The Man and Myth Behind Satoshi Nakamoto

If you’re interested in online transactions or even the concept of big data at all, you would probably have heard the name of Bitcoin at some point. This was the first functional cryptocurrency and is still the one with the biggest share of the market. With Bitcoin, you get a universal currency with no central managing authority, no government, and no large corporation behind it. This way, the currency stays free of any exchange rates but its own.

 

A modern global market can potentially benefit from just this kind of currency in order to enjoy smooth and easy transactions. With extremely low transaction fees or none at all, Bitcoin has attracted the attention of many businesses. There are also several other advantages which make Bitcoin so attractive to investors and traders alike.

Bitcoin is a burgeoning currency in itself, having gone up and down in value and seeing several changes over the course of a decade. Investors in Bitcoin have both made millions of dollars and lost it due to the surges and crashes. In this entire hubbub, it’s a fascinating fact that no one really knows for sure who came up with Bitcoin in the first place.

How Bitcoin Launched

The launch of Bitcoin was preceded by a white paper that detailed the cryptocurrency concept of how it would work through a blockchain ledger. This was back in 2008, with the paper circulated on a certain mailing list. It was made open source in the January of 2009, so now just about everyone can have access to Bitcoin.

The Father/Mother/Founders of Bitcoin

The paper and the software both came from one Satoshi Nakamoto, who claimed to live in Japan. It’s clear that this is simply a pseudonym, along with doubt about the location as well. Nakamoto disappeared from the forums and the web in general in 2010. To this date, there have been many speculations about his, her, or their identity. Some even say that the founder of Bitcoin was a group of people rather than just one individual.

However, here are some facts about Satoshi Nakamoto that we do know. If you’re interested in Bitcoin, you should read up on them in order to know where the concept comes from:

Accepting Bitcoin for a Small Business

Net Worth

The net worth of Satoshi can be calculated by the number of Bitcoin he might own. As the owner of Bitcoin itself, he’s believed to own around 1 million units or even more. If we convert this amount, he would have a net worth of around $2.6 billion around this time of this writing of course that can fluctuate widely depending on the current price. We know of his Bitcoin ownership due to the number under his name on the blockchain ledger. He mined the Genesis block but hasn’t used the units since 2010.

Doubts About Japan

The name of Satoshi Nakamoto and some of his own posts might cause some to assume us that he was Japanese. However, many users have noticed that when he was active online, his posting frequency suggested that he was asleep when it was nighttime in the United Kingdom. Hence, it’s more likely that he lived somewhere in that part of the world instead of in Japan. Of course, his ethnicity could be anything, but his impeccable English suggested that he was naturalized in an English-speaking country.

A Ponzi Scheme

Many authorities have warned investors against investing in Bitcoin or any other currency. This is because if Nakamoto’s 1 million Bitcoin (or BTC) were suddenly released, they could destroy the crypto market. Everyone who’s invested thousands or even millions of dollars into the currency would lose much of their investment. Hence, BTC might just be a huge Ponzi scheme due to the founder owning a large share of it.

Speculations

There are several speculations on who Nakamoto is, including one that the name is an abbreviation of four company names—Samsung, Toshiba, Nakamichi, and Motorola. The first part of each of these names spells out the name of the Bitcoin founder. However, there’s been no proof of this speculation.

The magazine Newsweek ran a breaking news story on how a man with this name was finally found in California. The individual in question was born in Japan and had changed his original name and has many mathematical connections within his family. He is also a physicist and a libertarian to boot. These facts have all pointed towards him being the creator of Bitcoin, especially as this step dealt a blow to most governments. However, he has since denied being the founder of Bitcoin, not even being able to remember the exact name properly.

A US computer scientist by the name of Nick Szabo is another candidate for the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto. He’s a cryptographer who actually coined a digital currency concept and called it ‘Bit Gold’. However, he hasn’t accepted responsibility for the creation of Bitcoin either.

The America entrepreneur Craig White is someone who actually claimed to be the father of Bitcoin. After a lot of examination and investigation, though, it turns out he couldn’t provide the evidence for this claim.

Hal Finney was one of the acclaimed cryptographers on the mailing list where the Bitcoin white paper was circulated. He also claimed to be in touch with the actual Satoshi Nakamoto and his writing style is quite similar to that of the white paper’s.

However, he dispelled any suspicion of being Nakamoto himself by showing an email conversation with the latter. This might still be a set-up, but we don’t have more proof at the moment. Interestingly, Finney got the first Bitcoin transaction in January 2009 after the Genesis block mining.

The Benefit of Anonymity

Bitcoin has now soared to great heights, but the mystery of Satoshi Nakamoto might actually have helped it along. With no one individual or group being responsible for the creation of BTC, there’s no one to pressure about making more. Hence, the value of BTC would continue to rise or fall based only on the amount that’s already in existence. In fact, this is actually better for ensuring a high value of BTC.

Nakamoto may also have chosen to remain anonymous in order to protect him/herself. This way, no government or powerful group can threaten them into making more units or forcing them to sell their own. There’s hence no inflation, and the value is determined purely by market forces. Plus, no one can sue Nakamoto for any loss or scam they’ve suffered if they don’t know who he/she is.

A Genius

The genius of Satoshi Nakamoto, even when he’s anonymous, is undeniable. The near-perfection of Bitcoin is enough to prove that it had an immensely talented and painstaking coder. The platform if self hasn’t been hacked to date, even with hackers around the world trying their best. Note there certainly have been hacks of

Conclusion

While we may speculate a lot about Satoshi Nakamoto, it’s not likely that we’ll know anything concrete about him anytime soon. We still have his amazing creation in the form of Bitcoin, and that’s going to continue to change the world as we know it. The BTC platform is quick, reliable, secure, and extremely useful for several purposes.

What’s perhaps more important than the identity of Nakamoto now is the future of cryptocurrency, especially Bitcoin. The potential is certainly massive, but the system might well overload and crash as well. It remains to be seen whether investing in BTC or any other cryptocurrency is beneficial or not, but it’s certainly still a gamble.