Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto
Satoshi Nakamoto arrived from nowhere in 2008 to create the world’s first cryptocurrency. Then he vanished almost as quickly. Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto
Nothing captures the imagination more than a nameless hero with a hidden identity. Since the Scarlet Pimpernel saved his first aristocrat from Madame la Guillotine, it’s been a recurring theme. Each hero, from Batman to the graffiti artist Banksy, has his or her own rationale for assuming the mask of obscurity.
Satoshi Nakamoto, the so-called father of Bitcoin, has brought this phenomenon to the realm of money. He arrived out of nowhere in 2008 and vanished just as quickly three years later, after creating the world’s first cryptocurrency. On April 23, 2011, he said goodbye to a fellow Bitcoin developer in an email. Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto “I’ve moved on to other things,” he added, guaranteeing Bitcoin’s future was “in good hands.” He hasn’t been seen or heard since. Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto
All the bitcoins in the world were worth over $500 billion, and while Nakamoto’s identity may be only speculative for some, it signifies considerably more to
others: He claims to hold more than a million bitcoins, or around 5% of the total number in circulation. Even if the price of Bitcoin has tumbled by almost 66 percent since January 1, 2022, the value of Nakamoto’s Bitcoin holdings would be more than $16.2 billion. The unidentified figure’s bitcoins would have been valued more than $67 billion at the pinnacle of the cryptocurrency market in November of last year. Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto
If the person—or persons—who go by the moniker Satoshi Nakamoto choose to sell even a portion of this stockpile, the transaction will utterly destabilize the Bitcoin market. Coinbase, which went public on the Nasdaq in April 2021, listed the potential disclosure of Nakamoto’s identity (and the movement of that person’s Bitcoin holdings) as a risk factor in its first public offering (IPO) filing with the
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Coinbase even went so far as to send a copy of the file to Nakamoto’s last known email address. Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto
That may seem excessive to some, but it was recently demonstrated how powerful one party can be on the whole cryptocurrency sector. FTX, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges and a $32 billion firm, disintegrated in early November after Coindesk reported that stolen papers revealed that it was on the verge of insolvency. According to the records, the Bahamas-based FTX’s finances were tightly entangled with CEO Sam Bankman-Fried’s hedge fund, Alameda Research, and it may not be supporting user money one to one. Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto
Following the discoveries, Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of FTX’s main rival, Binance, declared that his exchange would sell its holdings in FTT, a cryptocurrency token native to FTX, causing its price to collapse and causing a surge in client withdrawals that the exchange could not satisfy. Binance promised to bail out FTX on November 8, but pulled out the next day, prompting the exchange to declare bankruptcy and Bankman-Fried to quit. Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto
Following the bankruptcy, Bankman-Fried’s replacement as FTX CEO, John Jay Ray III, stated that he had never encountered “such a complete failure of corporate control,” according to the New York Times. Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto
Prior to these recent difficulties, financial services behemoths such as BlackRock, JPMorgan, and BNY Mellon began offering cryptocurrency and related services to their customers, lending legitimacy to an asset once described by Berkshire Hathaway’s Charlie Munger as “contrary to the interests of civilization.” It remains to be seen how FTX’s demise will influence the industry as a whole, but so far it has only exacerbated what has already been a dismal year for bitcoin. Prices have been decreasing since late 2021, but the past month has been especially brutal, and not just for FTT, which has lost 95 percent of its value since the beginning of November, according to Crypto.com. During the same period, the value of Bitcoin has dropped by more than 17%, while the second largest cryptocurrency, Ethereum, has dropped by about 19%. Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto
When Nakamoto released his famous white paper on a cryptography mailing list in 2008, he described a digital currency that would allow safe, peer-to-peer transactions without the intervention of any middleman, whether it be the government, banking system, or firm. These transactions would be tracked using a blockchain, which is a ledger similar to those used by financial institutions, except that this ledger would be spread throughout an entire network, with exact replicas kept by all participants, visible to all, and secured by cryptographic techniques. There would never be more than 21 million Bitcoin in existence. Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto
Nakamoto invented his cryptocurrency with the intention of taking control of cash away from banking elites and placing it in the hands of ordinary people. When Nakamoto delivered 10 bitcoins to Hal Finney, a well-known developer who had downloaded the Bitcoin program on its release date in early 2009, it was the first Bitcoin transaction. The first commercial transaction occurred in 2010, when a programmer Laszlo Hanyecz paid 10,000 bitcoins for two Papa John’s pizzas. Considering Bitcoin’s current worth of over $60,000, they were some pricey pizzas.
Bitcoin is open source, which means that its design is available to the public. Bitcoin is not owned or controlled by anybody, and everyone may participate. While Satoshi maintained control over Bitcoin’s development, users and developers gathered in Bitcoin forums to contribute code and work on the project, which had evolved into a collaborative endeavor. The ultimate authority was held by the Bitcoin program users. Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto
Many programmers and developers have produced Bitcoin code, but one of the most passionate was Gavin Andresen. In 2010, he approached Nakamoto
and became the founder’s right-hand guy. When Nakamoto vanished, he left Bitcoin in the hands of Andresen. Even Andresen has become more reclusive in recent years: he is no longer the “core maintainer” of Bitcoin’s code; in fact, that job may eventually become as decentralized as the cryptocurrency itself.
Attempts to identify Nakamoto have been ongoing throughout the existence of Bitcoin. Rumors on bitcoin communities have circulated that Nakamoto is a member of the Yakuza, a development cabal, a money-launderer, or even a woman. Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto
In 2014, a Newsweek writer named Dorian Nakamoto, a soft-spoken Los Angeles resident, became the founder of Bitcoin. Despite his lengthy and illustrious
technical career being used as proof, Nakamoto has categorically denied any participation in the cryptocurrency. Satoshi appeared on an internet forum the day after Dorian Nakamoto made a public announcement. He stated “I am not Dorian Nakamoto” before disappearing again. Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto
In 2016, Australian Craig Wright claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, and Bitcoin engineer Andresen confirmed the assertion, claiming he was “98 percent sure” Wright was the mysterious Satoshi. The bitcoin community was not having it, and Wright recanted his assertion.
Suspicion also fell on Nick Szabo, a mysterious crypto specialist who made substantial contributions to the development of Bitcoin. Linguistic scholars
examined Szabo’s writing as well as those of other possible Satoshis. Linguists stated that there were clear parallels between Szabo’s works and Satoshi Nakamoto’s. The New York Times even went so far as to identify Szabo as the mysterious Nakamoto, although Szabo strongly refuted the allegations.
As a result, Satoshi Nakamoto remains unidentified, a legendary monster with a massive Bitcoin stockpile. He has compelling reasons to stay nameless. Personal security is a compelling worry when you have $60 billion in wealth. Given Bitcoin’s potential to undermine sovereign fiat currencies, Nakomoto may be concerned about government legal action, if not other types of government retribution.
Efforts to discover Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity will undoubtedly continue. He is too dangerous to the Bitcoin industry, and the mystery around his identity is too appealing. In a world where maintaining anonymity is becoming increasingly difficult, Satoshi Nakamoto has succeeded beyond his expectations in safeguarding his secrets.
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