On August the 26th, 2010, a message posted on the BitcoinTalk forum by the elusive Satoshi Nakamoto changed the world forever. In this post, Nakamoto likened Bitcoin to a precious metal that was boring in color and had no practical or ornamental purpose. But it did have a ‘magical property’ – it could be transported over the internet.
Bitcoin was launched about a year and a half before that message was posted. However, that statement increased the rate of adoption of Bitcoin and the unveiling of new cryptocurrencies exponentially. After being valued at just a few cents in 2010, it surpassed $1 in 2011, and it has reached an all-time high of $73,780 since.
According to most sources, Satoshi Nakamoto hasn’t been active in the development of Bitcoin since December 2010. However, Nakamoto is reported to hold up to 1.1 million Bitcoins – that would make this crypto enigma worth around $65 billion based on today’s value of Bitcoin.
And yet, to this day, the true identity (or identities) of Satoshi Nakamoto has never been revealed, although many controversial origin stories continue to make their waves. So, who is Satoshi Nakamoto?
Satoshi Nakamoto Candidates
One of the first people thought to be Nakamoto was Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto. Leah McGrath Goodman deduced that this Japanese-American man was the real Satoshi Nakamoto behind Bitcoin after an investigation, but a subsequent investigation proved this theory wrong.
The first person to ever receive a Bitcoin through a digital transaction, the late Hal Finney, was also thought to be Nakamoto. He was an active Bitcoin community member from before the launch of the blockchain. As Finney lived just a few streets away from Dorian Nakamoto, some commentators assumed Dorain may have been the inspiration behind the pseudonym. But Finney, while the first to receive a Bitcoin, denied being the real Nakamoto.
Another candidate that didn’t turn out to be the real Nakamoto was Nick Szabo, who had the idea to create a digital currency called Bitgold in 2005. However, this idea involved the use of third parties to validate and record transactions, a far cry from the decentralized blockchain technologies that power Bitcoin and today’s broad spectrum of cryptocurrencies.
The Craig Wright Scandal
In 2015, Australian computer scientist Craig Wright claimed to be the real Satoshi Nakamoto who authored the original Bitcoin whitepaper in 2008. Wright produced some cryptographic evidence to support his claim, but it was disputed as fraudulent or unconvincing by many in the crypto community at the time.
Wright has remained a controversial figure in the crypto space ever since, being sued and suing other people over his supposed ownership rights.
The late David Kleiman sued Wright in 2021. Kleiman claimed that the two former colleagues had co-created Bitcoin, and Kleiman was therefore entitled to half of Wright’s alleged pot of 1.1 million Bitcoin. He was awarded $100 million, indicating the jury believed both Wright and Kleiman worked on the project in some capacity.
Finally, early in 2024, a High Court Judge in the UK ruled that Wright is not and never was Satoshi Nakamoto – the evidence was ‘overwhelming.’
FBI Response to an FOIA Request
In August 2024, the FBI responded to Dave Troy’s request for information on anything they knew about the real Satoshi Nakamoto. Troy, a disinformation researcher and entrepreneur, requested the information under the Freedom of Information Act as part of his research on information warfare, social manipulation, and geopolitical dynamics.
The FBI responded by saying it couldn’t deny or confirm the existence of the real Satoshi, who could be “one or more third-party individuals.” Troy has said that he will appeal the response in an attempt to get more information, even if it doesn’t reveal Satoshi’s identity.
The Most Likely Candidate
In July 2024, Craig Wright publicly admitted to not being the real Bitcoin creator or the person behind the Satoshi Nakamoto pseudonym by posting a legal notice on his website. While this protects other people and entities from being wrongfully sued by Wright, it gets us no closer to finding out who the real Satoshi Nakamoto is.
Many people in the crypto community still believe that Hal Finney, the first person to receive a Bitcoin transaction from Satoshi Nakamoto on January 12, 2009, was the real Satoshi Nakamoto himself. Finney was also behind the development of the Reusable Proof of Work (RPOW) concept, which became fundamental to Bitcoin’s blockchain architecture.
However, Finney repeatedly denied being the real Nakamoto, maintaining that the two were close collaborators only. Unfortunately, Finney passed away in 2014, but many still believe there may have been more to the Finney-Nakamoto relationship than meets the eye.
In 2016, the Financial Times suggested that the real Satoshi Nakamoto might actually have been a group of people that included Hal Finney and Nick Szabo. But, as of writing, the true identity of the enigmatic Satoshi Nakamoto remains a heavily debated mystery.
