Everyone in the crypto industry knows this name, Satoshi Nakamoto. The creator of Bitcoin, the world’s first cryptocurrency.
Now there remains the big question of who this person is. One who has changed the way we see money with blockchain technology.
The truth is, nobody knows who Satoshi Nakamoto actually is. We don’t know whether Satoshi is an individual person or a group. It’s a mystery who he, she, or they might be.
All we know for now is that Satoshi Nakamota is the moniker used by pseudonymous person or persons who developed Bitcoin, authored the Bitcoin whitepaper, and deployed Bitcoin’s original reference implementation after its creation.
What Do We Know About Satoshi Nakamoto?
From the famous Bitcoin white paper, “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System,” which was published online in October 2008, we know that Satoshi Nakamoto created Bitcoin.
In the Bitcoin white paper, Nakamoto laid out the theory and operating structure of the Bitcoin payment system.
In February 2009, Nakamoto created the P2P Foundation forum. It was the first ever online message board post dedicated to cryptocurrency.
“I’ve developed a new open source P2P e-cash system called Bitcoin. It’s completely decentralized, with no central server or trusted parties, because everything is based on crypto proof instead of trust. Give it a try, or take a look at the screenshots and design paper.”
~Satoshi Nakamoto
Development of Bitcoin
On January 9, 2009, Nakamoto released version 0.2 of the Bitcoin software on SourceForge. Nakamoto launched the network by defining the genesis block of Bitcoin, also known as block number 0. This very first block had a reward of 50 BTC.
This block has embedded the headline of the UK newspaper The Times published on that date, which goes by “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.”
Until mid 2010 Nakamoto continued to collaborate with other developers on the Bitcoin software and kept making all the necessary modifications to the source code single handedly.
Later, Nakamoto gave control of the source code repository and network alert key to Gavin Andresen. Following that, Nakamoto transferred several Bitcoin related domains to various prominent members of the community and withdrew from active involvement in the project.
Is Satoshi Nakmoto Real?
We can say that there is at least one real person behind the name Satoshi Nakamoto. We know for a fact that somebody wrote the Bitcoin whitepaper and published it, also wrote Bitcoin’s source code, deployed it, created the forum about the cryptocurrencies, as well as sent emails.
The last email received from Satoshi Nakamoto was in March 2014. Since then Nakamoto has completely vanished, with only a few trails left for us to find.
Things We Know About Satoshi Nakamoto
- First, using time stamps on Nakamoto’s posts and emails, it’s assumed that Nakamoto probably resided either in the U.K., the East Coast of the U.S., or the West Coast when posting about the cryptocurrency.
- Second, Nakamoto was known to use the British/Commonwealth spelling of certain words like “favour,” with an added “U,” rather than the American “favor.” For this reason, some have speculated Nakamoto is from the U.K. or was educated in the U.K.
- Third, given the amount of Bitcoin traced to wallets presumably owned by Satoshi Nakamoto, Nakamoto is most certainly a billionaire. Although, none of that Bitcoin has ever been removed or even moved from any of those wallets to another.
Thus, we can say that Satoshi Nakamoto is most likely a real person but thats not their actual name.
Possible Identities of Satoshi
There are a lot of theories out there on the internet about who Satoshi Namoto really is. As mentioned earlier, some claim the name belongs to a single individual, and some believe it represents a group of developers.
By far, the following individuals have gained a lot of attention for possibly being one of the best revolutionaries of the century.
Craig Wright:
Australian scientist Craig Wright is currently moving heaven and hell to prove himself as Satoshi Nakamoto. Wright filled in the copyright on the Bitcoin white paper and its early code and was awarded both in April 2019.
However, as anyone can file for copyright, it does not imply proof of ownership.
Craig Wright is also accused by a former associate of defrauding the world by trying to impersonate Satoshi Nakamoto, which he is not.
Nick Sazbo
Computer programmer and cryptographer Nick Sazbo was one of the first person who attempt to develop decentralized currency. It was way back in 1990s and was called Bit Gold.
The resemblance is uncanny between both the projects as bit Gold shares lot of things with the Bitcoin. Though Bit Gold wasnt fully described to public until 2025 and wasnt evan fully implemented.
Szabo’s work is regarded as the direct forerunner of Bitcoin and lot of crypto community members think of him as Satoshi Nakamoto. Evan Elon Musk said in a podcast that he believes that Nick Sazbo is Satoshi Nakamoto.
Sazbo has continuously denied of him being Satoshi and regarded the stories as rumours.
Hal Finney
Hal Finney received the first ever transfer of Bitcoin in 20009, directly from Satoshi Nakamoto. So the theory behind Hal Finly being Satoshi is simple, some community members assume that Finney simply sent those first bitcoins to himself.
To gain more weight to this Finney was the first person to download Bitcoins software after its link was posted by Nakamoto.
Finneys early correspondences with Nakamoto were published, which added fuel to the theory as there were certain discrepancies between their timestamps.
Finney died of Lou Gehring’s disease at age of 58 in 2014, and constantly denied of him being Satoshi Nakamoto.
Elon Musk
Surprisingly worlds richest person Elon Musk, is also speculated as Satoshi Nakamoto. This rumour however was started by non other than one of the SpaceX intern Sahil Gupata.
Gupta wrote a blog on Medium stating Musks knowledge and interest could have led him to develop a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin.
Elon Musk has denied this rumor. Musk however is a big supporter of crypto currencies and may be planning to add crypto services on his newly branded X platform.
Dorian Nakamoto
Dorian Nakamoto was named by Newsweeek magazine as Satoshi Nakamoto. In march 2014 the magazine posted an article that claimed Satoshi Nakamoto’s real name was Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto and that he was an out-of-work Japanese-American physicist living in California.
Dorian Nakamoto quickly denied this claim and responded that the Newsweek article by saying the magazine’s story had “been the source of a great deal of confusion and stress” for himself and his family.
“I did not create, invent or otherwise work on Bitcoin. I unconditionally deny the Newsweek report.”
~Dorian Nakamoto
He even started a fundraising page to file a lawsuit against the magazine.
How Can Satoshi Nakamoto Prove Their Identity?
This is very simple, as a single transaction on Bitcoin can prove Satoshi Nakamoto’s real identity.
Let us explain,
When Satoshi Nakamoto deployed the Bitcoin code, he kept some of the token. Nakamoto kept 1.1 million Bitcoins with themselves. Satoshi has not moved those bitcoins ever since. At the current market price Satoshi Nakamoto is a billionaire.
To prove of being Satoshi Nakmoto one just have to move Bitcoins from the known addresses.
