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WHO IS SATOSHI NAKAMOTO?
By Charlie Stivers
When you think of leaders of historical significance in business and society, what most of them have in common is they brought a technology or product to the masses. Their creation is the beginning of a movement that further evolves our way of life. Bill Gates didn’t invent the computer – he made it affordable and easy for all of us to use computers with his software. Henry Ford didn’t invent the car – he developed the assembly line to make vehicles available to the masses at a lower cost. Satoshi Nakamoto is the pseudonymous leader or group that brought Bitcoin and the beginning of blockchain technology to millions of users.
There were others before that tried digital currencies, like e-Gold. Satoshi was the first to develop blockchain technology that combined a peer-to-peer digital currency on a recorded public ledger in a decentralized database, known as the Bitcoin blockchain. This digital technology was special because it prevented double spending of the currency with a recorded time stamp. As a digital asset, it has a built-in incentive for the users to help it grow and its scarcity makes it more sought after, thus more valuable, and considered by many as the only - sound currency. Therefore, you see the headlines feeding the frenzy, while Bitcoin leaders, advocates, and investors continue to spread the story. Some continue to innovate on top of the foundation of the network. It's not only about the asset BTC, but it is also about the future of the Bitcoin network!
Bitcoin involves 2 components that should be distinguished. The unhackable blockchain network is referred to as the Bitcoin blockchain with a capital “B”, and the digital currency is bitcoin with a lowercase “b”, or its ticker symbol, BTC. The security lies in its huge, decentralized network where copies of blockchain reside on several thousand nodes. To hack it would require changing the code and history of the blockchain on all nodes though out the global network.
Key Point - There will only ever be 21 million BTC.
Satoshi Nakamoto started his project in 2007 as a solution to the market crash and global collapse of our economic system. He presented the Bitcoin whitepaper on October 31st, 2008, announcing his decentralized, P2P digital cash system to bypass the flawed, and sometimes corrupt, centralized banking system.
The great wonder, “Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?” is still to be determined in many minds. Would you want to be public about creating a currency to bypass and severely disrupt big government financial systems? The wealth in the original Bitcoin wallet is estimated to be worth billions. To this day, those bitcoins have never moved from that wallet. Is he alive or dead? That depends on who you think Satoshi is.
Some speculate it is a group of people, a secretive government branch like the CIA or NSA, or a cipher punk like the late Hal Finney who was a cryptographer who lived just blocks away from Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto. Finney assisted with testing the blockchain system and participated in the first bitcoin transfer with Nakamoto.
Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, a California resident, under a similar name was working in secretive banking and government roles, cast uncertainty and doubts after answering confusing questions and made statements to the press who were chasing him down for the story. He stated he was no longer involved in that project and turned it over to others. In an ask-me-anything interview on Reddit, he stated he misinterpreted the question from reporters thinking they were talking about his past roles and work with banks and the government. Later that day, a message from Nakamoto’s P2P Foundation appeared after never having a post for 5 years stating, “I am not Dorian Nakamoto.” To further confuse the authenticity of the account’s post, months later the same account posted it had been hacked!
Nick Szabo has been thought of as Nakamoto due to his BitGold creation before Bitcoin and a stylometric process comparing his publications to the Bitcoin whitepaper noting similarities.
The rest of the story is filled with drama surrounding Dr. Craig Wright who claimed he is Satoshi publicly several times starting in 2016.
Let's honor Satoshi and assume he has passed through the pearly gates in the great metaverse. Keep building on the Bitcoin network and stacking those Sats!
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