The story surrounding the creation of Bitcoin is one of mysterious origins. It places a certain magnetic intrigue around this incredible technology. In October of 2008, a person going by the name ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’ published a white paper detailing how a cryptocurrency called Bitcoin could be used in a more secure manner than the current monetary systems.
After only a few months, in January of 2009, ‘Nakamoto’ put this concept to action with the release of the first 50 Bitcoins and source code for developing or mining more Bitcoins. For the next two years, he worked with others to finetune the process. Finally, in April of 2011, the person known (or actually unknown) as ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’ sent his last communication stating, “I have moved on to other things”.
The true identity of ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’ remains a mystery. No one had ever met him and he communicated only on the internet. ‘He’ had described himself in a 2012 profile as a 37 year old male living in Japan, but it is believed highly improbable that he was of Japanese descent. His understanding and use of English seemed too polished.
If basing his identity only on written communications, which is all there really is, he leans to having a definite British influence. Words commonly used in the UK, like Bloody, and spellings with an U, like colour, were seen within his emails and exchanges. The hours of the day he most often corresponded, also suggested he lived in a British, possibly USA, timezone.
Perhaps, however, ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’ is not a single person. The name could actually represent a group of people responsible for creating Bitcoin. This is believed by some in search for the answer of ‘Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?’. That is because the coding behind Bitcoin is extremely complex, and thought to be a bit too intricate for only one person to develop so perfectly.
No one really knows who ‘he’ is. And we might never know.
What is known, however, is ‘he’ has control over almost 1 million Bitcoin that sits securely in ‘his’ digital wallets. At the peak of Bitcoin’s rise in 2017, this was no small amount. Its value was around 19 Billion. This wealth put ‘him’ in the top 100 richest people in the world.
But not a bit of this Bitcoin Treasure was touched. It sat there.
And remains there today (as of this writing).
With a mind (or minds) like ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’, I have to wonder what ‘other things’ has he moved on to? He invented a new currency for the world, one that cannot be destroyed.
Sure there are a lot of naysayers who feel Bitcoin is a fad. But they said that about the internet too. And if you are reading this, then I guess you know how that went.
Blockchain is a powerful technology that Bitcoin, and other things, are breaking new grounds on.
The mystery continues….
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