Creator of Bitcoin: Who is he or she? Lately this man, or woman, has been making some headlines regarding his or her creation, Bitcoin. For the rest of this article, let’s assume it’s a man. Here are some facts on the person(s) that will shed some light on this elusive character(s) that’s started a revolution and the launch of 200+ cryptocurrencies.
- Satoshi is the currency itself. Satoshi is the smallest amount of BTC that is possible to send. It is 1/100,000,000 of a Bitcoin and was a community term given as homage to the founder, Satoshi Nakamoto. Other denominations used are mBTC (millibitcoin), which is 1/1000 of a Bitcoin and uBTC, or micro Bitcoin and is 1/1000000 of a Bitcoin.
- Satoshi Nakamoto claims to be 39 and lives in Japan, according to his p2pfoundation profile. Considering there is no way to prove it however, and there is even a Satoshi Nakamoto that resides in California, we might possibly never know who Satoshi is or where he actually lives. Satoshi Nakamoto has claimed that he is not the person they have found in California, saving Dorian and his family a lot of angst and troubles.
- Not one person but three – Adam Peneberg, from FastCompany believes that Nakomoto could be a group of people, not the one person many people assume. The three people would be Neal King, Vladimir Oksman, and Charles Bry. Adan was looking for phrases that Satoshi published in papers and searched if they were seen anywhere else. It turned up in a patent application made by the three for updating and distributing encryption keys. The domain name, bitcoin.org, was registered 3 days after the patent was filed. Not surprisingly, all three have explicitly denied being Satoshi.
- Most likely, Satoshi managed to mine many of the first blocks himself, making a nice virtual stack of Bitcoin. Examination of the blockchain shows that not many were mining from February through December 2009, just Nakomoto and a few other people. Around 1 and a half million Bitcoins were generated in this time period, so it’s safe to say that Satoshi is pretty wealthy.
- Funny fact about the Satoshi Nakomoto in California – Family reports have said that Satoshi is a man of secrecy, and cannot stand incompetence. Satoshi’s family have reported that Satoshi has shown up to a job interview and proceeded to tell the interviewer that he was an idiot. And then proved it.
All in all, Satoshi Nakomoto is a pseudonym, and we will probably find out about his actual background long after his death, if ever. However, it further proves the point of decentralization and anonymity, which are main principles of Bitcoin itself.