Key takeaways
- The true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, remains one of the biggest mysteries in tech.
- Various figures like Len Sassaman, Nick Szabo, Adam Back, Hal Finney, Peter Todd are potential candidates.
- Satoshi Nakamoto’s creation of Bitcoin in 2009 was a direct response to the 2008 financial crisis, offering a decentralized alternative to traditional financial systems.
- HBO revealed Peter Todd as Satoshi Nakamoto in their documentary, but Todd denies the claim.
The identity of Bitcoin’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, remains one of the greatest mysteries in the tech world. Several prominent individuals, each with a captivating backstory, have been the subject of speculation.
Dorian Nakamoto, a man whose life was thrown into chaos when he was wrongly identified as Satoshi, has consistently denied any involvement. Then there’s Len Sassaman, a well-known cypherpunk and cryptographer who embraced privacy and whose technical abilities and ideals align closely with Bitcoin’s ethos.
Filmmaker Cullen Hoback announced a documentary titled Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery in early October 2024, hinting at a search for Satoshi and sparking bets on Sassaman as the prime suspect, with almost 45% of Polymarket gamblers favoring him. However, the person revealed in the film as Satoshi was Bitcoin developer Peter Todd, who firmly denies the claim.
Other names in the ongoing speculation include Nick Szabo, Hal Finney and Adam Back. Also in the mix was Craig Wright, who has long claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto.
However, on March 14, 2024, a UK court dismissed Wright’s claim after a legal battle brought by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA). COPA alleged that Wright had forged documents to support his assertion. The ruling prevents Wright from claiming ownership of Bitcoin’s intellectual property, undermining his decade-long contention of being its creator.
This article delves into the speculation surrounding the identity of Bitcoin’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, exploring various potential candidates and the enduring mystery.
Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?
The first Bitcoin (BTC) was mined on Jan. 3, 2009, by someone known as “Satoshi Nakamoto,” who is recognized as the pseudonym of the person or group of people who created Bitcoin — the invisible figure or figures whose technological creation has influenced the world.
Satoshi Nakamoto was already a familiar name among cryptography enthusiasts like computer scientists and hackers long before the Bitcoin boom. Someone had posted on online message boards and corresponded with fellow developers via email under the same name years prior. Although unconfirmed, it is widely suspected that the person (or persons) behind the pseudonym was also behind those communications.
Months before mining the first Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto had published a white paper on a cryptography mailing list entitled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.” The paper, published on Oct. 31, 2008, outlined a decentralized peer-to-peer protocol that was cryptographically secure.
In the white paper, Nakamoto described it as a “purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash” that “would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution or any intermediary.”
Why was Bitcoin created?
Although Nakamoto remains a mysterious figure, his or their goal for creating cryptocurrency was never a mystery. Simply put, Satoshi created it to take financial control back from financial elites, giving ordinary people a chance to take part in a decentralized financial system.
Bitcoin remains open-source, meaning that no one has the power to own or control it in its entirety. Its design is public, and it is open for anyone to participate.
Bitcoin was a response to the 2008 great financial crisis, which showed that even the world’s biggest banks can fail. It highlighted the fragility of the modern financial system and called for the decentralization of financial transactions.
As such, cryptocurrency was born, and Bitcoin was one of the first options outside the traditional financial system for the public to participate in intermediary-free financial transactions.
The blockchain is the foundation for how cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin build trust and ensure security, serving as a decentralized ledger accessible to all participants in the network.
The genesis block of Bitcoin was mined on Jan. 3, 2009, by Satoshi Nakamoto, officially launching the blockchain. A genesis block is the first block of a blockchain to be mined and acts as the foundation of the blockchain.
For the first few months of its existence, Bitcoin had no monetary equivalent worth. Miners, people who use their computers to solve complex math problems to discover or “mine” new Bitcoin, were doing so only for novelty.
Miners also helped to verify the validity and accuracy of Bitcoin transactions. The actual BTC payout received by miners is essentially a reward for auditing and processing the highly encrypted data that is part of each transaction. This ensures that each Bitcoin is properly accounted for and cannot be spent more than once.
The first real-world transaction happened on May 22, 2010, when a man from Florida agreed to exchange two $25 pizzas for 10,000 BTC, thereby making May 22 “Bitcoin Pizza Day.” It marked the first economic transaction for cryptocurrency. Back then, Bitcoin was valued at four BTC per penny. Since then, its value has multiplied exponentially.
Did you know? Blockchain can be used to honor individuals in an immutable way. For example, in 2014, the Bitcoin blockchain was used to embed a tribute to Hal Finney, one of Bitcoin’s earliest adopters and developers.
The origins of Satoshi Nakamoto
Bitcoin was created after the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis, when the housing market collapse significantly affected liquidity in global financial markets. The crisis inspired the creation of Bitcoin, a fully functional form of digital currency based on a distributed ledger technology (DLT) called the blockchain.
Satoshi’s white paper laid the groundwork for future forms of cryptographically secure systems designed to be tamper-proof, transparent and censorship-resistant. The system’s goal was to allow individuals to reclaim financial power through a decentralized financial system.
The idea of decentralization eliminated the need for intermediaries, such as companies, financial systems or governments, to be involved in digital currency exchange. The transactions would be secure and tracked through a blockchain. The difference with blockchain was that it was visible to all participants and securely distributed across an entire network.
Possible identities of Satoshi Nakamoto
Three years after publishing the Bitcoin white paper and mining the genesis block, Satoshi bowed out of the cryptocurrency scene.
The creator sent an email to another Bitcoin developer on April 23, 2011, saying that they had “moved on to other things” and that the cryptocurrency’s future was “in good hands.” Since then, there has been no communication from Satoshi’s previously known email addresses.
Throughout Bitcoin’s long history, nothing has been more controversial than the identity of its founder. Numerous speculations have surrounded Satoshi’s identity. Some people claimed that Satoshi Nakamoto was the pseudonym of a group of cryptographers, not just one person. Yet others surmised that the person might be British, a member of the Yakuza, a money launderer or a woman disguised as a man.
Over the years, a few individuals have been suspected of being the man behind the elusive pseudonym:
Dorian Nakamoto: The man mistaken for Bitcoin’s creator
In 2014, Newsweek journalist Leah Mcgrath Goodman published an article entitled “The Face Behind Bitcoin.” In one of the highest-profile attempts to reveal Satoshi’s identity, Goodman identified Dorian Nakamoto as the elusive Bitcoin creator.
Goodman cited similarities between the two Nakamotos, including mathematical skill, temperament, Japanese descent and political leanings. Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto, then 64 years old, was living in Temple, California when Goodman reached out to him. Dorian had previously worked on computer engineering and classified defense projects, according to Goodman.
However, Dorian Nakamoto later denied any involvement with Bitcoin. He dismissed any published quotes as a mere misinterpretation on the reporter’s part. Dorian claimed that his quote was taken out of context and that he had been talking about engineering rather than Bitcoin at the time of the interview.
Later, Satoshi Nakamoto confirmed on an online Bitcoin forum that they are not Dorian Nakamoto — putting an end to the rumors.
The Newsweek article sparked a debate regarding Dorian Nakamoto’s privacy, which the crypto community felt had been violated when Newsweek published a photo of his Los Angeles home.
As a result, the crypto community raised over 100 BTC on behalf of Dorian Nakamoto to express their gratitude and support concerning his ordeal. Dorian later appeared in a YouTube video in 2014 thanking the community, saying that he was going to keep his Bitcoin account “for many, many years.” Although the video has since been taken down from the original account, copies of it still exist online.
Nick Szabo: The visionary behind Bit Gold and decentralized currency
Crypto expert Nick Szabo was also one of the media’s “suspected Satoshis.” In 2015, The New York Times published an article entitled “Decoding the Enigma of Satoshi Nakamoto and the Birth of Bitcoin.”
Comparisons were made between him and the mysterious Satoshi owing to similarities in writing and preoccupations, as well as Szabo’s significant contribution to the development of Bitcoin.
Nick Szabo is a computer engineer by profession. He is also a cryptographer and a legal scholar and has published works that were tangentially related to Satoshi Nakamoto’s intellectual preoccupations at certain times. For example:
- Szabo pioneered the concept of smart contracts in a 1996 paper entitled “Smart Contracts: Building Blocks for Digital Markets.” Szabo conceptualized “Bit Gold” in 2008, which was also a decentralized form of currency and a precursor to Bitcoin. Szabo also previously worked for DigiCash, a digital payment system that used cryptography.
- Both Satoshi and Szabo reference economist Carl Menger in their communications.
In his book, Bitcoin: The Future of Money? author Dominic Frisby was convinced that Satoshi Nakamoto and Nick Szabo were the same person and presented arguments to support his hypothesis. Szabo, however, denied the allegations concerning his supposed secret identity.
Hal Finney: The early Bitcoin adopter with Satoshi ties
Hal Finney was a computer scientist, coder and cryptography enthusiast even before the Bitcoin boom. He died in 2014 at the age of 58 after battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, for five years.
Other than Satoshi Nakamoto, Finney was reportedly the first person to have worked on debugging and improving Bitcoin’s open-source code. He also received the first Bitcoin transaction in 2009 from Satoshi Nakamoto.
He was also neighbors with Los Angeles-based engineer Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, a fact that Forbes journalist Andy Greenberg found interesting, if not suspicious. Greenberg took writing samples from Hal Finney and Satoshi Nakamoto to a writing analysis consultancy service.
Due to similarities in their writing styles, Greenberg initially speculated that Finney might have been Satoshi’s ghostwriter, or at the very least involved in the project. He also suggested that Finney could have used Dorian Nakamoto as a “front” to conceal his true identity.
However, Finney denied such claims and presented evidence to prove that he was not Satoshi Nakamoto. Upon meeting Greenberg, Finney presented the emails that he and Satoshi had exchanged over the years, as well as his Bitcoin wallet’s history.
The writing consultancy likewise concluded that Satoshi’s alleged emails to Finney were a match with Satoshi’s other published writings, cementing Finney’s claim that he was not Nakamoto.
Did you know? Hal Finney was the developer of Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), a widely used encryption program designed to secure digital communications. His work on PGP revolutionized email encryption and laid the foundation for the privacy principles that Bitcoin would later embody.
Len Sassaman: Could the cryptography pioneer be Satoshi?
Leonard “Len” Harris Sassaman was a highly respected cryptographer and a prominent member of the cypherpunk movement, dedicated to enhancing privacy and security in digital communications. His expertise in developing anonymizing technologies, such as the Mixmaster anonymous remailer protocol, mirrors the foundational principles of Bitcoin’s decentralized and secure architecture.
Much like a Bitcoin node, an anonymous remailer processes messages and instructions without revealing their origin. Similarly, the Bitcoin blockchain handles transactions in a pseudo-anonymous manner, allowing users to choose their level of transparency or anonymity.
Sassaman’s contributions extended beyond his technical innovations. He collaborated closely with Adam Back, CEO of Blockstream, worked on PGP alongside Finney, and forged strong professional relationships with Bram Cohen, creator of BitTorrent. He worked with Cohen on a project known as Pynchon Gate and co-developed the annual tech conference Codecon.
Interestingly, Sassaman utilized British English in his communications, mirroring the linguistic style of Satoshi Nakamoto despite being American. This curious similarity has fueled further speculation about his possible connection to Bitcoin’s mysterious creator.
Sassaman’s academic pursuits led him to become a researcher and Ph.D. candidate at the Computer Security and Industrial Cryptography Research Group (COSIC), where he worked under the mentorship of David Chaum, often hailed as the “father of digital currency.”
Unfortunately, Sassaman died in 2011, and his wife reported it as a suicide. His death coincided with Satoshi Nakamoto’s sudden disappearance from public view, further fueling speculation. Some believe it was a final act of privacy, a way to ensure that his identity as Satoshi would remain forever hidden.
In 2011, Black Hat Briefings disclosed that a tribute to Sassaman had been embedded within the Bitcoin blockchain. This obituary serves as a memorial to Sassaman.
As the search for Satoshi Nakamoto continues, Sassaman remains a compelling figure in the debate, embodying the spirit of innovation and privacy that Bitcoin represents. Whether or not Sassaman was Satoshi, his influence on digital currency and cryptographic security continues to resonate within the blockchain community.
Did you know? Adam Back addressed the ongoing speculation about Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity. He tweeted, “It’s very simple for Satoshi to not be doxxed; he just won’t give interviews to documentary producers. Effectively, Satoshi stopped using his pseudonym in 2011. No one knows anything, so I think we’ll never know who it was. And that’s a good thing.”
Adam Back: The cryptographic pioneer tied to Bitcoin’s origins
Adam Back was the first person to communicate with Satoshi Nakamoto and has long been involved in cryptography. His cryptocurrency journey began with running a remailer, which led him to develop HashCash, a proof-of-work system aimed at preventing spam and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. This system became the foundation for Bitcoin’s mining process, as Satoshi incorporated it into Bitcoin’s architecture.
Back also worked on several OpenPGP implementations and was closely connected with other cryptographers in the PGP web of trust. He speculated that Satoshi could have been a remailer developer, as these individuals often used pseudonyms to contribute to cryptographic discussions.
Despite these connections and his pivotal role in early Bitcoin technology, Back has consistently denied being Satoshi Nakamoto, insisting that the true identity of Bitcoin’s creator will likely remain unknown.
Did you know? Wei Dai, creator of b-money — a decentralized digital currency proposal — has often been speculated to be Satoshi Nakamoto. His pioneering work on b-money, which introduced many concepts later seen in Bitcoin, was even cited in Bitcoin’s white paper.
Peter Todd: The Bitcoin developer at the heart of HBO's Satoshi Nakamoto controversy
Born in 1984, Todd’s educational background includes studies in fine arts before transitioning to cryptography and decentralized systems, where he has made significant contributions to Bitcoin’s security and privacy protocols. Todd is a software developer known for his significant contributions to Bitcoin’s core code since 2012.
He has been involved in various projects to enhance Bitcoin’s functionality and security, including OpenTimestamps, which provides a standard for blockchain timestamping. Todd has been a vocal advocate for privacy and decentralization in the digital currency space.
Peter Todd has been a Bitcoin Core Developer at Coinkite since 2014 and an advisor at Verisart since 2015. He began as a Linux support developer in 2001 and later became an Electronics Designer at Gedex in 2008. He’s held key crypto roles, including Chief Scientist at Mastercoin and Dark Wallet.
HBO’s documentary controversially points to Canadian Bitcoin core developer Peter Todd as the potential creator of Bitcoin. In the film, Todd is confronted with evidence by the documentary’s producer, Hoback, leading to a moment where Todd sarcastically responds, “Well yeah, I’m Satoshi Nakamoto.”
However, Todd has repeatedly denied the claim, both before and after the documentary’s release, asserting on social media that he is not Satoshi and questioning the documentary’s conclusions. The film’s conclusion remains speculative without definitive proof, suggesting that the true identity of Bitcoin’s creator continues to be an unsolved mystery.
Why does Satoshi Nakamoto matter?
The figure Satoshi Nakamoto matters, whether they’re a person or a group — not because of their identity (or lack thereof) — but because of their contribution to the greatest technological invention of all time. Satoshi paved the way for cryptocurrency to evolve and develop to respond to the 2008 global financial crisis, creating an alternative currency system.
Of course, despite attempts to secure crypto, compromising cryptocurrencies remains a genuine possibility. However, this risk is something that even more traditional models of finance face regularly.
The difference that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin represent is the concept of decentralization and equality. A distributed public ledger via blockchain effectively records, verifies and validates Bitcoin transactions while making them secure via cryptography.
Since its inception in 2009, no hacker has managed to infiltrate it. Bitcoin also remains relevant years after it was introduced by Satoshi Nakamoto. Large corporations and investors are becoming increasingly aware of its value and potential. Likewise, even businesses are beginning to accept Bitcoin as payment. The crypto market has also grown exponentially as more people become interested in mining and trading Bitcoin.
Furthermore, Satoshi’s creation represents innovation and disruption. It was (and still is) a powerful reminder that all things must continue to improve to survive. In an industry notorious for its resistance to technology, cryptocurrency delivered a jolt to the financial world and shook things up for the better.
Crypto paved the way for various forms of digital currencies and peer-to-peer payment systems to evolve and be integrated into modern society. Innovations such as digital currencies work for the consumers’ good by offering them alternative modes of payment and investment.
Financial institutions are likewise responding to the challenge by adopting more customer-focused and innovative approaches to finance.
Satoshi Nakamoto: Truths and mysteries
Despite the media’s efforts to investigate and reveal Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity, they remain a mysterious figure whose real-world persona is unknown.
However, it might be interesting to look at the bits of information that we do know about Satoshi, either from public records or skillful sleuthing. Let’s dive in.
Satoshi Nakamoto is a coding genius
The New Yorker cites Satoshi as a “preternaturally talented computer coder” who created Bitcoin with “thirty-one thousand lines of code.” To the uninitiated, the reason why the platform remains safe, secure and trustworthy is thanks to Satoshi’s virtually perfect code — it has no mistakes. This, in part, is why it has not been hacked since its creation.
In a 2011 article titled “The Crypto-Currency: Bitcoin and Its Mysterious Inventor,” The New Yorker reported how renowned and highly experienced internet security researcher Dan Kaminsky tried to break Bitcoin’s code — and failed.
For everyone’s appreciation, Kaminsky wasn’t an average coder. He is famous among hackers because he discovered a major flaw in the internet in 2008. He alerted the Department of Homeland Security and Microsoft and Cisco executives to address the problem immediately. Without his discovery, any skilled coder could have been able to shut down the internet or take over any website.
That being said, Kaminsky was excited to potentially find similar fatal flaws in Bitcoin. He saw it as an “easy target,” something that might be easily compromised. However, what he encountered was Satoshi’s near-perfect code, which he later found to be impenetrable.
Satoshi Nakamoto is fluent in British English
Satoshi’s code and white paper on Bitcoin reveal that the famous coder is fluent in English, particularly British English. This, in part, is why some people believe that Satoshi might be British, despite their claims of being Japanese.
They also employ British usage in emails to fellow coders like Finney, as evidenced in some of their email correspondences. Programmer John McAfee claims to know who Satoshi is, on account of a linguistic analysis of Satoshi’s white paper.
Satoshi Nakamoto may be more than one person
There are also claims that Satoshi may not be just one person. Instead, they may be a group of people who worked on perfecting and creating the code behind Bitcoin. Owing to its outstanding code, Bitcoin continues to thrive alongside other cryptocurrencies.
Some people, like Bitcoin developer Laszlo Hanyecz, believe that the level of coding at which Bitcoin was created would have necessitated more than just one person. According to him, it is highly likely that it was created by a team of coders.
No one is sure if Satoshi is male or female
For all we know, the whole “Satoshi” thing could be a smokescreen to hide the identity of a female genius. Satoshi Nakamoto claims to have been born in April 1975.
In the same way that no one is sure if Satoshi is Japanese, people are theorizing that he could also be a female. Also, many are curious about Satoshi Nakamoto’s net worth. No doubt, whether Satoshi is a male or female, the person is a billionaire.
In a male-dominated industry like tech, it’s not far-fetched for a woman to use a male name to gain an equal footing among her peers. Historically, female writers have used male pseudonyms in an attempt to penetrate the literary scene and gain the respect traditionally accorded to male authors.
What if Satoshi employed a similar trick? No one can say for sure, but this idea has been an empowering thought for a lot of women in development. New York Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney popularized the tagline “Satoshi is female” at an event for women in blockchain.
The future of Bitcoin
Since its creation, Bitcoin has had a storied past, and not without scandals. Originally designed to be a decentralized and borderless alternative to fiat currency, Bitcoin has been slowly centralized to some degree. Large banks and financial institutions, for example, have begun opening crypto trading desks and custody services for crypto.
Some would call this a “compromise,” a departure from Satoshi’s original vision of a revolutionary platform that eschewed financial institutions.
However, with the rise of Bitcoin whales who own most of the Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency is said to have fallen under the control of the elite few yet again. These large investors control Bitcoin’s price in the markets and have the funds to put up Bitcoin mining farms. Consequently, the more miners, the more difficult the mining is (since the mathematical problems become more complicated).
The good news is that Satoshi’s creation doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. It has paved the way for the creation of over 11,000 different forms of cryptocurrency and continues to grow in value.
The HBO documentary adds fuel to this speculative fire, but without concrete evidence, the true identity of Bitcoin's creator remains elusive. Many believe it should stay that way. Satoshi’s anonymity is fundamental to Bitcoin's decentralized ethos, ensuring that no single person holds influence over its future. As Bitcoin continues to evolve, its value lies not in who created it, but in how it has reshaped global finance and technology.
Should the right technological advancements be in place, it is a genuine possibility that people are going to embrace Bitcoin in more everyday transactions. Many organizations believe that Bitcoin may soon become the “currency of choice” in the global trading scene.
However, Bitcoin’s blockchain also needs to evolve and be able to handle more transactions in a short time.