February 16, 2025

Satoshi Nakamoto – who created bitcoin?

Satoshi Nakamoto - who created Bitcoin?

The Bitcoin (BTC) white paper was published more than 10 years ago, but the identity of its author still remains a mystery. Human,hiding under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, turned the global financial system and leaving the last message: “I'm busy right now, things are in good hands"- disappeared, as suddenly as it appeared.

However, the idea of ​​​​using cryptography forguarantees of anonymity in the Internet space are far from new. Back in the 90s of the last century, an informal cypherpunk movement arose. These people actively used cryptography to send hidden messages online, and even tried to create an anonymous digital networkB-moneyto make hidden payments between memberstheir groups. The B-money system used the Proof-of-Work security algorithm, but unlike Bitcoin, it needed a central server, so it did not find support in the community.

Already in the third millennium, the famous cryptographerNick Szaboproposed to create a peer-to-peer payment networkBit Gold. He asked other programmers to help him compose the program code, however, he was not heard. There were only a few months left before the release of the first cryptocurrency Bitcoin.

Who invented Bitcoin?

In the fall of 2008, a new domain appeared on the Internetbitcoin.organd began sending out emails fromhitherto unknown Satoshi Nakamoto. In his letters, he outlined in detail the concept of a new generation of electronic money, the use of which will not require intermediaries and external regulators. In the peer-to-peer Bitcoin network, everyone is their own master and no bank can prohibit a transaction from being executed. A new era of decentralized payments has begun.

The cryptocurrency developer BTC has always come out inInternet through a Tor-browser, which allowed to maintain complete anonymity. He stated that he was a resident of the Land of the Rising Sun, but wrote his texts in perfect English. Those who talked with Satoshi Nakamoto in the forums are sure that he has passed specialized education. Many experts in the field of economics and computer science consider this person a genius.

However, one cannot even be sure that under a pseudonymSatoshi nakamoto belongs to one specific individual, and not to a group of people. Infamous programmerLaszlo Heinitz, the very lucky owner of a pizza for 10,000BTC, said that the Bitcoin code was written too perfectly for one person. It would be unlikely to find a specialist who has studied cryptography, network architecture, software architecture and cybersecurity so well at the same time. True, not everyone shares his opinion.

Famous white hat hackerDan Kaminskywho tried to crack the BTC code in 2011, after the ninth unsuccessful attempt, he said:

This is unbelievable. I came across a world-class programmer who is fluent in C ++. The creator of Bitcoin is a highly qualified specialist in the field of economics, cryptography and peer-to-peer networks. Maybe this is a whole team, but if not, then this guy is a genius".

And even so far no one has ever succeededhack the Bitcoin code. However, like Ether or any other serious cryptocurrency built on the blockchain. But that’s not what we’re talking about now, let’s get back to our hero.

So who is hiding under the name SatoshiNakamoto, a brilliant scientist? A group of enthusiasts? Or maybe the American intelligence services, as one of the leaders of Kaspersky Lab said in a speech to ITMO students in St. Petersburg in 2012.

What is known about the identity of the creator of bitcoin?

The Story of Satoshi Nakamoto Must Beginfrom information according to which it is not known for certain whether he is one person, or whether a group of persons is hidden behind the submitted pseudonym. Despite the lack of accurate data, most crypto users are inclined to believe that Satoshi is one person.

His identity is so shrouded in mystery that no oneit is not even certain which language is his native language. There are a number of versions based on the study of documents published on the network and the correspondence of Satoshi with programmers. Below are two of the most popular:

  • The native language of the creator of Bitcoin is English. Argument — When communicating with other people and in his works, he made virtually no mistakes in writing in English.
  • Satoshi is originally from Japan (he stated this inpersonal profile at the P2P Foundation) and, accordingly, speaks Japanese, but for unknown reasons, he moved to the United States, where he later learned to master English fluently. Some experts note that in his speech word forms are often found that are popular for use in the southern part of the USA.

Almost all the information on which to buildspeculation about the details of Nakamoto’s personality was taken from his Internet track: including his correspondence with programmers. The key characteristics of Satoshi researchers include the following qualities: polite, courteous, educated, intelligent.

What does the name Satoshi Nakamoto mean?

Translated from Japanese into Russian, Satoshi means "wise, resourceful, thinking clearly" It must be said that you don’t meet a Japanese person with that name very often, and besides, they don’t write the first name before the last name.

Nakamoto translates as "living in the middle." Unlike the name Satoshi, this surname is quite widespread on the islands of Anami, Okinawa and Sakishima. The name Satoshi Nakamoto can be translated as "a sage living in the middle."

It is believed that the name Satoshi Nakamoto is an anagram. One version of its decryption: “I am NSA, took oaths"(I took the oath of the NSA). Or it was made up of the names of technology consortia.

  • Samsung and Toshiba(Satoshi);
  • Nakamichi and Motorola(Nakamoto).

However, this is just a guess of the supporters of the "conspiracy theory."

It’s possible that Satoshi Nakamoto is an alias, buta person with such passport data really exists. True, he categorically stated that he was not the creator of Bitcoin. In addition to him, several more real people are suitable for this role. Let's talk about each of them in order.

Views of Satoshi Nakamoto

Bitcoin creator adheres tolibertarian views. Not that he had tough anti-government sentiments, but he tried to transfer control of personal finances to people not connected with the global banking system, and also to save people from compulsory taxation.

In the Genesis bitcoin block, which is often referred to as block 0 or block 1, Satoshi has embedded the message in the coinbase parameter:

Satoshi Nakamoto - who created Bitcoin?

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“The Times 03 / Jan / 2009 Chancellor on the verge of the second phase of saving banks through bail-out.”

The term “bail-out” means saving banks at the expense of the state.

Of course, this is not necessarily political.a statement and could just serve as a time stamp to prove that the Genesis block was created on January 3, 2009 or later. However, many consider this message to be a recognition of the ability of central banks to print an infinite amount of currency at their discretion, slowly destabilizing it and reducing its value, without providing the public with any reporting of their actions. By creating a digital currency, the maximum amount of which is determined at the level of mathematical calculations, nullifies the chances of bitcoin inflation.

Despite mining around 980,000 BTC, the addressSatoshi Nakamoto’s wallet was used for only one transaction, which was supposed to clearly demonstrate the functionality of the cryptocurrency. Why has he never touched his capital since then? Below are the supposed reasons why the creator of Bitcoin never moved his coins:

  • as the creator of bitcoin, he knew that in factin fact, this digital currency is not completely anonymous, therefore, by moving the coins, he could accidentally reveal more information about his personality than he intended;
  • he mined coins using addresses that were not associated with his main wallet, which allowed him to collect such an impressive fortune without moving the mined coins;
  • he believes that moving so hugethe amount of BTC (approximately 1/17 of the total number of created bitcoins) can have a negative psychological impact on the price and stability of the cryptocurrency;
  • he is no longer among the living;
  • he is bound by some kind of contract, oath, or agreement stipulating that he will never touch his coins;
  • he lost access to private keys.

People Allegedly Founders of Bitcoin

The founder of the first cryptocurrency is not onlyspoke perfect English, but never used Japanese words in communication on forums. Perhaps he is not Japanese, or he deliberately set journalists on the wrong trail. Therefore, one of the most likely candidates for the position of Satoshi Nakamoto is the first recipient of a Bitcoin transactionHarold Thomas Finney.

Hal Finney

Satoshi Nakamoto - who created Bitcoin?

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California Technology GraduateHarold Institute Thomas Finney II, began his career as a programmer in a computer game company. In the 90s, he joined the cipherpunk community and did a lot to create anonymous remailers and a reusable proofs of work algorithm. Crypto-enthusiast and libertian Hel Finney, by his views, was most suitable for the role of the founder of Bitcoin.

But he always denied it. In addition, the last 5 years of his life, just from 2009 to 2014, Hel Finney suffered from a serious illness, his family lived extremely poorly, giving all the money for treatment. Could the creator of such a high-profile innovation project die in poverty?

Craig Steven Wright

Satoshi Nakamoto - who created Bitcoin?

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The crypto industry also has its own “False Dmitry”.A year after the death of Harold Finney, Australian businessman Craig Wright declared himself the creator of the first cryptocurrency. And I must say at the beginning he was supported by such well-known people in the Bitcoin community as the developerGavin Andersenand ex-director of the Bitcoin FoundationJohn Matonis.

Gizmodo journalists added fuel to the firepublication of an article about a hacker who hacked Craig's email and found irrefutable facts there that proved the veracity of his statement. But the material turned out to be an ordinary fake and the Australian was unable to present any real evidence. Craig Wright tried to patent distributed ledger technology and, in the end, the US Patent Office recognized his rights to the Bitcoin white paper. But, at the same time, Bureau employees stated that the founder of Bitcoin could be anyone and they are not obliged to check the accuracy of the data provided.

But other members of the bitcoin community put forwardmany lawsuits, and as a result, the Florida state court ordered Craig Wright to pay 400,000 bitcoins to the widow of the alleged co-author of the first cryptocurrency, Dave Kleiman.

Computer Security Specialist DanKaminsky compared Wright's digital signature with the signature of Satoshi Nakamoto, which he used in 2009, demonstrating the principle of the blockchain and found significant differences. Other blockchain engineers agreed with him, and Craig Wright’s statement was officially called a lie. What the culprit of the scandal himself was forced to confirm. But this does not mean that he was released from the lawsuit by the court.

Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto

Satoshi Nakamoto - who created Bitcoin?

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In the small American town of Temple City, California, probably, to this day there lives a man who was awarded the title Newsweek in 2014 by the title "fatherBitcoin. Dorian Nakamoto is a native of Japan and at birth received the name Satoshi, which he replaced already in adulthood. After moving to America, he graduated from college, then received a physicist diploma and for a certain period worked as a systems engineer in a closed government office.

It would seem that the ideal candidate, especially sinceIn his first interview, Dorian gave a rather ambiguous answer when asked whether he was the inventor of cryptocurrency. But, subsequently he categorically denied his involvement in the Bitcoin project. Because of the hype around his name, Dorian lost his job for a long time and even sued journalists.

And three years later he was noticed at a blockchain conferenceBitconf 2017. After that, some members of the community thought: “Or maybe the employees, Newsweek, were right". But, nevertheless, no evidence that Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto is the first cryptocurrency developer was not made public.

Michael Claire

Satoshi Nakamoto - who created Bitcoin?

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According to the unequivocal opinion of experts, the person who launched a project such as Bitcoin, if it was not a whole team of pros, should know well:

  • Informatics (and, most importantly, the C ++ programming language);
  • Cryptography;
  • P2P network technology;
  • The economy.

There are not so many specialists of this level. According to an independent investigation conducted in 2013, the Irishman is best suited for the role of Nakamoto.Michael Claire. In addition, he very evasively answered the direct question about his involvement in the curling project:

"I’m not Satoshi Nakamoto, and even if I were him, I still wouldn’t say". True, he lamented that they had to carefully select the words. But he didn’t add anything else.

It should be added that many consider the founder of Bitcoin, mentioned at the beginning of our article, Professor Nick Szabo. But he categorically denies it.

Interesting Facts

The creator of the innovative payment system took care of protection against inflation, laying the limit of possible coin production in the program code. Of21,000,000 BTCat the time of writing the review, 86.5% had been mined, and the last coin would be mined in 20 years. Hurry up to participate.

The program code of the Bitcoin ecosystem fits in 80,000 lines. The Linux kernel contains almost 200 times more encoded information, which once again confirms the aphorism: “All ingenious is simple".

In addition, the famous pizza for 10,000 BTC in historyThere were many other oddities in cryptoidustria. For example, the Englishman James Howels absent-mindedly sent a Winchester with an access key to his account on the crypto-exchange to the trash can. At that time, the balance of his electronic deposit was 7.5 thousand bitcoins. What happened to him later is unknown, but it was a serious shock. Well, how much was BTC able to earn Satoshi Nakamoto?

What is the status of the creator of Bitcoin?

Development team memberBTC Gavin Anderson, for a long time maintained remote contact with Nakomoto. In his interviews, he testifies to the extraordinary secrecy of the founder of the first cryptocurrency. According to Anderson: "Chef always ignored questions not related to program code". Nakamoto practically did not communicate with the rest of the team, appointing Gavin as his confidant.

The motives for this behavior are not entirely clear. The creator’s secret somewhat fueled interest in bitcoin, but the main reason for Satoshi’s anonymity was the bitcoin wallet, or rather, a large amount scattered across several addresses.

No one knows for sure how thick Satoshi Nakamoto’s wallet is. But first36288 blocksbitcoins generated by one miner.As a result, taking into account even the current not-so-high rate of digital currency, the result is a fairly round sum. Already in 2013, the founder of the first virtual coin had a fortune equivalent to a billion US dollars.

And yet, at the current rate of Bitcoin, it is not includedeven in the TOP 100 wealthy people on the planet. And for it to take first place on this list, the price of Bitcoin must soar to $60,000. However, many experts believe that “digital gold” can rise in price to $100,000 or even up to a million dollars per coin. At first glance, this seems like complete fantasy. But in the first days after its creation, Bitcoin did not cost a cent, and during the crypto boom period, 1 BTC was worth $19,783. And this is no longer fiction, but an indisputable fact.

Conclusion

Whoever hides behind the name of Satoshi Nakamoto,a lone genius or a team of scientists, the Bitcoin project has changed our reality. Of course, not everything turned out as the first adherents of the blockchain suggested ten years ago, but the financial revolution can no longer be stopped.

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