Satoshi Nakamoto is a talented cipher and coder.
Wrote the whitepaper on bitcoin "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System" and published it on the cypherpunks mailing list in October 2008
Developed the code for bitcoin and founded https://bitcointalk.org
He used an e-mail address and a web site that is untraceable.
In 2009 and 2010, he wrote hundreds of posts in flawless English.
He invited other software developers to help him improve the code, and corresponded with them,
He never revealed any personal details.
Stefan Thomas, a Swiss coder and active community member, graphed the time stamps for each of Nakamoto's bitcoin forum posts and found:
He made almost no posts between the hours of 5 a.m. and 11 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time.
In April, 2011, he sent a note to a developer saying that he had “moved on to other things.” He has not been heard from since.
His birthday is said to be on April 5, 1975 according to this post.
(But it is likely that he didn't select his real birth-date)
His writing is clean, with few typos.
He shows a high proficiency in English. Making very few mistakes.
After his first post, in which he used American spelling, he switched to English spelling for all the rest.
It was pretty good: I'd give it a grade of B+. The worst problem was that there were only a few, huge files, but if you ignored that then it made a lot of sense. It was written in (then-)modern C++, clearly with a lot of care. It was clearly not written in a stream-of-consciousness manner. There were very few bugs that you could blame on lack of programming skill.
My personal suspicion in this area is that Satoshi was never (or not recently) a full-time programmer, but he was pretty familiar with computer science (maybe a student or academic?), and he'd read some comprehensive C++ book just before starting on Bitcoin, so he made full and correct usage of C++ features in a slightly messy way.
My personal suspicion in this area is that Satoshi was never (or not recently) a full-time programmer, but he was pretty familiar with computer science (maybe a student or academic?), and he'd read some comprehensive C++ book just before starting on Bitcoin, so he made full and correct usage of C++ features in a slightly messy way.
Someone hacked Satoshis email account to try and discover who he is:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/hacker-tells-bitcoin-creator-you-are-not-safe-get-out-2062951
There are websites dedicated to preserving the writings of Satoshi Nakamoto:
https://satoshi.nakamotoinstitute.org/
http://satoshinakamoto.me/
The Dai / Nakamoto Emails:
https://www.gwern.net/docs/bitcoin/2008-nakamoto
Satoshi Nakamoto translated (meaning) https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@decentro/satoshi-nakamoto-a-comprehensive-translation-of-an-enigma
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.4336076
Lots of people have been suspected of being Satoshi:
People who corresponded with him have all been named as suspects:
Hal Finney, Martti Malmi, Adam Back, Michael Marquardt, Gavin Andresen and Wei Dai.
But in doing so are we minimising those individuals own contribution to Bitcoin.
They may not be the founder but they are the apostles.
Bitcoin is a collaboration of efforts based on a combination of ideas all consolidated in this whitepaper
It was then executed by a group of individuals, both identified and anonymous.
Many threads with some compelling arguments have been made about it.
I'm not going to duplicate the theories but have instead provided the links to various theories on here:
People or organisations that have been suspected of being Satoshi:
Charles Bry, David Chaum, Neal J. King, Shinichi Mochizuki, John Nash, Tatsuaki Okamoto, Vladimir Oksman, Gavin Andresen, Andreas Antonopoulos, Peter Bachman, John Perry Barlow, Doug Barnes, Michel Bauwens, BCNext, Tim Berners-Lee, Jim Bell, Kay Bell, Tamas Blummer, Nicholas Bohm, S. Boxx, Stefan Brands, Eli Brandt, Greg Broiles, Patrick Byrne, Jan Camenisch, Arthur Chandler, Jim Choate, Igor Chudov, Bram Cohen, Nick Collision, Matt Corallo, Geoff Dale, Luke Dashjr, L.Detweiler, Whitfield Diffie, Ray Dillinger, Jamie Dinkelacker, James A. Donald, Dooglus, Barry Downey, Evan Duffield, Vincent Durham, Tony Eng, Dan Fabulich, Niels Ferguson, Paul Ferguson, Amos Fiat, Art Forz, Matthew Franklin, Patri Friedman, Curtis D. Frye, Tony Gallippi, Jeff Garzik, Matthew Gaylor, John Gilmore, David Gordon, James Orlin Grabbe, Ron Gross, Ashish Gulhati, Laszlo Hanyecz, Martin Hellman, Michael Hendrix, Eyal Hertzog, Robert A. Hettinga, Eric Hughes, Mike Ingle, David Irvine, Douglas Jackson, Victor K., Jeff Kane, Mark Karpeles, Sunny King, Steve Klingsporn, Con Kolivas, Dave Krieger, Nick Lambert, Matthew B. Landry, Laurie Law, Charles/Charlie Lee, Vili Lehdonvirta, Hendrik Lenstra, Romana Machado, Michael Marquardt, Yossi Matias, Gregory/Greg Maxwell, Timothy C. May, Jed McCaleb, Stanton McCandlish, James McCarthy, Jim McCoy, Alfred J. Menezes, Perry E. Metzger, Jude Milhon, Max More, David Naccache, Daniel A. Nagy, Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto, Moni Naor, Satoshi Obana, Kazuo Ohta, Donald O'Mahony, Jackson Palmer, Torben Pedersen, Michael Peirce, Jean-Marc Piveteau, Naval Ravikant, Ben Reeves, Ron Rivest, Meni Rosenfeld, Nikolay Rozhok, Gary Rowe, Susan Sabett, Mayank Sahu, Steve Schear, Andreas Schildbach, Nils Schneider, Berry Schoenmakers, Adi Shamir, Carol Shaw, Charlie Shrem, Barry Silbert, Jerry Solinas, Markus Stadler, Bill Stewart, Patrick Strateman, Aaron Swartz, Amir Taaki, Yael Tauman, Hitesh Tewari, Will Thomas, Peter Todd, Zhou Tong, Dustin D. Trammell, Patrick P. Tsang, Wladimir J. van der Laan, Thomas Vartanian, Roger Ver, Paul Vernon, Sebastiaan von Solms, Erik Voorhees, Michael Weber, Russell E. Whitaker, Zooko Wilcox-O’Hearn, Peter Wuille, Moti Yung, Phil Zimmerman, Haibin Zhang, Theymos, Marti Malmi , Hal Finney #1 , #2 ' Nick Szabo #1, #2, #3,Mike Hearn,Michael Clear,Dave Kleiman,Not Wright or Kleiman (good post), Craig Steven Wright #1, #2,Ross Ulbricht, Julian Assange,Wei Dai, Ben Laurie, Nick Szabo, Adam Back, Japanese mathematician Shinichi Mochizuki,#1, #2
Craig Steven Wright lawsuit by Dave Kleiman Estate
https://www.scribd.com/document/372445546/Bitcoin-Lawsuit (external link)
Private key for the GENESIS block hidden in these equations?
IBM, DARPA, Google
FBI, CIA, NSA, MI5, FSB, Mossad
YOU ?
Articles involving writing analysis:
Bootstrapped Gavin: Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity revealed!
Research on Satoshi Nakamoto identity
Forbes journalist, Andy Greenberg discovered that a man by the name of Dorian Nakamoto, (born Satoshi) was living only a few blocks from Hal Finney. (The man who received the first bitcoin transaction)
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/theory-hal-finney-satoshi-nakamoto-created-bitcoin-769004 Dorian Nakamoto and Hal Finney
The impact was so adverse on Dorian Nakamoto that Andreas Antonopoulos ran a fundraiser for him.
Check fundraising address here: https://blockchain.info/address/1Dorian4RoXcnBv9hnQ4Y2C1an6NJ4UrjX (Given to him in March 2014)
Most comprehensive list of suspects.
Conspiracies:
Conspiracy theories
Gavin Andreson and the CIA killed Satoshi
Satoshi is an AI robot
Frauds:
a fake Satoshi replied
another fake Satoshi
"Satoshis spokesperson" -Miss Roselyn Hamilton
Craig Wright “Mr Fake”
Convicted fraudster Ronald Keala Kua Maria
Satoshi is writing a book
Paper: Duality: An excerpt
There is a theory that the name is made up of common industrial companies.
SA TOSHi NAKA MOTO
Samsung Toshiba Nakamichi Motorola
If Satoshi Nakamoto wanted to be known by another identity it is up to him or her to make that move. It is clear from the writing that they were deeply concerned about privacy.
Here are the writings of the real Satoshi
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/229qvr/happy_birthday_satoshi_nakamoto/
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/satoshingmxcom-is-compromised-775174
The current most popular theory:
Satoshi Nakamotos' current github is showing a photo of Dave Kleiman
https://github.com/satoshinnakamoto
Quote
Mr Wright has also demonstrated this verification in person to The Economist—and not just for block 9, but block 1. Such demonstrations can be stage-managed; and information that allows us to go through the verification process independently was provided too late for us to do so fully. Still, as far as we can tell he indeed seems to be in possession of the keys, at least for block 9. This assessment is shared by two bitcoin insiders who have sat through the same demonstration: Jon Matonis, a bitcoin consultant and former director of the Bitcoin Foundation, and Gavin Andresen
https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2016/05/02/2160632/oh-my-craig-wrights-keys-of-revelation/This in combination to the claims made in the Dave Kleiman Estate lawsuit against Craig Wright makes Dave Kleiman the current most plausible suspect.
Craig Wright filed a motion to dismiss
But I'm still skeptical of the claim because it is reliant on Craig Wrights testimony. In my opinion he has a $54 million reason to lie.
Adresses debunked: https://blog.wizsec.jp/2018/02/kleiman-v-craig-wright-bitcoins.html
Has Craig Wright Committed Perjury? https://hackernoon.com/has-craig-wright-committed-perjury-new-information-in-the-kleiman-case-cbaaf2628e93
Wright claimed AU$54 million in tax rebates for R&D in 2014/15. That is a lot of motive for a hoax. https://www.businessinsider.com.au/the-australian-who-may-have-invented-bitcoin-claimed-to-have-landed-54m-in-taxpayer-funded-rebates-2015-12
Wrights own mother claims he has a habit of lying: http://archive.is/kjuLi#selection-1655.0-1655.94
Craig Wrights MtGox account also is not that of a "whale" https://np.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/4hx3q9/according_to_the_mtgox_leaks_from_early_2014_our/
Wright also claimed to have a PhD in computer science with Sydney's Charles Sturt University (CSU). But the university denied ever handing him a Phd.
Cybersecurity firm Wizsec dismisses the Wright claims on which the Kleiman lawsuit is based as "fantasy" https://blog.wizsec.jp/2018/02/kleiman-v-craig-wright-bitcoins.html
My conclusion:
I rather not know. I think the mystery makes it more intriguing. Some legends are better as legends. Like Merlin and Robin Hood.
Further reading:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/10/10/the-crypto-currency
Re: Satoshi is Back, suggests Fortune
- https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.41411073
Satoshis missing posts -Theymos (also quoted below)
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.669898
This is a work in progress, corrections and additions are welcome.
Sources: UsernameBitcoin, AGD, BitcoinFX