Who is behind the name Satoshi Nakamoto?
In this Video and article, we have a look at who Satoshi Nakamoto could be.
Satoshi Nakamoto has just been named the 44th most powerful person in finance by worth.com This places the mythical character, or in my opinion, the team of people, above the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, Kristalina Georgieva, and Paul Krugman.
Bitcoin 10 years in and we still have no idea who Satoshi is
I have been educating people on Bitcoin for a few years now and explaining that Bitcoin was created by an anonymous person or group remains harder than teaching them about mining, cryptography, what peer to peer is, almost any aspect of Bitcoin including Blockchains.
Satoshi Nakamoto, in my opinion, made the decision to remain anonymous and in doing so created decentralisation of Bitcoin. This effectively gives us something with no one in control, no central point of failure and something that cannot be shut down by anyone. This also gives us one amazing fairytale-like story.
Satoshi Nakamoto White Paper
Most people in Bitcoin, or outside of it, have read the white paper Satoshi gave us. It is surprisingly short, consisting of only nine pages and is not that hard to follow. I encourage you to have a look at our fundamental Bitcoin resources here. There is also an audio version in the link provided.
Who could Satoshi Nakamoto be?
This list is in no particular order, but we have started it with the only person that I am aware of, who has actually claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto.
Craig Wright
Craig Wright has claimed to be Satoshi in the past. You can see that footage in the video to this article. Wright is the head of the recent Hard Fork of Bitcoin cash, Bitcoin SV. More on Bitcoin SV and Craig Wright in this article. Wright is a brash outspoken kind of person, and I like him for that. No doubt he has been around Bitcoin from the early days and no doubt he has had influence in the space.
Dorian Nakamoto
Dorian Nakamoto’s house was set upon by world media in a piss your pants funny moment in the hunt for Satoshi Nakamoto. I don’t think anyone believes he is Satoshi but in a strange twist, he lives a couple of miles away of another person people have believed to be Satoshi, Hal Finney.
Hal Finney
Finney received the first Bitcoin transaction from Satoshi. He and his family denied that he was in fact Satoshi. A computer Scientist of the highest order, Finney died around the time of Satoshi disappearance leading many to believe it must be him.
Nick Szabo
Szabo not only created the phrase and concept of smart contracts, but also a digital currency called Bitgold in 1998. These are solid credentials for him being Satoshi and along with linguistic studies suggesting it is him have many believing he is the mythical Satoshi Nakamoto.
Elon Musk
Yes, Elon Musk has been fingered as being Satoshi by a former intern at SpaceX. I think Elon is an Alien and could invent anything so it is possible but highly unlikely.
There is a theory that Samsung, Toshiba, Nakamichi, and Motorola together created Bitcoin. Check out the Japanese companies names when put together!!
– Samsung and Toshiba together makes —- Satoshi
– Nakamichi and Motorola together makes —- Nakamoto
I personally do not think this is worth considering but you must admit, it is kind of weird.
What is Satoshi Nakamoto worth?
Estimates are that Satoshi Nakamoto has one million Bitcoins. This is worth Billions of dollars.
One million Bitcoin is a huge number. It is around 5% of the current supply. Whilst big institutions already own large amounts of Bitcoin, Grey Scale, for example, owns 1%, there is the concern that these coins dumped on the market would create havoc. Personally, I think Satoshi would not do this and even if this happened the community could Hard Fork Bitcoin to render any such action useless.
Satoshi Nakamoto – Summary
Not knowing who Satoshi is, adds to what Bitcoin is. Yes, for many it makes it something to brush off, but for me, I think there is brilliance behind the fact He, She, They have stayed anonymous. What they have given us will change society. This will take time but we are just 10 years in and I see Bitcoin being a global reserve currency in my lifetime. It is a pleasure to be involved in these very early stages. I hope you join me in learning more and helping others understand what we have. Happy 10th Birthday Bitcoin.