The first Bitcoin (BTC) was mined in 2009 by a person only known as Satoshi Nakamoto. Now, Nakamoto is considered a pseudonym of one person or several people who created the most popular crypto.
Who Exactly is Satoshi Nakamoto?
Nakamoto was familiar among cryptography enthusiasts, hackers, and scientists in computing before the Bitcoin boom. Someone had posted messages in online boards which corresponded to developers through email under the same name several years before. It is believed that the individual (S) behind the pseudonym was responsible for the communications.
Before the first Bitcoin was mined, Satoshi Nakamoto published a white paper in October 2008 titled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.” Nakamoto indicated that BTC was a purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash” that “would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution or any intermediary.”
Possible Identities of Satoshi Nakamoto
Although Nakamoto’s identity remains a mystery, his goal for creating Bitcoin is not. The primary aim was to help take financial control from the centralized organizations and give it back to the people. This means that they could participate in a decentralized financial system. Three years after publishing the Bitcoin white paper, Nakamoto bowed out. On April 23, 2011, Nakamoto sent an email to another developer and indicated he/she had moved to other things. So, who are the possible figures likely to be Satoshi Nakamoto?
- Dorian Nakamoto: In 2014, an article known as “The Face Behind Bitcoin” was published by journalist Leah McGrath Goodman, identifying Dorian Nakamoto as the Bitcoin creator. Goodman noted the similarities between the two Nakamotos, including Japanese descent, temperaments, mathematical skills, and political leanings. However, Satoshi Nakamoto confirmed that they are not Dorian Nakamoto.
- Craig Wright: Wright, an Australian computer scientist, claimed that he was behind the Nakamoto pseudonym. He indicated this in 2016 following a Wired Magazine release of his profile. Despite providing leaked emails, and correspondences on peer-2-peer distributed ledger, evidence came to light showing that Wright was not Nakamoto.
- Nick Szabo: Szabo is a crypto expert and has been suspected to be the Nakamoto. In 2015, the New York Times carried a post named “Decoding the Enigma of Satoshi Nakamoto and Birth of Bitcoin.” Szabo is the pioneer of the Smart Contracts concept in one of the papers he wrote back in 1996 known as “Smart Contracts: Building Blocks for Digital Markets.” He also conceptualized Bit Gold, a decentralized form of currency and precursor to Bitcoin.
In his book, “Bitcoin: The Future of Money,” Dominic Frisby, one of the renowned authors, believes that Szabo is the Nakamoto. However, Szabo refutes the allegations.
Satoshi Nakamoto Truth and Mysteries
Despite the media’s effort to trace and reveal who Satoshi Nakamoto is, he remains a mysterious figure with a well-known persona. So, here are some bits of what we know about Nakamoto:
- Nakamoto is a coding genius.
- Fluent in British English
- Satoshi Nakamoto might be a misnomer for more than one person.
- No one is sure if Nakamoto is female or male.
The good news is that although Nakamoto’s identity is a mystery, the creation he/she introduced to the globe is burgeoning. There are more than 18,000 cryptos today, and the list is still growing. However, Bitcoin needs to evolve with the changing market dynamics to be able to compete competitively.
- Read more: Who is the Mysterious Bitcoin Creator
