Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?

One of the biggest mysteries in the crypto space is the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of bitcoin – the most popular and successful digital currency.

Satoshi Nakamoto is the name of an unknown person or persons of which their identity/identities still remain unknown. Nakamoto has programmed, developed, and implemented bitcoin including the creation of bitcoin’s white paper.

Background

In August 2008, the domain name bitcoin.org was registered online. Two months later, Nakamoto published a paper entitled ‘Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System’.

Bitcoin’s white paper is the first mention of the mysterious figure, Satoshi Nakamoto and since then questions and speculations have emerged about Nakamoto’s reasons to remain anonymous.

A few months later, Nakamoto released bitcoin’s first software and partnered with developers and programmers to improve it until 2011 when Nakamoto suddenly disappeared.

Satoshi Nakamoto owns about five percent of the entire cryptocurrency, more than one million bitcoins. This makes Nakamoto one of the richest people in the world, with an estimated net worth of $13 billion USD at the time of writing. Due to Bitcoin’s high volatility, the website coindiligent presents live updates about Nakamoto’s net worth.

Satoshi Nakamoto Possible Identity – Who are the candidates?

The early Bitcoin developers have been pointed to as the real Satoshi Nakamato but there is no clear evidence to confirm that any specific person is the creator of Bitcoin.

So, who are the candidates?

Craig David

Craig Wright claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of bitcoin. The Australian computer scientist claims he was involved in bitcoin’s development along with his friend, Dave Kleiman and was able to provide solid proof of his involvement in bitcoin’s creation. Even though Wright receives substantial media attention, his claims remain unproven.

Dorian Nakamoto

Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto (birth name Satoshi Nakamoto), a Japanese American man living in California was revealed as Satoshi Nakamoto by Newsweek in 2014. However, Aside from sharing the same name, there is no reason to connect Dorian Nakamato to Satoshi Nakamato.

Nick Szabo

Nick Szabo, a computer engineer and decentralized currency enthusiast who invented smart contracts and published a paper on Bit Gold is considered to be a precursor to the first cryptocurrency. Nick Szabo is one of the few who knows the bitcoin code and his bit gold is the closest to Bitcoin. Szabo is one of the most important figures who contributed to the development of Bitcoin.

Hal Finney

Hal Finney was a cryptographic pioneer and was the only person – together with Nakamoto himself – to make use of the software. Finney was also the first person to receive bitcoin.
There is no doubt Hal Finnie was one of the pioneers involved in the creation of bitcoin – a long with Nick Szabo. The similarity of Nakamoto’s and Finney’s writing style, and the fact that he lived only blocks apart from Dorian Nakamoto sets him up as a strong candidate. Hal Finnie passed away on August 28, 2014

David Kleiman

Dave Kleiman was certainly involved in the creation of Bitcoin and was a member of the mailing list where Satoshi first announced Bitcoin on Oct 31, 2008. Yet, there are numerous issues when it comes to proving that Dave Leiman was actually Satoshi Nakamato. Dave Kleiman passed away on August 28, 2014

Paul Le Roux

Another potential candidate is the former programmer, criminal cartel boss, and informant to the US Drug Enforcement Administration. It has recently been suggested that Paul Le Roux may be Satoshi Nakamoto. Satoshi disappeared in early 2011, around the time that Le Roux was transitioning from software genius to cartel boss.
Even though there are similarities between Le Roux and Nakamato, It seems unlikely that these two would have been compatible.

There are many others who’ve been named as Satoshi, including Elon Musk, white supremacist James Bowery and, slightly more credibly, a trio of researchers – Neal King, Vladimir Oksman and Charles Bry. These, along with other suspects, are unlikely to have had a hand in the creation of Bitcoin however.