Nick Sabo

Nick Sabo is a programmer, cryptographer, lawyer, crypto punk, developer of the decentralized digital currency Bit Gold, a direct, though not very successful, predecessor to bitcoin, and author of the concept of smart contracts.

Despite the fact that Nick Sabo is a world-renowned scientist in the field of computer science, law and cryptography, he is a rather «closed» person. There is absolutely no information in the media about his life, except for his origin, place of study, and major achievements in science. Some English-language resources list his date of birth as April 5, 1964.

It is known that Nick was born into a Hungarian family living in the United States. His father fought against the communist regime in Hungary and was forced to leave his homeland. However, Nick Sabo was born in the United States, so he is considered the first Native American in his family.

Nick studied at the University of Washington, majoring in computer science and engineering, and after graduating in 1989, he started working.

The University of Washington is one of the oldest and largest public universities on the West Coast of the United States

Activities and scientific works of Nick Sabo. The concept of smart contracts

In the early 90s, Nick Sabo was fascinated by the history of the origin of money and was a supporter of «extrapolative» methods of life extension. There is information that in 1990 he was able to work with David Chaum on the DigiCash project.

Nick Sabo was active in two main areas: the judicial system and computer technology. In 1996, he managed to combine them and eventually get smart contracts, which are the main link of the entire Ethereum network.

A smart contract is a programmed logical chain with the conditions of the «If-Then» algorithm. In other words, a transaction in the blockchain is considered to be executed if all the conditions of the algorithm are met. For example, if party A sends 50 ETH to party B, the buyer receives ownership of an apartment or land plot.

Smart contracts allow the participation of several interested buyers at once. Such algorithms can be used to exchange any kind of value. At the same time, a smart contract guarantees that all the terms and conditions of the parties to the transaction are met. The only difficulty is that only a coin from the smart contract’s own ecosystem can be used as a means of exchange.

Smart contracts are analogous to a contract or a registration signature. In addition, the difference lies in the medium of exchange and the automation of all processes. Smart algorithms receive information from the outside world with the help of oracles. They check information about the terms of the transaction before implementing the algorithm. For example, the price of an asset or the market value of a land plot.

A smart contract solves three problems at once:

• There is no need to involve specialists. Moreover, additional costs for lawyers, notaries, or guarantors can be avoided. The ecosystem is independent of outsiders. All decisions are made within the algorithm;
• Security. The algorithm encrypts all information. Undoubtedly, the participants of the smart contract are completely anonymous. The data is duplicated several times in copies of the blockchain, so it is impossible to substitute the terms or change the original data of the transaction;
• Exact fulfillment of the terms and conditions. The system lacks bureaucracy and the risk of making mistakes in the terms and conditions due to the human factor. This is available thanks to automation.

Smart contracts can be used in almost any area of life to make transactions secure and to ensure that all conditions are met. They can be easily applied, for example, in finance or even in political elections.

BitGold

Nick’s next step was to develop a technology that could make the Internet currency decentralized and independent of states and governments. This project was called BitGold, but for some reason it was not realized. Perhaps the world was not yet ready for this type of asset, as the Internet was just emerging at the time, and it was vital for the use of BitGold.

Nevertheless, the technologies developed by Nick Sabo were used for the Bitcoin cryptocurrency. The essence of Nick’s technology was that all network participants directed the power of their computing resources to solving puzzles on the network. The principle of solving puzzles was such that the solution of the 1st puzzle was part of the task of the 2nd puzzle, and so on. All solutions were sent to a common transaction log, where they were recorded. All these developments became the starting point for the creation of Bitcoin.

Nick Sabo, Satoshi Nakamoto and Bitcoin

Due to the fact that the creator of the Bitcoin cryptocurrency is hiding behind the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, the crypto community began to search for the person who created the decentralized Internet currency and presented it to the world. One of the people who fits the image of the mystical Satoshi was Nick Sabo.

Firstly, 10 years before the Bitcoin network was launched, Sabo created some of the theories behind it.

Secondly, more than six months before bitcoin was released to the public, Nick published a message on his blog about looking for people to help him write code for BitGold.

It is also noteworthy that after the first version of the Bitcoin network was launched, Nick changed the date of this post from April to December 2008. And while Satoshi was working on the bitcoin code, Sabo never wrote about it on his blog.

Thirdly, Nick Sabo knew Hal Finney, the first recipient of a BTC transaction and the creator of the Proof of Work (PoW) technology that underpins Bitcoin.

Finally, a linguistic examination of Nick Sabo’s work and the Bitcoin White Paper showed that all the documents have a great deal of similarity.

The «most ridiculous similarity» between Satoshi and Nick that crypto enthusiasts have found is the anagram «SABOSHI NIKAMOTO». However, Nick Sabo denies the crypto community’s assumption that he is the creator of BTC.

Other information

• In order to create a project that could change the world of financial settlements, Nick Sabo also received a law degree from the University of Washington in 2000;
• Nick runs his own blog where he shares his ideas (he has published over 500 ideas since 2005).