Anybody can appreciate a good mystery. One of the biggest enigmas of the twenty-first century stems from the cryptosphere: Who Is Satoshi Nakamoto?

Nakamoto is the unidentified person who asserts to have invented Bitcoin (BTC), the first cryptocurrency ever.

There is little doubt that the person or people who founded Bitcoin under the alias Satoshi Nakamoto, but nobody is certain of their identity.

Satoshi Nakamoto: What Do We Know?

We are aware of who invented Bitcoin: Nakamoto. According to the well-known Bitcoin white paper “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System,” which was posted online in October 2008, this statement is accurate.

The white paper that described the theoretical and organizational framework of the Bitcoin payment system was written by Nakamoto.

On the P2P Foundation forum in February 2009, Nakamoto posted the first message ever about cryptocurrencies.

“I’ve built a new open source P2P e-cash system called Bitcoin,” wrote Nakamoto in this post. Because everything is based on crypto proof rather than on trust, there is no central server and no trusted third parties. Try it out or look at the screenshots and design paper instead.

Many millions of individuals have taken his counsel since his initial publication.

The data that makes up the Bitcoin blockchain was being verified by at least 1 million miners by 2021. The estimated 100 million or more people who currently own Bitcoin are not all represented by the 1 million miners.

Currently, Bitcoin has surpassed all other major cryptocurrencies including Ethereum (ETH), Binance Coin (BNB), Cardano (ADA), and many others in terms of market cap.

However, despite the soaring value and widespread use of BTC, Satoshi Nakomoto’s identity remains a mystery.

Does Satoshi Nakamoto Exist?

The identity of Satoshi Nakamoto is at least partially real. We are aware of this since someone wrote the white paper, emails, and forum posts regarding Bitcoin as well as its source code.

However, Nakamoto’s final email was sent in April 2011. The Bitcoin inventor stated he had “gone onto other things” in a brief message to a fellow developer.

In March 2014, a final forum post with Nakamoto’s name on it was published.

When a Japanese-American physicist named Dorian Nakamoto was cited as the originator of Bitcoin at that time, Nakamoto simply responded, “I am not Dorian Nakamoto.”

Nakamoto, who in the early days of Bitcoin was actively collaborating with other developers, has completely disappeared since this message.

But there are a few things about Nakamoto that are certain.

First, it is believed that Nakamoto most likely resided in one of three countries—the United Kingdom, the United States East Coast, or the West Coast—when writing about cryptocurrencies. This is based on the time stamps on Nakamoto’s postings and emails.

Second, Nakamoto was known to spell some nouns with an additional “U” in the British/Commonwealth rather than the American “favor.” Because of this, some have conjectured that Nakamoto is British or received his education there.

Third, Satoshi Nakamoto is unquestionably a millionaire given the quantity of Bitcoin that has been linked to wallets that are thought to be his. However, none of that Bitcoin has ever been taken out of, let alone moved to, one of those wallets.

Therefore, it is very plausible that Satoshi Nakamoto is a real person. Satoshi Nakamoto is most likely not the real name of the individual, despite the fact that it has been impossible for the world to locate them.

Elon Musk: the real Satoshi Nakamoto?

Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX, has been suggested by some to be Satoshi Nakamoto.

Sahil Gupta’s blog article on the website Medium appears to be where the rumor first surfaced.

Gupta, who worked as an intern for Musk’s SpaceX business, said the billionaire’s knowledge and passions might have inspired him to create a cryptocurrency similar to Bitcoin.

But Musk disputes this assertion.

Satoshi Nakamoto: Suspicious Personas

Numerous speculations exist regarding Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity. Some say the name refers to a team of developers, while others think it refers to a single individual.

Regardless of which scenario is true, a few individuals have acquired greater support as potential candidates for the identity of Bitcoin’s mysterious founder. Some of the more well-known theories are listed here.

Craig Wright: Who Is He?

Craig Wright is a computer scientist from Australia. Additionally, he is the only one to officially claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto.

Two different magazines, Wired and Gizmodo, both published articles in December 2015 suggesting that Wright might have been the creator of Bitcoin. Following these reports, Australian authorities searched Wright’s residence as part of a tax office inquiry.

Wright has continued to identify as Satoshi Nakamoto despite the magazine stories’ later debunking.

In April 2019, Wright received both of the U.S. copyrights he sought for the Bitcoin white paper and its early code. Therefore, despite the fact that anybody can submit a copyright application, ownership documentation is not always implied by the award itself.

Wright filed a libel lawsuit against blogger and British journalist Peter McCormack after the latter alleged Wright was not Nakamoto. Wright was consequently given one British pound in damages.

Wright was found to have provided “deliberately misleading evidence” in support of his assertion that he was Satoshi Nakamoto, which is why the compensation was so meager.

Wright also sent a letter to Norwegian blogger “hodlonaut” threatening legal action if he didn’t recant claims that he wasn’t Nakamoto. Wright’s motion was denied by Hodlonaut, and the matter was ultimately dismissed in British courts.

A Norwegian court will hear testimony in a countercase hodlonaut has filed against Wright this September.

Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?
Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?

Dorian Nakamoto: Who Is He?

Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, a Japanese-American physicist living in California, was revealed to be Satoshi Nakamoto’s real name in a story published in Newsweek magazine in March 2014.

Nakamoto swiftly refuted the assertion, though. He responded to the Newsweek report by claiming that it had caused him and his family “a tremendous deal of worry and stress.”

Furthermore, he added, “I did not invent, create, or otherwise work on Bitcoin. I categorically refute the Newsweek report.

Nakamoto reportedly had been out of work for more than ten years and had stopped using the internet in 2013 when he was unable to pay the fee. He claimed that up until his son brought up Bitcoin the next year after being contacted by a reporter, he had never even heard of the cryptocurrency.

A funding campaign for a lawsuit against the magazine was subsequently initiated by Nakamoto.

Nick Szabo: Who Is He?

In the late 1990s, computer engineer and cryptographer Nick Szabo created one of the earliest attempts at decentralized money. Bit Gold was the name of it.

Even while Bit Gold had some similarities to the eventual Bitcoin project, its entire scope was never made public until 2005. The Bit Gold project itself wasn’t finished even then.

Regardless, Szabo’s work is now recognized as one of the key precursors of Bitcoin, and some in the community speculate that he could even be Satoshi Nakamoto. In a podcast, even Musk expressed his conviction that Szabo is Nakamoto.

Nick Szabo appears to be, more than anybody else, responsible for the development of those ideas, according to Musk.

Szabo, on the other hand, has always refuted these rumors.

Hal Finney: Who Is He?

The first-ever transfer of Bitcoin was made in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto himself to cryptographer Hal Finney. Many people believe that Finney, using the alias Satoshi Nakamoto, simply sent the first Bitcoins from himself to himself.

The fact that Finney was the first individual to download Bitcoin’s software after Nakamoto supplied the link is sometimes used to support this assertion. However, in his own words, Finney turned off his Bitcoin mining after a few days because it caused his computer to “run hot.”

Finney’s early communications with Nakamoto were eventually made public. These conversations took place between the time Nakamoto published the Bitcoin white paper and when Finney first started using the program.

Publishing the email exchange simply served to strengthen the myth that Finney was Nakamoto due to timing differences between the computers of the two correspondents.

Finney, who passed away from Lou Gehrig’s disease at the age of 58 in 2014, steadfastly maintained that he was Nakamoto.

How Much Is Satoshi Nakamoto Worth?

Due to the anonymity of Bitcoin and the fact that investigators are unable to determine which wallets Satoshi Nakamoto owns, it is unknown how much Satoshi Nakamoto is worth.

Nakamoto is believed to be the owner of at least 1 million Bitcoins. Nakamoto is likely the owner of about $20 billion worth of bitcoins, based on current pricing.

But since it was first mined, presumably by Nakamoto, not a single Bitcoin has ever been taken out of any of its wallets, with the exception of the initial 10 BTC delivered to Hal Finney in 2009. However, the worth of this Bitcoin may be one factor in Nakamoto’s desire to maintain anonymity.

The wealth that Bitcoin has created has the potential to upend anyone’s life. Not to add that the Bitcoin inventor might suffer severe repercussions from evil people or even governments.

Many individuals are left to wonder: Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? Exists a living originator of Bitcoin? What keeps him, her, or they from coming forward? Will we ever learn the identity of the mysterious genius who created one of the most significant financial innovations of the twenty-first century?

Many blockchain specialists believe we’ll never have the answers to any of these concerns, including Andrew Lokenauth, the creator of the financial information website Fluent in Finance. But it’s undeniable that whoever invented Bitcoin desired to maintain their anonymity for one reason or another, and they did a commendable job at it.

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Author: Editor

Samantha Evans serves as a senior writer and editor-in-chief for News Bucket. With over 15 years of journalism experience, she oversees News Bucket's content strategy and works closely with writers to edit articles across sections. Samantha holds a master's degree in journalism from Dowling College. When not working, she enjoys hiking and spending time with her family.