Satoshi Nakamoto is a mysterious character in the world of blockchain and cryptocurrency.
Nakamoto invented the most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, and then just disappeared after a few years.
His last email ever read: “I wish you wouldn’t keep talking about me as a mysterious shadowy figure, the press just turns that into a pirate currency angle. Maybe instead make it about the open source project and give more credit to your dev contributors; it helps motivate them.”
However, this just made him more of a mysterious shadowy figure.
Let’s find out who Satoshi Nakamoto is, why he invented Bitcoin, how many Bitcoin he has, and if we can figure out who the true Satoshi Nakamoto is.
Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?
Satoshi Nakamoto is an alias for the person or group of people that created Bitcoin, the world’s first use of cryptocurrency and blockchain.
Satoshi Nakamoto launched crypto and blockchain in 2008 with the Bitcoin white paper and the genesis block was mined on January 3rd, 2009. This genesis block contained the first 50 Bitcoin that ever existed.
Satoshi was also the very first person to send cryptocurrency over the Bitcoin network. 10 Bitcoin was sent from Satoshi Nakamoto to Hal Finney, another programmer who was a pre-bitcoin cryptographic pioneer who helped during the early days of Bitcoin.
He remained active in the community for around two years, but left in 2010 and has completely disappeared, never to be heard from again.
No one knows who Satoshi Nakamoto is for sure, giving him a mysterious vibe, especially since he created Bitcoin, and hasn’t been heard from since it started to get popular.
Why did Satoshi Nakamoto Invent Bitcoin?
In the Bitcoin Genesis Block, which you can see above, Satoshi Nakamoto embedded a headline from the same day the block was mined. This message reads “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”.
Remember, during this time there was a massive recession called the Great Recession, that was brought on by banks mishandling of the housing market.
Many people believe using this headline, Nakamoto was hinting at how terribly the banks were running the financial system and suggests that Bitcoin be used as an alternative to traditional currencies.
In the white paper that he wrote for Bitcoin, he described solving certain problems such as the double spend problem, and suggests a decentralized approach to trust.
The double-spend problem happens when users can spend a digital token multiple times. Before Bitcoin, there were a few attempts at creating a digital currency, but all were subject to this problem. Using blockchain, transactions could not be altered or changed. Any transaction can be seen by anyone, anyone could get a copy of the blockchain, and new transactions could be added to the blockchain by anyone.
In order for users to trust whether or not the transactions being added were legit, everyone could check against their copy of the blockchain. If one user tried to change a transaction, it wouldn’t match anyone else’s copy, and would be void.
Users can add new blocks of transactions to the blockchain, while showing they are legit, by proving they have used a certain amount of energy. This is called
proof of work, or mining. Users can prove they have spent energy to verify the block by solving for a complex code that will be added to the block as proof.
Other users know that the transactions are legit because they can verify against their own copy of the blockchain. They also know how much energy it takes to mine the block because they were all attempting to solve the code at the same time. The blockchain with the most work spent is the most up-to-date blockchain.
How Much is Satoshi Nakamoto Worth?
When Satoshi Nakamoto created Bitcoin, he was one to mine most of the new blocks. He used many addresses, and because of this, he holds a massive amount of Bitcoin.
Satoshi Nakamoto has around 1.1 million Bitcoin across all of his addresses. This would be worth about 23 billion dollars right now, and about $76 billion at Bitcoin’s all time high.
Keep in mind, there are only 21 million Bitcoin that will ever be in circulation, which means that Nakamoto holds around 5 percent of the total supply of Bitcoin.
If Bitcoin reaches prices that everyone is hoping for like 1 million dollars each, or more, then Sataoshi Nakamoto could easily become the richest person, or entity, in history. At $1 million per BTC, Nakamoto would hold 1.1 trillion dollars worth of Bitcoin, 5 times the worth of Elon Musk, the current richest person.
What Happens if Satoshi Nakamoto Sells His Bitcoin?
Sataoshi Nakamoto, if this person is alive, could sell their Bitcoin at any moment. Here are two scenarios that could happen if Satoshi sells all his Bitcoin.
Nothing Happens to Bitcoin
If Sataoshi Nakamoto slowly sold his coins over time, the most likely scenario is that nothing will happen to Bitcoin. In fact, you probably wouldn’t even notice anything.
Satoshi Nakamoto is clearly smart. He invented Bitcoin after all. If he were to sell his coins, he would do it over time in order to make sure that the price remained stable.
Bitcoin Would Tank
Currently, something like 1 million Bitcoins worth of U.S. dollars are traded each day. If Satoshi Nakamoto were to sell all of his Bitcoin at once, it could cause the price to crash for a little while since he would be releasing so many new coins into circulation.
Over time the price would get back to stability, and anyone who was able to buy at this time would most likely get a decent discount on Bitcoin.
If the price were to get too low, then it is possible that it wouldn’t recover. Bitcoin could then see itself over-taken by a different cryptocurrency.
Who is the true Satoshi Nakamoto?
No one really knows who the true Satoshi Nakamoto is. However, over the years many people have been suspected or even come out and claimed they were Satoshi.
Hal Finney
Hal Finney, if you remember, was the first person to receive a Bitcoin transaction in history. He was involved with the project before and after Bitcoin’s launch.
Hal Finney coincidentally lived near someone named Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, which could have served as an inspiration for the pseudonym. His writing was also compared to and similar to the writing style of Satoshi Nakamoto.
However, after lots of evidence was compared and Hal Finney himself denied being Nakamoto, most people have come to the conclusion that Hal Finney is not Satoshi Nakamoto.
Unfortunately, Hal Finney died in 2014.
Dorian Nakamoto
Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto was the man living down the street from Hal Finney. He was a physicist, systems engineer, and a computer engineer for many defense projects and financial companies.
Even though he has the qualifications, there is no proof he actually worked on Bitcoin at all. Dorian Nakamoto has denied being Satoshi Nakamoto.
Craig Wright
Craig Steven Wright is the self proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto. However, Craig Wright has never been able to actually prove he was the inventor of Bitcoin.
Craig Wright has copyrighted the Bitcoin white paper, as well as the very first Bitcoin code, and has the ability to sue anyone who calls him a fraud.
If someone really wanted to prove that they were Satoshi Nakamoto they could easily prove it by moving some of the Bitcoin held in his known addresses. Since no one has done this yet, there is no proof of the true Satoshi Nakamoto.
Summary
Sataoshi Nakamoto is the pseudonym of the person, or group, that invented Bitcoin, the very first blockchain- based cryptocurrency.
Nakamoto invented Bitcoin as an alternative to the traditional money system. Coincidentally, Bitcoin was launched during the Great Recession, a period after the U.S. housing market collapse.
Right now, Satoshi Nakamoto holds about 1.1 million Bitcoin, yet his wallets have remained inactive for many years.
If Satoshi Nakamoto were to sell his Bitcoin most likely nothing would happen since he would probably sell them off in small waves.
Many people like Hal Finney, Dorian Nakamoto, and Craig Wright have been suspected to be Satoshi Nakamoto, but so far there is no proof of anyone being the true Satoshi Nakamoto.
Now that you know who Satoshi Nakamoto is, you can learn all about the cryptocurrency he invented,
Bitcoin!
