Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?

As part of our ongoing series exploring the basics behind Bitcoin, today we’re exploring the cryptocurrency’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto.

What we know

In August 2008, someone anonymously registered the domain name, bitcoin.org.

In October 2008, an author who went by the name Satoshi Nakamoto published a paper on a mailing list at metzdowd.com — a site for cryptography fans.

The paper called, Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System explained how a digital currency called Bitcoin would work.

In the very first block also referred to as the ‘genesis block’ Nakamoto left a text message.

‘The Times 3 January 2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks’

It refers to an article published by The Times newspaper and offers tantalizing clues to who Nakamoto might be.

For the next 10 days Nakamoto was the only miner, harvesting more than 1 million bitcoins.

On April 23, 2011, Satoshi Nakamoto sent its final email.

“I’ve moved on to other things. It’s in good hands with Gavin and everyone.”

He/She/They handed over the source code to the Bitcoin repository and disappeared.

All activity from Nakamoto stopped soon afterwards.

The wallets tied to Satoshi have never been accessed or spent since mid-2009.

Who is he/she/they?

Many have tried to uncover the secret identity of Nakamoto.

Some have said it’s an amalgam of different companies:

• Samsung and Toshiba together makes — — Satoshi
• Nakamichi and Motorola together makes — — Nakamoto

Others have pointed to several individuals. Chief among them are:

• 👨‍💻Nick Szabo — a US computer scientist who created an ancestor of Bitcoin
• 👨‍🎤 Craig Steven Wright — an Australian entrepreneur who convinced the BBC and others.
• 👨‍🔬 Dorian Nakamoto — a physicist and systems engineer based in California
• 👨‍🚀Hal Finney — a cryptographer and early developer of Bitcoin who died in 2014.

Some have said it’s a collection of different people.

No one seems to know for sure. 🤷

Want to know more?

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