Although Satoshi is not active presently, he is still out there and if he would choose to act he could have more of an impact than anyone else. He has the most power, he is just choosing not to use it.
I disagree. The only thing Satoshi has is celebrity status. He came up with a great idea and got the ball rolling, but it has grown beyond his control.
He has already demonstrated some lack in foresight and made some rather questionable decisions in the initial development of bitcoin.
Any input that he would have now would need to be carefully considered on its own merits regardless of whether he is the one saying it. While he is quite knowledgeable in the inner workings of the protocol, so are dozens of other developers. He no longer has much power in the bitcoin infrastructure, and the only power he has in the bitcoin economy is in the minds of those who are enamored with the concept of celebrity.
Satoshi has 1 million BTC. My choice to put him at number 1 was not primarily because of celebrity.
By that reasoning, Mark Karpeles should be quite high! maybe second place.
