By 10 years ago, when Satoshi mined the first genesis block the Bitcoin Network was created and henceforth set in stone. But two years later, On Saturday, April 2nd, 2011 at 3:40 PM, Satoshi Nakamoto sent an email to Mike Hearn stating ‘he has moved on to other things.’ Some have considered this a gift.
Archives of Nakamoto’s Communication can be found here.
The greatest gift Satoshi Nakamoto gave us was bitcoin. The second greatest gift he gave us was disappearing.
– @Rhythmtrader
This, however, led the identity behind the bitcoin creator, to remain one of the biggest mysteries within the bitcoin community as the inventor’s first name Satoshi, is now being used to christen one hundred millionth of one Bitcoin —’sats’, the smallest indivisible unit of the cryptocurrency.
So the mystery remains, Who is Nakamoto?
From the self-proclaiming ones to those attributed to being the real Satoshi, here are the most notable cases:
Vili Lehdonvirta
The first recorded attempt dates back to October 2011. The New Yorker’s journalist, Joshua Davis, wrote a piece claiming that the person behind Satoshi Nakamoto is a Finnish researcher from the Helsinki Institute for Information Technology, Vili Lehdonvirta.
Shinichi Mochizuki
May 2013, an IT pioneer, philosopher, and sociologist from the US, Ted Nelson, made a YouTube video stating that he believes to have found the real Nakamoto. According to him, the person behind the identity might be Shinichi Mochizuki, a mathematician from Japan.
Nakamoto Renaissance Holdings
This happens to be the latest in the claim to reveal the true identity of Satoshi, and it is important to note that a very similar “reveal” occurred recently, but was revealed to be nothing more than a weird marketing campaign that may have backfired on the company. However, it didn’t take too long for Crypto Twitter to react and point out what the recent reveal got wrong.
Hal Finney & Dave Kleiman
“Above all else, just think about how amazingly unlikely this story is. Hal Finney and Dave Kleiman meeting. Their understanding of each other, and ego-less work ethic. Craig Wright as the Ringo Starr of the group. Their untimely deaths leading to the bitcoin behemoth we know today. All this seems impossible. But it just might be true. If anybody ever asks you if you know who Satoshi Nakamoto is, simply reply…The dragon has three heads.”
– Oscar, Founder of AssetSquared
Craig Steven Wright
Is it possible that Wright is somehow connected to Satoshi and the creation of Bitcoin?
In May 2016, Wright decided to come out and admit that he is the real Nakamoto. Although he failed to provide proof that was demanded, Wright in fact continues to claim that he is, Satoshi. Til date, Few believe that by luck or design he could have been lurking in the background from near the start.
Debo Jurgen Etienne Guido
A recent filing which adds a new twist is from a man who resides in Belgium. He sent a written testimony to Judge Bruce Reinhart claiming to be Satoshi Nakamoto.
Debo’s handwritten letter contends that he was the inventor of the Bitcoin technology, the originator who initiated the genesis block, author of the whitepaper, and owner of the GMX.com email handle.
Government Agency
While there is no actual evidence that Nakamoto is a government agency, some believe so. But it does make for a great conspiracy theory.
Nick Szabo
In December 2013, researcher Skye Grey published results arguing that Satoshi is actually Nick Szabo himself, probably together with one or more technical collaborators. Claims which he has rejected.
Elon Musk.
Elon Musk was once believed to be Satoshi Nakamoto after one of his former interns Sahil Gupta, wrote an article for Hacker Noon claiming, Satoshi could be a collaboration of Musk, Nick Szabo, and Hal Finney. But it seemed more likely that Elon read their research papers, took inspiration from them, and built the product solo.
Paul Le Roux’s Story
As previously reported on Bitcoin.com, this might be a crazy theory, and yet, on closer inspection, there is a case for Bitcoin’s mastermind being Le Roux.
A former programmer, former criminal cartel boss and informant for the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). He created E4M, an open-source free Windows disk encryption software program, in 1999, and is a suspected creator of the open-source TrueCrypt, which is based on E4M’s code.
King, Oksman, and Bry.
How a stream of stunning coincidences can end up pointing to not one, but three potential candidates.
Dorian Nakamoto
On March 6 2014, Newsweek published a lengthy article written by journalist Leah McGrath Goodman, who identified Dorian Nakamoto, a Japanese American male living in California as the original Bitcoin creator. However, in the following full-length interview with the associated press, Dorian Nakamoto denied all connection to Bitcoin.
John McAfee’s Narrative
“I protected the identity of Satoshi. It’s time, though, that this be put to bed. Imposters claim to be him, we are spending time and energy in search of him – It’s a waste. Every day I will narrow down the identity of Satoshi until he reveals himself, or I reveal him.”
Helger Lipmaa
In 2018, Estonian press reports suggested that cryptographer Helger Lipmaa was behind the white paper, which he has since denied. But a new theory put forth by tech consultant Kimberly Forsythe casts a spotlight beyond Lipmaa onto a group of scientists connected to him. The figure at the centre of Forsythe’s investigation is Guardtime’s CEO Mike Gault, who has a profile that Forsythe says is uncannily similar to that of Bitcoin’s inventor.
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