Who Invented Bitcoin?
‘How do you find someone who has spent a lifetime covering his tracks? For some, he was a guardian angel. For others, a ghost, who never quite fit in.’

Where did Bitcoin come from? Who created it and why? What is its purpose? Could one person have really created it?
These are common questions within the cryptocurrency community.
In this post, we’ll explain the origins of Bitcoin, what we know about its creator, and some of the logical reasons for their anonymity.
The origins of Bitcoin
Bitcoin was officially born in January 2009, when a person or group going by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto released the open source code for the software.
Nakamoto mined the very first block of the first blockchain and left what has been variously interpreted as a statement, a clue, or a means of marking the date:‘The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.’
This is obviously a reference to a headline in The Times newspaper from that date. While it’s possible that Nakamoto just picked the first headline they saw on the nearest newspaper, and it was totally random, cryptocurrency enthusiasts tend to unanimously see it as a statement of intent. At the time, the 2008 financial crisis was still unravelling.
It’s assumed that Bitcoin was, at least in part, a reaction to the widespread anger and frustration at the existing financial system.
While Nakamoto stated that they began writing the code for Bitcoin in 2007, the first known public hint of its existence comes from August 2008, when someone registered the domain name for ‘bitcoin.org.’
A few months later, subscribers to an email list about cryptography received a paper entitled ‘ Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System’ with the name ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’ listed as the author.
Hal Finney, a well-known cypherpunk who was heavily involved in the community, received the first transaction. In a forum post from March 2013, Finney reflected on the experience:
‘I have always loved crypto, the mystery and the paradox of it. When Satoshi announced Bitcoin on the cryptography mailing list, he got a skeptical reception at best…I was more positive. I had long been interested in cryptographic payment schemes. Plus I was lucky enough to meet and extensively correspond with both Wei Dai [creator of b-money] and Nick Szabo [creator of bit gold]… I had made an attempt to create my own proof of work based currency, called RPOW.
So I found Bitcoin fascinating… When Satoshi announced the first release of the software, I grabbed it right away. I think I was the first person besides Satoshi to run bitcoin. I mined block 70-something, and I was the recipient of the first bitcoin transaction, when Satoshi sent ten coins to me as a test. I carried on an email conversation with Satoshi over the next few days
…Today, Satoshi’s true identity has become a mystery. But at the time, I thought I was dealing with a young man of Japanese ancestry who was very smart and sincere. I’ve had the good fortune to know many brilliant people over the course of my life, so I recognize the signs.’
In December 2010, Nakamoto passed the baton to software developer Gavin Andresen, thereby decentralising the network for good. They made their final forum post on December 12th, then continued responding sporadically to emails for a little longer, staying in touch with Andresen until at least April — before going quiet for good. Nakamoto reportedly asked Andresen to gloss over his anonymity when publicly discussing Bitcoin.
Although the network was decentralised, control of the code was arguably centralised up until then, as Nakamoto was the only one to make changes to it.
As far as we know, Nakamoto has not been involved in any of the changes made since then and has had no further input on their creation.
What do we know about Satoshi Nakamoto?

Nakamoto never shared much information about themselves
The only descriptors we have to go off are from their online profiles, where they claimed to be a Japanese man born in 1975. Even if that were true, it doesn’t narrow down the pool of suspects — but it’s probably not true
When you delve into Nakamoto’s forum posts and other writing, it’s clear something doesn’t add up. The timings of Nakamoto’s forum posts are inconsistent with someone living in Japan, unless they were practically nocturnal. That’s not impossible — after all, coders are often known for their erratic sleeping schedules — but it’s unlikely.
Then there’s the writing itself. Nakamoto frequently used British English and the syntax and grammar of a native speaker. None of the known instances of their writing, including labelling on the code, is in Japanese. For example, this extract from the original email to the cryptographic mailing list:
‘I made the proof-of-work difficulty ridiculously easy to start with, so for a little while in the beginning a typical PC will be able to generate coins in just a few hours. It’ll get a lot harder when competition makes the automatic adjustment drive up the difficulty.’
Plus there’s that reference to The Times newspaper — why reference a British newspaper if they were elsewhere? But this could also point to a team effort, as Nakamoto used American spellings elsewhere and is linked to activity in Finland, Germany and Japan. Obviously it’s not impossible for a Japanese speaker to known English as well as a native. So one of the two main facts Nakamoto shared about themselves is debatable.
And what about that listed birth date of April 5 1975?
It’s been pointed out that, like the reference to The Times, this may be a hint as to Nakamoto’s political views. On April 5 1933, president Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an order banning individuals from owning gold and punishing any violators with up to a decade in prison.
Then, in 1975, the US government overturned that order and everyone could own gold again. Seeing as the birth date is probably as fake as the name, that could be an interesting easter egg.
The prime suspects
This has led to speculation that Nakamoto is a well known figure within the cryptography community.
Nick Szabo, an iconic cryptographer and creator of Bitcoin precursor Bit Gold, is one of the strongest contenders. Seeing as Szabo grappled with many of the problems Nakamoto went on to solve and has in-depth relevant knowledge, it’s a logical theory. But Szabo has denied any involvement and there’s no concrete evidence of his involvement.
Computer scientist Craig Wright is considered another possibility, particularly as he claims to be Nakamoto and has a background in security, technology and finance. A lack of irrefutable evidence and controversy surrounded the proof Wright produced means his claims have been described as a hoax.
However, it’s possible (if not likely), that both Szabo and Wright were involved in the creation of Bitcoin. The extent of their involvement remains in question.
Aliens did it
The theories certainly don’t end there. Over the years, there have been some more offbeat suggestions.
Some cryptocurrency enthusiasts have pointed out that ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’ could be an amalgamation of the names of four major Asian technology companies: Samsung, Toshiba, Nakamichi, and Motorola. Could Bitcoin be a collaborative effort? If so, why and what’s the end game? And why haven’t these companies collaborated on any other projects?
Another suggestion is that Bitcoin might be the work of the CIA, or a similar government agency. The name ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’ roughly translates to ‘central intelligence.’ According to this theory, Nakamoto’s ability to remain anonymous indicates someone with intelligence training. But if the source is meant to be secret, why make the name a clue? And once again, what’s the motivation and the goal?
Then we move into the realm of even wilder theories. In a Medium post, Sahil Gupta linked Bitcoin to Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, citing his relevant technical knowledge and ability to quickly master new fields. Musk denies any involvement. Another theory suggests Nakamoto is in fact an advanced artificial intelligence (AI.) ‘Aliens did it’ is a staple conspiracy theory, so naturally it’s been suggested that Bitcoin is the brainchild of extraterrestrial beings. Time travel and Biblical prophecies have even been thrown into the mix.
Brilliant, but quirky
Those involved in the project’s early days, have remarked on the brilliance of his technical ability, while also saying it was unconventional.
Jeff Garzik, one of the early developers of Bitcoin, explained in an interview with CoinDesk:
“Satoshi was a fantastic designer and architect. He spent a couple of years thinking about the system, and then according to what he said, he had to write the system to prove to himself that it would work
…He was the oracle to which we would go for questions about the system, but he rarely followed standard engineering practices, like writing unit or stress tests or any of the standard qualitative analysis that we’d perform on software. Several things had to be disabled almost immediately upon public release of Bitcoin because they were obviously exploitable.”
There’s also the question of motivation. What would drive someone to create Bitcoin? It doesn’t seem to have been financial gain.
Nakamoto is believed to have mined around one million Bitcoin for themselves.
This fortune is worth billions and yet, aside from early test transactions, Nakamoto hasn’t touched it.
Why is Satoshi Nakamoto anonymous?
This is where we enter the realm of conspiracy theories, wild speculation, and endless analysis of the same few pieces of information.
The internet loves a good mystery, meaning that Nakamoto’s motivation has been the subject of countless debates.
One popular theory is that Nakamoto remains anonymous for either their own sake, or the sake of Bitcoin (or a combination of the two.)
Both are somewhat plausible.
If Nakamoto is indeed an individual, remaining anonymous would arguably be the best choice for their safety and sanity. If their identity were known, they would face constant scrutiny from the media, the cryptocurrency community, regulators and so on. Considering that Bitcoin poses a huge challenge to governments and the traditional financial industry, they would risk repercussions or even put their safety at risk.
Then there’s the matter of decentralisation. Bitcoin is meant to belong to everyone and no one, with all decisions decided by consensus.
If Nakamoto’s identity were known, they would inevitably be regarded as a leader of sorts and would have great influence over any decisions made about the network. That’s a huge burden and goes against their initial vision.
By remaining anonymous, Nakamoto has allowed Bitcoin to develop by itself, in response to the needs of its users.
One thing is very clear: whoever they are, they don’t want to be found.
The fact that no one has uncovered their identity in nine years shows that they made a serious effort to leave no trace behind. In a forum post, Hal Finney responded to the question of Nakamoto’s identity with a quote from Lois Lane in Man of Steel:
‘How do you find someone who has spent a lifetime covering his tracks? For some, he was a guardian angel. For others, a ghost, who never quite fit in.’
While we don’t have the answers, we do have a lot of questions. And we’re sure you do too.
But the ambiguity of Nakamoto’s identity means that the answers we favour often say more about us than they do about Bitcoin. Aliens, AI, government agencies, technology companies — Nakamoto is a blank screen we all project our own worldview onto.

