not render when this page was written. Absence of a rendered homepage is not proof the company is imaginary. It is proof this page will not invent a registered office to keep the career in town.

The honest counterweight: the theorist left the room

The useful Rochard, for a Texas record, is the one who could be put in a chair in Austin and a chair in the Capitol. The Institute still has his essays.[2] The witness list still has his name against SB 1751.[3] Those do not expire because he took a capital-markets job.

What would expire the honesty of the page is a sentence that calls The Bitcoin Bond Company an Austin firm because its chief executive once was a Texas student. CoinDesk's career list runs BitPay, Kraken, Riot, then the Bond Company.[1]The September 2025 filing adds a Strive directorship.[5]The Texas thread is three items long. Stretching it to cover the fourth would be the kind of domicile the rest of this site refuses to other people's next jobs.

He is also not, on these documents, still Riot's vice president of research. CoinDesk in April 2025 already described the Bond Company as the current role and Riot as prior.[1] The Riot page keeps the testimony. It should not be read as a current title.

Frequently asked questions

What is Pierre Rochard's Texas record?

Three things. He discovered Bitcoin in 2012 while studying at the University of Texas at Austin and co-founded the Satoshi Nakamoto Institute there. He was Riot Platforms' vice president of research when he testified against Senate Bill 1751 on March 28, 2023. The Institute, the Rockdale operator, and that hearing are the Texas thread.

What is Speculative Attack?

An essay Rochard published on July 4, 2014, archived on the Satoshi Nakamoto Institute's author page. The Institute page quotes it as Bitcoin overtaking weak currencies through speculative attacks and currency crises, not through the careful evaluation of tech journalists. It is an Austin document. It is not a statute.

Did he testify for the Texas Bitcoin reserve?

The Riot page on this site records a February 2025 appearance in which he argued for a state reserve. This page does not re-quote that hearing. The testimony re-read here is the March 28, 2023 appearance against Senate Bill 1751, which the witness list and Bitcoin Magazine both place him at, as Riot's vice president of research.

Is The Bitcoin Bond Company a Texas company?

Not on the documents read for this page. A September 24, 2025 SEC filing identifies Rochard as its chief executive and as a Strive director. No Texas office, filing, or statute for the Bond Company was located. The company site did not render. This page does not domicile the job in Austin because the earlier career was there.

Sources

Every datable claim above is sourced below. This is a research and reference article, not financial, legal, or career advice.

  1. [1] CoinDesk — Pierre Rochard, the Bitcoin Maximalist OG (April 7, 2025): discovered Bitcoin in 2012 while studying at the University of Texas at Austin; co-founded the Satoshi Nakamoto Institute; roles at BitPay, Kraken, and Riot Platforms; CEO of The Bitcoin Bond Company. The article says parts were generated with AI tools and reviewed by editors.
  2. [2] Satoshi Nakamoto Institute — Pierre Rochard author page: essays from Working and Saving are Revolutionary Acts (December 24, 2012) through Speculative Attack (July 4, 2014)
  3. [3] Texas Legislature Online — Senate Business and Commerce witness list, March 28, 2023: Pierre Rochard, Riot Platforms, against SB 1751
  4. [4] Bitcoin Magazine — Texas Senate committee hears testimony on a Bitcoin mining bill (March 29, 2023): Rochard, then Riot's vice president of research, testified that the company's presence had beneficial impacts on rural communities, employment, and energy production
  5. [5] Strive, Inc. — Form 425 transcript of Pierre Rochard's September 24, 2025 appearance (filed with the SEC): identified in the filing header as a board member of Strive and, in the introduction, as CEO of The Bitcoin Bond Company; he said he would chair the audit committee. No Texas address for the Bond Company appears in the portion read for this page.