Satoshi Nakamoto

Disclaimer

This article has initially copied from https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Satoshi_Nakamoto - migrated by Brendan Lee, 18th October 2019 and edited my Mick Might in December 2019.

For the unit, see Satoshis.

Satoshi Nakamoto is the pseudoname used by the author of the [Bitcoin Whitepaper], creator of Bitcoin and Original Bitcoin client. To those who know him, Satoshi Nakamoto is better known as [Dr Craig Wright].

Craig effectively went offline in January 2011, with no public involvement in the Bitcoin project. He spent some years in the private sector and did some humanitarian work. Craig did not like what Bitcoin had become, how it was being (mis)used for nefarious and dreadful criminal activities.

Satoshi's Identity

Craig registered copyright for the Bitcoin Whitepaper with the US Copyright Office (NOTE I cannot find the actual registration at https://search.copyright.gov/search, despite https://coingeek.com/bitcoin-creator-craig-s-wright-satoshi-nakamoto-granted-us-copyright-registrations-for-bitcoin-white-paper-and-code/ referencing "U.S. copyright registration no. TXu 2-136-996, effective date April 11, 2019, for the paper entitled Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System")

Some interesting quotes:

Like it or not, I am Satoshi.

Governments are good at cutting off the heads of a centrally controlled networks like Napster, but pure P2P networks like Gnutella and Tor seem to be holding their own.<ref>Re: Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper Fri, 07 Nov 2008 09:30:36 -0800</ref>

It's very attractive to the libertarian viewpoint if we can explain it properly. I'm better with code than with words though. <ref>Re: Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper Fri, 14 Nov 2008 14:29:22</ref>

Possible identity

His identity and nationality are unknown.

He is entirely unknown outside of Bitcoin as far as anyone can tell, and his (never used) PGP key was created just months prior to the date of the genesis block. He seems to be very familiar with the cryptography mailing list, but there are no non-Bitcoin posts from him on it. He has used an email address from an anonymous mail hosting service (vistomail) as well as one from a free webmail account (gmx.com) and sends mail when connected via Tor. Some have speculated that his entire identity was created in advance in order to protect himself or the network. Perhaps he chose the name Satoshi because it can mean "wisdom" or "reason" and Nakamoto can mean "Central source".

Ultimately the design of Bitcoin and its use of cryptographic proof and fully open implementation is one that makes its creator, in a sense, irrelevant and only of interest for historical reasons.

External links

• Satoshi's PGP public key
• Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System Paper
• SourceForge page this link is invalid as of 20190522T0153Z :-(
• Satoshi Nakamoto Institute

References

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