Satoshi Nakamoto
Satoshi Nakamoto is the father of bitcoin, a man of mystery, and the author of the Bitcoin White Paper, which is dedicated to the study of digital currency.
In the Bitcoin White Paper published in 2009, Nakamoto stated his age as 37. Thus, the year of birth of the man who revolutionized the global financial system is 1972. According to another version, published in the profile of the P2P non-bank fund, Nakamoto was born on April 5, 1975 in Japan.
However, there is no accurate information about the mysterious genius' hometown, family, or education. Satoshi’s country of origin is also in doubt. According to some experts, the Japanese was too easy and natural in expressing his thoughts in English.
Currently, nothing is known about the «father of bitcoin». In 2011, he disappeared as suddenly as he appeared. The majority of the crypto community is inclined to believe that Satoshi Nakamoto, who revolutionized the digital space by introducing bitcoin to the world in 2009, is a group of developers, not a single person. Discussions on the mysterious personality of Satoshi Nakamoto and his unexplained disappearance have not subsided to this day.
Satoshi Nakamoto and the creation of Bitcoin
2007 — According to Satoshi himself, work on the Bitcoin protocol begins.
August 2008 — Satoshi creates the bitcoin.org website using the anonymousspeech.com service. This allows him to maintain his anonymity.
October 2008 — Satoshi publishes his paper «Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System». Many people recognized the author as a Japanese, but it is worth noting that the paper was written in perfect English.
January 3, 2009 — the first genesis block was generated, laying the foundation for the Bitcoin network. The first 50 BTC were mined in the network, and their records were registered in the first block. Interestingly, these first 50 BTC remained at their address. Due to an unsolved tricky way of writing the code, they can neither be moved to another address nor spent.
January 9, 2009 — version 0.1 of the software is released, available for download and use by everyone.
January 12, 2009 — the first ever transaction in the Bitcoin network is made. The coins were transferred from Satoshi’s address to the address of American programmer Hal Finney, who became the world’s first bitcoin holder.
February 6, 2010 — Bitcoin Market, the first official platform for trading in CTS, is launched. The launch of the exchange greatly facilitated the lives of ordinary users who previously had to trade bitcoin in chats and forums.
May 22, 2010 — Laszlo Heinitz, a programmer from Florida, offered to pay with bitcoins for the purchase of two pizzas on the Bitcointalk forum, announcing the amount of 10,000 BTC. Another programmer, Jeremy Sturdivant, responded to this announcement by ordering the delivery. This was the first precedent for bitcoin being used to pay for real goods in the real world.
2010 — Satoshi, together with other developers, continues to work on modifying the BTC protocol.
April 23, 2011 — Satoshi Nakamoto publishes his farewell post, announcing that he is switching to other projects. He entrusts the fate of his brainchild in the hands of Gavin Andresen and other programmers.
Since then, experts have made many attempts to unravel the mystery of Satoshi’s identity, but they have not been convincing enough.
Contenders for Satoshi Nakamoto’s laurels
There are several popular answers to the question of who Satoshi Nakamoto is. Among them, there are four most common versions:
1. Dorian Nakamoto.
This was the first high-profile attempt to reveal the founder of Bitcoin. In March 2014, Newsweek published an article about Dorian Nakamoto, whom it called the creator of the cryptocurrency. The article made a lot of noise. Dorian Nakamoto actually looked similar: Japanese surname, Asian appearance, which is what a Japanese surname implies, libertarian views (like most cryptographers), and a computer engineer by profession.
But these turned out to be just coincidences. In an interview, Dorian Nakamoto allegedly said: «I've given up bitcoin,» but later said he had misunderstood the question. Nakamoto told the Associated Press that he had nothing to do with bitcoin.
2. Craig Wright.
In 2016, software engineer Craig Wright claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, although crypto activists generally believe that several programmers have worked under this name. Since then, Wright has not been able to take any of the bitcoins that are on Satoshi’s wallets. In 2019, Wright claimed his copyright to the white paper (development plan) and the bitcoin source code at the US Patent and Trademark Office.
However, this does not mean that he is recognized as the founder of the cryptocurrency or the owner of exclusive copyrights to its code. Under US law, an unlimited number of people can assert their rights. In response, the Cryptocurrency Open Patent Alliance (COPA) filed a lawsuit against Wright demanding that he recognize that he had nothing to do with the creation of the main bitcoin document. These proceedings are still in progress. In January 2021, Craig Wright accused the website bitcoin.org and its anonymous owner under the pseudonym Cobra of infringing his copyright to the white paper. On June 28, the High Court of London issued a default judgment, as the defendant, one of the opinion leaders in the cryptocurrency industry, did not defend himself by remaining anonymous.
3. Nick Sabo.
The lawyer and cryptographer is known as one of the pioneers in the field of smart contracts and cryptocurrency. He presented the concept of smart contracts in a scientific article back in 1996. In 2008, Sabo created the concept of a decentralized currency called Bit Gold, which is considered to be the predecessor of Bitcoin. Szabo called Bit Gold «a protocol by which non-counterfeit, high-value bits can be created online with minimal reliance on trusted third parties.» This is similar to the concept of bitcoin, whereby a series of bits created by a network of computers without a master station verifies and validates transactions.
Dominic Frisby in his book «Bitcoin: The Future of Money?» claims that Nick Szabo is Satoshi Nakamoto. Frisby consulted with a stylometry specialist who concluded that Sabo’s writing style is similar to Satoshi’s famous works. Another coincidence is that both Sabo and Satoshi refer to the economist Carl Menger. In addition, Frisby learned that Szabo worked for DigiCash, a project that made the first attempt to introduce cryptography into digital payments.
4. Hal Finney.
The aforementioned programmer claimed to have been in contact with Satoshi, providing him with support in the process of testing the project. He also became the first recipient of a money transfer made in bitcoin. Hal suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and died in 2014.
Satoshi’s legacy
Satoshi Nakamoto went down in history not just as the developer of the first digital currency. The crypto community is still guided by his initial philosophy and concept of bitcoin development. In addition, all participants in the cryptocurrency ecosystem are interested in his personality for purely utilitarian reasons. That is why the Internet query «Satoshi Nakamoto capital» does not leave the first places of search engine rankings.
Presumably, the BTC creator remains the owner of a large amount of bitcoin. At the same time, Satoshi Nakamoto’s wallet is unknown to the crypto community, so it is impossible to say how much cryptocurrency he has.
According to some estimates, the developer’s reserves may exceed $ 1 billion. Meanwhile, the total limit of the BTC issue is limited to 21 million bitcoins. Accordingly, if the developer’s bitcoins suddenly start moving, it could affect the entire crypto market.
In 2021, the first-ever monument to Satoshi Nakamoto was erected in BudapestNowadays, the personality of Satoshi Nakamoto is shrouded in such a legendary halo that even if the real Satoshi suddenly makes himself known, he will have to work hard to prove that he is not just another imposter. According to Bitcoin News, anyone who claims to be Satoshi but cannot show that they have access to the wealth of the real cryptocurrency pioneer can be considered an imposter.