eToro
By eToro

Finding Satoshi

If you know anything about Bitcoin, or cryptoassets in general, you’ve definitely heard about its mysterious founder, Satoshi Nakamoto. The faceless figurehead of the Bitcoin empire, Satoshi’s real identity remains a mystery to this day. So, what do we actually know about Satoshi and how has he engaged with the public throughout the years? Let’s find out.

Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? 

Satoshi Nakamoto is the name used by the mystery Bitcoin inventor, who released a now famous whitepaper titled “Bitcoin: A Peer to Peer Electronic Cash System”, in October 2008. While many people have claimed to be, or have been named as “Satoshi”, no one knows exactly who he really is. Nick Szabo and Craig Wright are amongst those “Faketoshis”, but it still remains to be seen whether or not either of them is the real deal.

Satoshi Nakamoto is no longer active in the development of Bitcoin, having stepped down in December 2010, but still acts as the faceless face of the cryptocurrency. He was the first person to solve the double-spending problem of digital currency, and is the person we have to thank for founding the thriving $261 billion cryptoasset market that we see today.

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How has Satoshi engaged with the public?

As far as industry leaders go, Satoshi Nakamoto remains a pretty quiet person. His first engagement with the public was on 31 December 2008, when he released the Bitcoin (BTC) whitepaper. Nakamoto remained relatively active on forums for a couple of years after that. In fact, you can still find his original interactions with the public, dating all the way back to 2009.

In his post he states: “I’ve developed a new open source P2P e-cash system called Bitcoin. It’s completely decentralized, with no central server or trusted parties, because everything is based on crypto proof instead of trust. Give it a try, or take a look at the screenshots and design paper…” (Nakamoto, 2009).

Nakamoto goes on to reply to comments throughout the thread as well as various others (click here to view more).

Satoshi has also had some pretty memorable moments on Bitcointalk. He’s a pretty funny guy. Some of his most memorable comments include:

  • In response to Bitshare’s founder stating that we need “peer banks” for quick transactions, he said, “If you don’t believe it or don’t get it, I don’t have the time to try to convince you, sorry. Scalability and transaction rate [sic]” Ouch!
  • What about dead (lost) Bitcoin? Satoshi said, “Lost coins only make everyone else’s coins worth slightly more.  Think of it as a donation to everyone. Dying bitcoins [sic]”
  • Satoshi comments on privacy, “Bitcoin would be convenient for people who don’t have a credit card or don’t want to use the cards they have, either don’t want the spouse to see it on the bill or don’t trust giving their number to “porn guys”, or afraid of recurring billing.”

Satoshi has been notoriously quiet over the years, but broke his silence when Dorian Nakamoto, a Japanese mathematician, was supposedly “outed” as the mysterious Bitcoin founder. While Dorian Nakamoto has vehemently denied being Satoshi, Satoshi also released a (very short) statement, simply saying “I am not Dorian.”

And we believe it.

Why the silence, Satoshi? 

Nobody really knows why Satoshi Nakamoto has decided to remain anonymous over the past decade, but if you were the founder of a software that could revolutionize the financial world, with a net worth of over $10 billion dollars, wouldn’t you?

We might not know who Satoshi is, and he might not be the most chatty of elusive billionaire geniuses, but we still have him to thank for sparking the cryptocurrency revolution and changing the world as we know it. If one thing’s for certain, nobody’s going to be finding Satoshi anytime soon. If you’re looking to find Bitcoin though, eToro is a great place to start.

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Your capital is at risk.

Cryptoassets are volatile instruments which can fluctuate widely in a very short timeframe and therefore are not appropriate for all investors. Other than via CFDs, trading cryptoassets is unregulated and therefore is not supervised by any EU regulatory framework. Your capital is at risk.