The real identity of the creator of bitcoin is one of the biggest puzzles of the crypto market. No one knows for sure, whether Satoshi Nakamoto is a pseudonym or the real name of those who imagined the whole revolution behind cryptocurrencies, nor if he is a single person or an organization.
His last online appearance took place just over ten years ago, on April 21, 2011. Since then, there were several theories about who and where Satoshi Nakamoto would be. The only certain thing is that the person behind the character has a lot of money, resulting from the incredible valuation of the bitcoin.
Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?
Satoshi Nakamoto is the name (or pseudonym) of the author of “A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”, a whitepaper that was the basis for bitcoin development. No one is sure whether he is a single person or a group of cryptography experts. In fact, there is a lot of speculation surrounding the topic, with no confirmation of the information.
Even those who have already claimed the identity and even a namesake denied being the creator of bitcoin. However, ten years ago Satoshi Nakamoto made his last post on the BitcoinTalk forum, saying he would dedicate himself to other projects, and has since disappeared. The email he used to exchange messages with the community (the same one printed in the whitepaper) was never used again.
A curious fact is that before disappearing, Satoshi Nakamoto removed his copyright name from the software and left the code to all “bitcoin developers”.
7 suspects of being the actual Satoshi Nakamoto
- Dorian Nakamoto
Dorian Nakamoto’s real name is, in fact, Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto. Dorian, of Japanese origin, moved to the US to be a government programmer but has always denied being the creator of bitcoin.
- Hall Finey
Hall Finey, who died in 2014, also worked as a programmer and was the recipient of the first bitcoin transaction. However, he also denied being the creator of the cryptocurrency.
- Nick Szabo
The creator of the smart contracts that gave rise to blockchain 2.0 and bit gold, a digital currency concept that preceded bitcoin, is also claimed to be the real Satoshi Nakamoto. Besides his innovations, the reasons for suspicion are his written language, which is very similar to the bitcoin creator’s posts. In addition, he also announced on his blog in 2008 that he would create a more functional version of bit gold. A few months later, bitcoin was launched.
- Craig Steven Wright
Unlike the others, Craig Steven Wright, a computer scientist, and Bitcoin Cash creator, claims to be the real Satoshi, although he has never presented concrete proof.
- Wei Dai
The computer engineer who created the b-money system and the Crypto ++ cryptographic library, Wei Dai, is also one of the unconfirmed theories about Satoshi’s identity.
- Adam Back
Responsible for inventing an anti-spam system that requires proof of work, hashcash, Adam Back uses similar grammar terms to Satoshi Nakamoto, including the double space after the comma. It is worth noting that hashcash was the basis for the PoW algorithm used for confirming transactions in the bitcoin system to avoid the problem with double-spending. However, he denies the identity
- A group or organization
This is one of the main theories, reinforced by the fact that the bitcoin whitepaper and the system’s programming are sophisticated enough to have been produced by a single person. They have already suggested that Satoshi Nakamoto could be an organization, a government, or even an intelligence agency.
Satoshi Nakamoto is a billionaire
Despite so much mystery surrounding his identity, it is possible to know that whoever Satoshi Nakamoto is, he (or the group) holds great wealth. He still owns bitcoins mined from the genesis block, information confirmed by tracing his public keys.
As he has not spent a single bitcoin since 2009, it is estimated that he has around 1 million BTC. In any case, it seems that Satoshi Nakamoto’s real identity will remain unknown.
