Who Is Satoshi Nakamoto?
Satoshi Nakamoto is the creator of Bitcoin and the first user of the original Bitcoin client. He has said in a P2PUnderstanding Bitcoin’s Peer-To-Peer (P2P) Network In a way, Bitcoin is reigniting old standards of how we used to transact with one another: directly from buyer to seller. Over the course... foundation profile that he identifies as a male and is from Japan. Beyond that, not much else is known about him or his identity. He has been working on the Bitcoin project since 2007. The smallest unit of measure in bitcoin has been named in honor of SatoshiWhat Is A Satoshi? A Satoshi (sat or sats for short) is the smallest unit of a bitcoin. 1 Satoshi is a hundred millionth of a BTC (1 sat =....
The Search for Satoshi Nakamoto
On October 31st of 2008, Satoshi published one of the most disruptive experiments in human history when he published a white paper titled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”. This new design would allow two (or more) parties to transact value without the need for a trusted third party. This has immense implications for global trade but the trusted third parties that have been in the middle of every financial transaction for centuries are not so happy about such an invention. This has put Satoshi at the top of the wanted list of the legacy banking cartels.
When Satoshi published this paper, he published a model that would change the world forever. The world finally had a mechanism for people and institutions to create privately issued moneyWhat Is Money? Money is a tool that enables humans to perform 3 basic functions: store value, exchange value, and account for value. In order for money to perform its... but even more importantly, bitcoin was the blueprint for creating bits of information that cannot be duplicated or counterfeit. This is why bitcoin is capable of functioning as money. Satoshi’s new invention will create a number of problems for governments and banks around the world which is likely why he has kept his identity a secret.
Over the years following Satoshi’s disappearance, several key figures have been suspected of being Satoshi but not enough evidence has been found to confirm any of them and Satoshi’s true identity remains a mystery.
Hal Finney
One of the key figures believed to be Satoshi Nakamoto is Hal Finney. Finney was a early cryptographer and developer who was involved in several key projects during the early days of Bitcoin development. He was also the first person to receive a bitcoin transactionWhat Is A Bitcoin Transaction? A Bitcoin transaction is the transfer of bitcoin from one address to another address or when new bitcoin is created. Transactions can also be the... from Satoshi Nakamoto himself. However, Finney always denied being Satoshi Nakamoto and there is no evidence to suggest otherwise.
Nick Szabo
Nick Szabo is a well-known computer scientist and digital currency researcher who’s best known for his work on smart contractsWhat Is A Smart Contract? A smart contract is a digital contract that is enforced by code rather than a trusted third party. Smart contracts are executed automatically when the... and Bit Gold; one of the predecessors to bitcoin. Nick Szabo is believed to be Satoshi because his writing style is similar to that of Satoshi Nakamoto and he has extensive knowledge about cryptography, smart contracts, and has attempted to create a digital cash prior to Bitcoin.
Although he has been questioned on multiple occasions, Nick Szabo denies being Satoshi Nakamoto.
Adam Back
Adam Back is a respected cryptographer and cypherpunk most widely known for his work on HashWhat Is A Hash? A hash, or cryptographic hash, is a mathematical function that takes digital data of any size as an input and produces a digital output of a... Cash which used proof of workWhat Is Proof Of Work? Proof Of Work, often abbreviated as PoW, is both the method for achieving consensus across the entire Bitcoin network as well as a piece of... in a similar way that Bitcoin does. He is thought to be Satoshi by some due to his early correspondence with Satoshi via emails, his extensive work in the field of cryptography, the use of proof of work in his attempt at creating a digital currency (hash cash),
Adam has denied being Satoshi Nakamoto on multiple occasions.
Wei Dai
Wei Dai is a Chinese-American computer scientist and creator of b-money, one of the earliest predecessors to bitcoin. Due to Wei’s connection to early bitcoin correspondence with Satoshi, some people believe that Wei Dai is Satoshi Nakamoto himself based on linguistic similarities between Satoshi’s writing and Wei’s.
Dorian Nakamoto
In 2013, Newsweek received some sort of anonymous tip that a man named Dorian Nakamoto was living in California and was remotely associated with some sort of cryptographic work for the government a couple years prior. Thanks to today’s poor journalism and everyone’s lust to be the first to publish a story, Dorian was dragged into the spotlight as being Satoshi Nakamoto. It was later proven false but Dorian’s face is still often used in bitcoin memes. There was even an art piece auctioned off to help him and his family with legal damage created by Newsweek’s careless “journalism”.
Conspiracy Theories About Satoshi Nakamoto
Since nobody knows Satoshi’s real identity or background, there have been a number of conspiracy theories that have surfaced. Some theories suggest that he is a member of the new world order and published bitcoin to create a one world money that the NWO will use to control the entire planet while other theories suggest that he is a former government employee who went rogue and released a cryptographic software system that the government had been using for years called “blockchainWhat Is The Blockchain? The blockchain is the public record of bitcoin transactions, which are organized into blocks that are all chronologically linked to one another. Because every block is...”. We may never know for sure but the search will likely continue as long as some people still care.
Satoshi is part of the New World Order
One of the first conspiracy theories was that Satoshi is actually a consortium of bankers who are working to establish a new world order. The anonymous creator is not actually a single individual but rather a group of banksters who published the bitcoin white paper to establish a global control of money and unleash the mark of the beast on the world. This is likely not the case since the bitcoin code is open source for all to view and can be changed. This makes it very difficult to control by any central power.
Satoshi is a former NSA Employee
Another Conspiracy theory is that Satoshi was working for the NSA and had been part of a project that was using a technology that was incredibly secure because it wasn’t centralized and required very complex cryptography to operate. Satoshi stole this model and altered it so that it could be used by the people rather than being monopolized by the government. After he figured out a feasible way to make it work as a peer-to-peer network, he published the Bitcoin White Paper to get some tech experts to fine tune it. Ever since it began to catch on, Satoshi has been forced into hiding for fear of being exposed and sentenced to torture or even death.