Who Is Satoshi Nakamoto, The Mysterious Creator of Bitcoin?

In the already intricate realm of cryptocurrency, one name stands out as an even more tangled enigma. Satoshi Nakamoto, the founder of Bitcoin and the person who revolutionized the financial landscape, remains nothing more than an elusive genius.

The journey of discovering who Satoshi Nakamoto is began soon after he (or they) published the Bitcoin white paper back in 2008. Journalists, researchers, and amateur enthusiasts alike have all been on a quest to uncover who hides behind the pseudonym.

Yet, even more than a decade later, with the cryptocurrency market cap at well over a trillion dollars, the name is still shrouded in mystery. So join us as we try to uncover one of the most sought-after identities in the history of modern finance.

What Is Known About Satoshi Nakamoto?

The legend of Satoshi Nakamoto began way back on October 31st, 2008, when they published a white paper titled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.”

The only bits of personal information that Satoshi revealed were their birthday, which was allegedly on April 5th, 1975, and their nationality, which was Japanese. However, due to their strong command of the English language, many are skeptical of their place (and, subsequently, date) of birth.

What’s known for sure is that they or one of their colleagues registered the domain Bitcoin.org on August 18, 2008, less than two months before the publication of a Bitcoin white paper. At the start of the following year, on January 9, the Genesis Block of Bitcoin, which yielded 50 BTC,was defined.

Satoshi Nakamoto led the work on Bitcoin software until the middle of 2010. At that point, they transferred domains to multiple prominent figures in the Bitcoin space. Furthermore, they gave source code repository control to Gavin Andersen.

The final message Satoshi sent to the public was on April 26, 2011, when they stated the following:

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“I wish you would stop talking about me as a mysterious, shadowy figure. The press just turns that into a pirate currency angle. Maybe instead, make it about the open-source project and give more credit to contributors. It helps motivate them.”

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People who analyzed the Bitcoin code found it to be too complex to be the work of one person. Their conclusion is that Satoshi is either a genius or a pseudonym for a team of developers and software engineers.

Ultimately, there have been various individuals claiming to be Satoshi and a number of journalists insisting they have found them. However, none of these claims come with definitive proof, and neither is any theory widely accepted.

Is Satoshi Nakamoto a Real Person?

While there’s still no solid proof of who Satoshi Nakamoto really is, it’s hard to deny their existence. An individual or a group of people under that pseudonym created the Bitcoin software, worked on it, and actively communicated with others between 2008 and 2011.

Still, the mystery surrounding the name Satoshi Nakamoto remains to this day. The enigma is somewhat appropriate to the nature of cryptocurrency and adds to its allure and fascination. Some even believe that Nakamoto’s anonymity is intentional to align with the decentralized and privacy-oriented principles of Bitcoin.

One recent popular theory is that Satoshi Nakamoto is Elon Musk. The idea started in 2017 and grew in popularity in 2021 when Elon Musk announced that Tesla was going to accept Bitcoin as payment for its goods and services. At that time, Musk was also an active advocate of crypto—particularly of Dogecoin. However, he denied being Nakamoto in a tweet.

Whether Nakamoto is a real person or a certain entity operating under a pseudonym remains an open question, though there are several names that often surface as possible candidates. We’re going to examine who these candidates are in the following section of this article.

Who Might Be Hiding Behind Satoshi Nakamoto?

We have compiled a list of six people who are more likely than the rest to be Satoshi Nakamoto. Let’s examine the arguments for each one.

Dorian Nakamoto

Dorian Nakamoto is a Japanese-American physicist, and his birth name is Satoshi Nakamoto. That prompted many—especially an American author and freelance journalist, Leah McGrath Goodman—to believe Dorian to be Satoshi.

One of the biggest reasons people thought Dorian was Satoshi Nakamoto was his lack of denial when Goodman asked him about Bitcoin. His answer was, “I am no longer involved in that, and I cannot discuss it. It’s been turned over to other people. They are in charge of it now. I no longer have any connection.”

However, later on, Dorian stated that he wasn’t aware of what precisely the interview was about and that he had never heard of Bitcoin up until that point. He also elaborated that he had thought Goodman’s questions were regarding his work in the military, hence his vague answers.

On March 7, 2014, the day the interview with Dorian was released, Satoshi Nakamotobroke almost five years of silence on his P2PFoundation website to simply comment, “I am not Dorian Nakamoto.”

To make the matter particularly interesting, at that time, Dorian Nakamoto lived just a couple of blocks away from another person often speculated to be Satoshi—Hal Finney.

Hal Finney

Harold Thomas Finney II (May 4, 1956–August 28, 2014) was a Caltech graduate and a software developer. A big part of his career revolved around computer gaming before he went to work for PGP Corporation, which involved privacy and cryptography.

Hal Finney was a cypherpunk and a cryptography enthusiast for most of his life. He was the one to come up with a proof-of-work system in 2004, almost five years before Bitcoin. Moreover, he ran two anonymous remailers and was highly active in the field of privacy-enhancing technologies.

However, the biggest reason why people think Hal Finney was Satoshi Nakamoto is because he was the recipient of Bitcoin's first transaction. On January 12, 2009, Hal received 10 BTC from none other than Nakamoto himself.

Hal Finney was diagnosed with ALS in 2009. Even though the illness slowed his efforts, he continued working until his death. His efforts went into strengthening Bitcoin wallets using Trusted Computing.

Craig Wright

Craig Steven Wright is an Australian businessman and computer scientist. He has worked for a number of companies and done everything from security consulting to information systems management.

The main reason some people believe Craig Wright to be Satoshi Nakamoto is because of his own claims. He stated that he was the one leading the Bitcoin project, with Hal Finney and David Kleiman also being involved.

Wired and Gizmodo conducted independent investigations to find clues suggesting that Wright is indeed Bitcoin’s inventor. However, further analysis and inspection found him to be a fraud.

Regardless, Craig Wright registered Bitcoin's white paper with the United States Copyright Office in 2019. However, USCO issued a statement noting that they didn’t investigate whether there was an actual connection between the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto and the claimant.

Dave Kleiman

Dave Kleiman was a computer forensics expert and a prominent figure in the world of cryptography and computer security. His long list of certifications includes Certified Information Systems Security Professional, Certified Computer Examiner, and Certified Anti-Terrorism Specialist. He’s also received multiple Microsoft MVP awards from security.

Dave’s involvement with the creation of Bitcoin stems from Craig Wright’s claims of being Satoshi Nakamoto and having Kleiman on his team. Still, many think of Craig as a fraudster. On top of that, Dave’s brother initiated a lawsuit against Craig in 2018, five years after Dave’s passing.

Kleiman’s estate wanted between 550,000 and 1,100,000 Bitcoins, as Wright allegedly defrauded the estate. They won the trial but only got $100 million in damages, as opposed to the requested $25 billion.

Nick Szabo

Nicholas Szabo is best known as the creator of Bit Gold in 1998, which was one of the first attempts at creating a decentralized currency. Even though the concept was never implemented in practice, it’s seen as Bitcoin’s forerunner.

As a computer scientist and cryptographer, Nick Szabo was one of the main candidates for being Satoshi Nakamoto, though he repeatedly denied those allegations. The most evidence someone got on Nick was from a financial author called Dominic Frisby. But even he admitted that everything he had was circumstantial.

Wei Dai

Wei Dai is a Chinese computer engineer with a BSc degree in Computer Science from the University of Washington. He’s credited with numerous achievements in the field of cryptography, including the development of Crypto++, VMAC, and b-money.

Satoshi Nakamoto contacted Wei Dai while developing Bitcoin in 2008. Some of the b-money concepts were implemented in Bitcoin, and that’s referenced in the white paper. Wei Dai’s contributions to the world of cryptocurrency resulted in the smallest denomination of Ether being named Wei (much like Satoshi is the smallest subunit of Bitcoin).

Ultimately, Dai denied any allegations of him being Satoshi, stating that Nakamoto didn’t even read his article on b-money before crediting him on white paper.

Satoshi Nakamoto Net Worth

We still don’t know the real identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, meaning it’s impossible to precisely determine their net worth. However, it’s possible to make an estimate and get a decent ballpark figure based on the amount of BTC Satoshi might own.

The first BTC block Satoshi created—the Genesis Block—yielded 50 Bitcoins. The 50 Bitcoins per block reward ratio continued until November 2012, with one block being created every 10 minutes. It’s also worth noting that not many people mined Bitcoin at that time, which means most of it went to Satoshi.

Satoshi disappeared completely in 2011. It is assumed that, before that, they had managed to accrue between 750,000 and 1,100,000 BTC. At its peak in November 2021, Bitcoin was worth more than $65,000. That would put Satoshi Nakamoto’s net worth between $48 and $73 billion.

Even though that would’ve made them the 15th richest person in the world, Satoshi never used, moved, or sold their BTC. Some even speculate that Satoshi is dead or that they’ve lost their private keys, which would make their Bitcoin lost forever.

Key Takeaways

Satoshi Nakamoto continues to be an enigmatic figure and one of the biggest conundrums in the world of cryptocurrencies. Despite tremendous efforts from researchers, journalists, and amateur enthusiasts, Satoshi remains elusive, and any attempt to find them leaves people with more questions than answers.

Perhaps the beauty lies in mystery. As theories and speculations regarding the creator of Bitcoin and the founder of modern decentralized finance continue to circulate, maybe it’s best that they don’t get resolved.

The puzzle that is Satoshi Nakamoto ignites imagination and fuels discussion to this day. It’s a constant reminder that revolutionary ideas and great deeds don’t need a prominent and renowned central figurehead. The pseudonym stands as a testament to the power of innovation and the potential for groundbreaking change.