There are many theories about who could create the first cryptocurrency. Some of them seem absurd, others seem believable. However, so far none of them has received conclusive evidence.
Each movement has an iconic face. Gandhi led the Indian Independence Campaign, Professor Xavier was the driving force behind the X-Men, and Rosa Parks led African-American rights activists. In the case of Bitcoin, decentralization has become one of the most important principles of movement. Therefore, no one knows or speaks publicly who founded the currency: this is not an accident.
Bitcoin and blockchain were created by a person or group of persons under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. In December 2017, when the BTC price reached $ 20,000, Nakamoto took 44th place in the list of the richest people in the world. There are dozens of legends and rumors, new fan theories are constantly appearing. But over ten years there has not been a single conclusive evidence of who the mysterious creator of Bitcoin is.
Satoshi was not just a brilliant technologist, but also an outstanding marketer. In 2008, people were depressed because of the situation in the world, and they needed an alternative to recover from financial losses. At this time, bitcoin appeared. It became a reaction to the collapse of the business: the article “Bitcoin: a peer-to-peer electronic money system” was published a month after the crisis began, in October 2008.
Satoshi served Bitcoin for three years, and then “moved on to other things.” Communication with Satoshi ended in 2011. The last thing he said in a letter to another Bitcoin developer, Gavin Andersen:
“I would like you to stop talking about me as a mysterious shadow figure, the press is turning it into a pirate currency. Perhaps instead it would be better to talk about an open source project and pay tribute to the developers; it helps motivate them. ”
Faketoshi
The brightest candidate for the role of Satoshi Nakamoto is an Australian entrepreneur, programmer and scientist Craig Wright. In 2015, he burst onto the scene, saying that in fact Satoshi is two people, Wright himself and his colleague Dave Kleiman. Kleiman died in 2013 and cannot confirm or deny this information.
Wikileaks later revealed that Craig is not who he claims to be. Wright tried to present his old post as proof that he developed cryptocurrency. The irony is that the word "cryptocurrency" was added to the post much later. The cryptocommunity found a lot of evidence of Craig's lies, for which he received the nickname Faketoshi.
Dorian Nakamoto
In 2014, Leah McGrath Goodman of Newsweek published an investigation according to which the creator of Bitcoin is California resident Dorian Nakamoto, a 64-year-old retired Japanese-American physicist and well-educated engineer. Dorian agreed to speak with the journalist only in the presence of police officers. He answered evasively, and then declared:
“I am no longer involved in this and cannot discuss it. <...> It was passed on to other people. They are responsible for this now. ”
Later, he made a statement, where he said that he misunderstood the journalist's questions. Dorian's statements emphasize that he was embarrassed when Goodman asked questions, and that his comment “I am no longer involved in this” was taken out of context. The community fell in love with Dorian and collected more than $ 1 million in donations to him.
Hal Finney
The first Bitcoin transaction was sent to Hal Finney. He received 50 BTC in January 2009. A Libertarian and a member of the cipherpunk community, Finney seemed like an ideal candidate for the role of inventor of Bitcoin. The appearance of Dorian Nakamoto in the neighborhood, and they lived in the same town, added fuel to the fire. In May 2020, two news refuted the involvement of the programmer in the creation of the first cryptocurrency. Firstly, it worked on a Windows system. Secondly, Finney was developing a Bitcoin client for Mac OS for Satoshi Nakamoto.
Company scam
One of the most popular theories is that Satoshi Nakamoto is a combination of the first letters of the Samsung-Toshiba-Nakamichi-Motorola company names. Proponents of this theory say that bitcoin was created with the aim of fraud. There is no evidence.
Was there a boy?
Satoshi Nakamoto is an almost religious figure. Everyone can proclaim himself to them. Satoshi is at the same time everything and nobody. Most religions, nations, institutions and associations have a history of origin, for example, the book of Genesis or the history of the enlightenment of the Buddha. These origin stories are not necessarily accurate in fact; they exist more like archetypal stories, myths, or images. In fact, one of the ideas of Bitcoin is to free the world from idolatry.
