Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?

Year after year, someone claims to have identified the person behind Bitcoin. It's now happening all over again. Only a few weeks ago, the American television programme provider HBO released a documentary film named "Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery". This film is said to have uncovered the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto once and for all.

This latest would-be exposé follows other attempts to uncover the truth. The most prominent of these dates back to 2014, when the American weekly news magazine Newsweek believed it had found the genuine inventor of Bitcoin in Dorian Nakamoto, a 64-year-old engineer from California who was originally named Satoshi at birth and changed his first name to Dorian later on in his life. As it later transpired, he denied having any connections to Bitcoin.

However, the questions still remain as to why Satoshi Nakamoto has never revealed his true identity and how can it be that no-one has yet been able get to the bottom of this in the current digital age? After all, Bitcoin is now a globally recognised phenomenon and has a market value of well over a trillion US dollars. It would be akin to no-one knowing who the CEO of Apple, Nvidia or Microsoft is. 

Invisible in the digital age

The identity of Satoshi Nakamoto truly remains a mystery to this very day. This pseudonym was used on 31 October 2008 to publish the groundbreaking Bitcoin white paper. His last public statement was made on 12 December 2010, and he sent his last personal e-mail back on 26 April 2011. Since then, there has been complete radio silence, with no other messages or clues coming to the fore.

The way in which Nakamoto has managed to conceal his true identity is nothing short of remarkable. He has never revealed any personal details about himself and has avoided leaving a digital trail for people to follow online. He reportedly used multiple devices, operating systems and IP addresses to ensure that he did not leave a digital footprint. Encryption and anonymisation technologies, such as VPNs and the Tor network that is based on servers around the world, also helped him to cover his tracks.

Conscious decision to remain anonymous

But why has Satoshi gone to such enormous lengths to remain anonymous? This strategy is perfectly aligned with the spirit and purpose of Bitcoin. Bitcoin is not a company that is overseen by a CEO, but rather is a decentralised internet protocol that enables the exchange of assets without the need for a middle man. Not only did Satoshi design the technological infrastructure behind Bitcoin to operate as decentrally as possible, but also by remaining anonymous, he wanted to ensure that there was no central point of contact on a social or interpersonal level either.

_{Statue of Satoshi Nakamoto, which was unveiled at the Plan B Forum in Lugano on 26 October. Source: Plan B It Solutions Ltd}

By making himself redundant, Satoshi has made Bitcoin's pledge of neutrality, independence and an equitable distribution of power even more credible. The fact that no-one knows who he is has reinforced the trust in his idea that no-one controls Bitcoin. This preserves the true spirit of Bitcoin, thus ensuring that it is a decentralised, impartial solution for global asset transfers.

This instance illustrates why many Bitcoin users are confident that knowing the true identity of Satoshi is not important. Just as it is not important for Internet users to know the inventors of other important Internet protocols such as TCP/IP and HTTP, it is equally irrelevant to know who invented Bitcoin. For the Bitcoin community, it is rather more the case that "we are all Satoshi".

Numerous candidates

Nevertheless, a great many people can't help but speculate about the true identity of Satoshi. There are numerous candidates within the industry who are said could be potential founders of Bitcoin. These people are almost always computer geniuses who are well versed in cryptography and were part of the cypherpunk movement that continues to advocate for digital privacy and decentralised currencies today. 

A name mentioned often is Adam Back, the developer of Hashcash, which is a technology that provided an important foundation for Bitcoin. Nowadays, Back is the CEO of Blockstream, a leading company in the field of blockchain technology. Hal Finney, one of the first supporters of the Bitcoin network, is also often linked with Satoshi. Not only was he the first person to have "mined" a Bitcoin block after Satoshi, but he was also a key player in the early development of the cryptocurrency before his death in 2014. Another lesser known person but still worth mentioning is Len Sassaman – a Belgian cryptographer and cypherpunk, who was also heavily involved in the area of digital currencies and data privacy. Like Finney, Sassaman is also no longer alive. However, his death in the summer of 2011 coincided with the disappearance of Satoshi, which fuelled speculation that he could have been the true inventor of Bitcoin.

Despite all of the conjecture and theories, the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto remains an unsolved mystery. While none of the oft-mentioned candidates ever emerged as the real creator, others who claim to be Satoshi haven't been able to provide clear evidence to corroborate their stories. There would be clear ways to prove this, for example someone claiming to be Satoshi could sign a message with a private key that is linked to one of the Bitcoin addresses attributed to Satoshi. Another way to do so would be to transfer a small number of dormant Bitcoins from these early wallets, which would be deemed as strong evidence of Satoshi's identity. Neither of these methods have been used to date.

What would happen were Satoshi to return? 

Given all the speculation, many Bitcoin holders wonder what impact Satoshi's return could have on Bitcoin and, in particular, on the Bitcoin price. It is important to emphasise that Satoshi would not be able to change the Bitcoin protocol or its technical or monetary characteristics by himself. The network is now too decentralised and distributed across too many servers for an individual person to be able to make unilateral changes. Although Satoshi's voice would undoubtedly carry great weight in the community, he would have to convince the numerous network members of any potential changes or further developments.

Nevertheless, the Bitcoin price would definitely be impacted were Satoshi to return. The market could become massively unsettled in the short term, which could trigger panic sales. For example, the market is always alarmed if Bitcoins that allegedly date back to the Satoshi era are suddenly moved after lying dormant for years. Only in September of this year, 10 Bitcoins that were mined in 2009 were woken up from a hibernation lasting more than a decade and transferred to a cryptocurrency exchange, causing quite a stir.

Satoshi's huge Bitcoin portfolio could also massively influence the market price, should he ever decide to sell it. It has been suggested that he holds between 750,000 and 1.1 million Bitcoins – an enormous amount in comparison to institutional players. For example, MicroStrategy, a listed American company, currently holds 252,220 Bitcoins, and all of the Bitcoin ETFs together likewise possess approximately 1.1 million Bitcoins. A sale of such a number of Bitcoins could pile considerable pressure on the market.

_{Source: treasuries.bitbo.io}

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Editorial deadline: 30 October 2024

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