Bitcoin Creator: Truth and Fiction

Bitcoin remains the most discussed cryptocurrency, but the details of its creation are still surrounded by the unknown. Who is behind the advent of Bitcoin? We will discuss it in today’s article.

More recently, when Bitcoin set a new record in value, its creator was on the list of the 50 richest people in the world. However, unlike other representatives of this elite club, it is not at all clear who he, she or they are.

From what we know thanks to the blockchain register, which records information about all transactions in the network, we can conclude that this person owns 980 thousand coins (which at the time of publication is equivalent to approximately $ 8.3 billion).

The creator of cryptocurrency is known by the mysterious pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, and whoever he was, he managed to make an incredible fortune in just ten years – of course, provided that digital tokens retain their high cost. By some miracle, a person who managed to attract almost $ 370 billion to his creation (the market capitalization of Bitcoin at the time of publication of the article), all this time it is possible to maintain anonymity.

Nakamoto’s personality has been the subject of lively discussion since 2008 when he published the “official description” of the revolutionary Bitcoin technology. Many people have since been suspected of having links with this mysterious character. Especially desperate “detectives” even pointed to the founder of Tesla Ilona Mask.

The now-legendary document published on the P2P Foundation website said that Nakamoto was born in 1975 and lived at that time in Japan.

In March 2014, the world’s media trumpeted that the mystery man was found: he was a computer engineer from the city of Temple City in Los Angeles County. 64-year-old Japanese-born American Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto is in the center of the attention of photographers and journalists from around the world.

After receiving a degree in physics, he worked as a system engineer at secret defense projects, and then as a computer engineer at technology and financial companies. However, the unsuspecting Nakamoto denied any involvement in the creation of cryptocurrency.

Initially, this man was named the creator of bitcoin in an article in Newsweek magazine. However, soon after the interview in the Nakamoto account at the P2P Foundation, the first publication in five years appeared with the text: “I am not Dorian Nakamoto”.

It is believed that the account was hacked, and the message was not sent by Nakamoto himself.

It soon turned out that a computer scientist and one of the pioneers of cryptography Hal Finney (Hal Finney), who became the recipient of the first Bitcoin transfer operation in history, lives in “a few blocks” from Dorian Nakamoto.

Forbes journalist Andy Greenberg (Andy Greenberg) tried to meet with Finney at his home and to interview, despite the fact that he suffered from an incurable disease – amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which deprived the scientist of the ability to speak and move.

After analyzing Finney’s handwriting and comparing it with Nakamoto’s handwriting, Greenberg suggested that Finney, who was very amused by the question of whether he was familiar with Nakamoto, was a secret Bitcoin author or simply used his neighbor’s name as a cover.

Nevertheless, Finney did not recognize himself as the secret creator of Bitcoin, and in the end, Greenberg believed him.

Perhaps the closest thing to exposing Nakamoto (if it is appropriate to talk about it at all) was the public when Australian authorities searched the house of scientist and entrepreneur Craig Wright on suspicion of tax evasion.

In December 2015, the Gizmodo and Wired websites published independent studies in which the Australian was called the likely creator of cryptocurrency. Later this fact was recognized by Wright himself. He published a detailed admission on his blog, and then provided the media with what he said was evidence of words.

“The years of vain searches are over: the Australian Craig Wright called himself the creator of Bitcoin,” – wrote the BBC.

It seemed that the case was closed, but problems soon arose.

Pretty soon, Reddit users found a refutation of Wright’s words, which gave rise to new conspiracy theories and skeptical moods.

Gregory Maxwell, a leading developer of basic Bitcoin software, wrote to the New York Times that Dr. Wright’s materials “do not prove the existence of a connection between this person and the creation of Bitcoin.”

When the dust settled after these discussions, Wright again went into the shadows, and the mystery remained undiscovered. The audience realized that Nakamoto was never found.

Before Wright was in the spotlight, several people were suspected of being involved in the creation of Bitcoin.

The list includes student cryptographer from Ireland, Michael Clear (Michael Clear), Finnish video game developer Vili Lehdonvirta, and even a trio of developers found by Fast Company journalists.

Michael Clear, who was studying cryptography at Trinity College in Dublin at that time, fell under suspicion of New Yorker journalist Joshua Davis in 2011. In the end, Clear brought Davis to another person, whom he eventually called the potential Satoshi Nakamoto: Finnish game developer and social economist Willy Lehdonwirth “fit the Bitcoin creator in many ways.” However, the investigation could not be completed.

Over the past years, the interest of the press has attracted several people, for example, an enthusiast of decentralized currencies named Nick Szabo, who wrote an article about Bitgold, which was considered the precursor of Bitcoin. Potential coincidence was his passion for pseudonyms.

In 2015, journalist Nathaniel Popper (Nathaniel Popper) wrote in the New York Times that “the most convincing evidence points to a secretive American of Hungarian origin named Nick Scabo.”

However, like all the others, Stsabo rejected all suspicions and closed off from the press, which sought to illuminate his figure.

To this day, none of the potential candidates for the role of Nakamoto has reached the same level of speculation and trust as Craig Wright is the only one who has readily confirmed that he is the creator of Bitcoin.

Anonymity itself is not a prerequisite for cryptocurrency to flourish. A whole series of other digital financial systems in recent years has become widespread, often bringing great profits to its creators.

At the end of December last year, Charlie Lee (the creator of lightcoin, whose market capitalization at the time was $ 26 billion), announced that he had cashed all its assets in this currency amid its sharp increase of more than 8,000% per year.

Probably, the atmosphere around the most famous cryptocurrency in the world benefits from the fact that the name of its creator remains unknown. However, for true fans – who are confident that Bitcoin will completely change the traditional financial system – there is no difference who this person is.

Obviously, this is of little importance for a huge number of people who have invested at least part of their savings in Bitcoins.

Today, Satoshi Nakamoto remains a folk character in the world of technology and finance. Despite countless attempts at investigations and analysis, no one has yet been able to uncover the truth.