October 31, 2008 and the global financial crisis is sweeping the world. A certain Satoshi Nakamoto has released the Bitcoin whitepaper, which has become legendary by the way, on the “P2P Foundation” platform. In it, Satoshi spans the idea of Bitcoin over eight pages. In February 2009, Satoshi put the so-called open source code of the bitcoin system on the forum. Software whose source code is freely available and viewable by third parties. The world’s first cryptocurrency was born!
As a result, Bitcoin goes through the roof. In the early days, the currency primarily gained traction on the dark web, a hidden part of the internet. Criminals use the anonymity of digital currency for drug, weapon and money laundering transactions. Satoshi Nakamoto doesn’t like it at all. He left the project in April 2011. On the forum it says “I’m doing other things now”. It should be the last sign of life of the Bitcoin inventor.
adventurous theories
Even in his wildest dreams, Satoshi could never have imagined what had happened to Bitcoin since then. The market cap of the first cryptocurrency will be CHF 370 billion in 2022. One bitcoin costs a good 19,000 francs. And more than 19,000 digital currencies have been created since 2008.
No wonder the mystery surrounding the missing Bitcoin inventor has become one of the great mysteries of modern times. It is still unclear to this day whether there is a genius or an entire group of developers behind the Satoshi alias. On social media, sometimes adventurous speculation ranges from organizations like the American FBI to entire countries like Russia or China.
You supposedly know Satoshi
Entrepreneurial personalities who want to know the identity of the Bitcoin inventor keep talking. For example, the late crypto expert and antivirus pioneer John McAfee (†75) wanted to use a conversation analysis to find out with a 99 percent probability who was behind Satoshi Nakamoto. But McAfee says he never wanted to be named “so as not to endanger his life.”
US multimillionaire Dan Peña (77) goes one step further. He knows Satoshi’s identity “100 percent”. “If you knew who was behind bitcoin, you would run as fast as you could to sell bitcoin,” he said in a video. “When the real founder emerges, Bitcoin drops to zero in a second.” But he doesn’t reveal his name either. In another video, Peña suddenly suspects a Russian conspiracy behind Bitcoin.
Or there would be US billionaire Peter Thiel, 54, who claimed to be on a beach with Satoshi on the Caribbean island of Anguilla. He also does not want to expose the Bitcoin inventor because otherwise the government would arrest him.
Conman from Australia
The mystery was allegedly solved in 2019. Australian computer scientist and businessman Craig Steven Wright (52) revealed in The Economist that he is Satoshi Nakamoto. “I did most of the work, but others helped,” he said. Nakamoto got his nickname from the 17th century Japanese philosopher Tominaga Nakamoto. It remains unclear where the first name came from.
But the Australian remains guilty from the evidence disclosed. His statements in the crypto scene and public are now considered wrong. The mystery surrounding the Bitcoin inventor remains unsolved.
It is known about Satoshi
In fact, little is known apart from the nickname. In his profile at the time, Satoshi allegedly introduced himself as a Japanese male born on April 5, 1975. Only a shadow frame was visible in the profile picture. He wrote perfect English using the English spelling. Satoshi was not only a skilled programmer, he was also very familiar with the current monetary system.
He refused this with deep conviction – Satoshi repeatedly took positions against banking, central banks and governments. In times of the global financial crisis, it received a lot of attention. The decentralized bitcoin system was designed to guarantee independence by eliminating the need for people to blindly trust traditional institutions.
Wealth: 19 billion francs
A hacker group once managed to hack into Satoshi’s email account, but not his identity. And so Satoshi Nakamoto has remained a mystery to this day. He still owns the first one million mined bitcoins and is supposedly the only person with access to the Satoshi wallet. He didn’t make any money from it. 19 billion francs his bitcoin fortune today.
Satoshi Nakamoto lost the digital key? Is it OK? Or does he believe he can one day make even more money with Bitcoins? These are questions that only the Bitcoin inventor himself can answer.