Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?

Satoshi Nakamoto is the pseudonym that created the cryptocurrency bitcoin. Satoshi Nakamoto's true identity is unknown, and the name has been associated with a number of different people over the years.

To this day, it is unclear who or what collective is behind the invention of bitcoin. The pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto must have an above-average high know-how in the field of programming, cryptography and in addition an economic understanding.

Was Satoshi Nakamoto a Cypherpunk?

In October 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto published the bitcoin whitepaper via the Cypherpunk mailing list. Never before had he posted to this mailing list. Also never before had anyone known this name in relation to cryptography, digital cash, or peer-to-peer networks.

Satoshi Nakamoto gave himself the male gender in an online forum and as birthday the 5th of April 1976. Probably a reference to April 5, 1933, when the U.S. government banned the public from private gold ownership.

Publication bitcoin Whitepaper

On October 31, 2008, Satoshi Nakmoto published the bitcoin whitepaper. The same day that Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of Wittenberg Castle Church on October 31, 1517. Martin Luther turned against the power of the church. Satoshi Nakamoto challenged the power of states and central banks. His thought behind this was probably to separate governments from the monopoly of money and its creation.

Interest in bitcoin was limited at first. Nevertheless, the whitepaper piqued the interests of a few people, including Hal Finney, who received the first Bitcoin transaction from Satoshi Nakamoto a few months later.

Birth of bitcoin

On January 3, 2009, a few months after the bitcoin whitepaper was published, the first block in the bitcoin blockchain was mined. This block, the Genesis block, contained the following message, «Chancellor on brink of second bank bailout.» This referred to a headline that appeared on the front page of the British newspaper «The Times».

The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.

This was intended as evidence that the block was created on or after January 3, 2009, and as a commentary on the instability caused by fractional reserve banking. Satoshi Nakamoto made it clear with this message that he is not a proponent for the current financial system. Bitcoin was born on that day.

Satoshi Nakamoto disappears.

Between 2008 and 2010, Satoshi Nakamoto was in contact with various other developers on the Bitcoin Forum. In 2011, interest around the identity behind Satoshi Nakamoto increased. This could be one of the main reasons why the inventor completely disappeared from the digital public that year.

There are various speculations that Satoshi Nakamoto may have passed away. As the bitcoin sitting on his supposed addresses have still never been moved. Others assume that Satoshi Nakamoto finished with the Bitcoin project after he put the network in the hands of the community.

Satoshi Nakamoto's fortune.

Between January 3, 2009 (Genesis Block) and January 25, 2010, a total of 1,814,400 bitcoin were mined. A large percentage of these were never spent. At that time, the hash rate was very low. From this, it can be concluded that the dominance of computing power consisted of individual miners. Accordingly, it is obvious that these belong to one entity and that it is probably Satoshi Nakomoto.

So who is Satoshi Nakamoto?

The truth is, we don't know. Was it one person? A group? A company, even an intelligence agency or government?

We lack definitive proof of the bitcoins creator's identity. It may have been a collaborative effort from the cypherpunk circle. But until the final, cryptographic proof, one has to settle for various speculations.