Who is the Creator of Bitcoin?

When Bitcoin was created in 2008, it started something we can only describe as a revolution. Cryptocurrencies have fought their way into the mainstream world, dealing with hard legal battles and scepticism along the way. Fast forward to today, many people have become millionaires due to crypto trading, big companies are accepting it as a form of payment, and some coins have even been created to honour different memes. But who is the person who created Bitcoin and allowed all of this to unfold?

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This might be a shock to some people, but the identity of the first cryptocurrency creator is a mystery to this day. The first time Bitcoin was mentioned online was in August of 2008 when an anonymous person registered the domain ‘bitcoin.org’. Later that same year, a user who went by the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto published what is believed to be the coin’s whitepaper (Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System) to a site for cryptography fans. The text explained how digital currency could work and talked more in detail about Bitcoin. Nakamoto also helped create the first blockchain database.

Since then, the same name was attributed to an account that was very active in cryptocurrency forums up until 2010. Nakamoto’s involvement with Bitcoin, however, ended in 2010. The last known contact that anyone had with Satoshi was in an email to another developer saying that they had "moved on to other things".

However, a transaction from 2020 suggested that they might be active after all. 11 years after the launch of the Bitcoin blockchain, 50 of the first coins (mined in 2009) were moved to well-known exchange websites, and experts suspect that they were sold from Satoshi Nakamoto’s wallet. Even with this information, the identity of the seller has stayed hidden.

Popular theories

Throughout the years, several people have either claimed to be Satoshi or have been suspected of it; however, nobody has ever had enough proof. There are a few theories on the subject:

• A somewhat popular theory states that the fake name is an amalgam of different companies (Samsung and Toshiba created Satoshi, while Nakamichi and Motorola created Nakamoto), suggesting that cryptocurrency was developed by big corporations.
• Other conspiracy theories believe that the CIA invented it or at least had some level of involvement with the process.
• Some people believe it was Elon Musk all along, although that has quickly been disproved and denied by Musk himself.

If the previous guesses seem a bit far-fetched, there are a few more credible theories as well. 

• Dorian Nakamoto - besides the similarity in the name, Dorian has been exposed by the media in 2014 as the creator of Bitcoin due to his engineering experience and the fact he had allegedly confirmed to a publication that he was involved in the Bitcoin project at the beginning, but not anymore. When asked about it again, he denied the quote.
• Craig Wright - this is one of the exceptions, as Wright has actually tried to convince the world that he is the creator of Bitcoin, pointing to various proof, such as a blog post that was published months before the coin’s whitepaper was, which made similar points. However, this claim was disproved and deemed fraudulent by experts who realised that he had many holes in his story, and who found out that the blog post he references was actually backdated.
• Nick Szabo - perhaps the most believable one, Szabo actually created Bit Gold in 2008, which he described as “a protocol whereby unforgeable costly bits could be created online with minimal dependence on trusted third parties”. The similarity to Bitcoin and the fact Szabo had coined “smart contracts” in 1996 are compelling arguments in favour of Nick Szabo being the true creator of Bitcoin. However, the computer scientist has denied this theory repeatedly. 

Given the price of bitcoin today, Satoshi Nakamoto would be a billionaire, and yet it has been nearly impossible to find out who the person (or group of people) behind Bitcoin is.

For more information about Bitcoin’s history, visit bitcasino.io