The Legend of Satoshi Nakamoto

The Story Behind The Creation Of Bitcoin

Satoshi NakamotoWhen one is the creator of Bitcoin, one has earned oneself a bit of notoriety just on the face of that invention alone.

Satoshi Nakamoto is the man who has earned himself that notoriety because of the creation of the Bitcoin. A 37-year-old Japanese man creates a whole new currency and owns, himself, 1 million of that very currency.

1 million in bitcoin currency (BTC) is about the equivalent of $1.1 billion in American currency.

That's the beginning, and the end, of the story...right?

Wrong.

Satoshi Nakamoto is not a man. He is, in fact, a legend...a legend that has a series of different theories, and a series of different aspects that deserve to be explored.

Origin Of The Satoshi Nakamoto Name

First, there's the legend of his name: Satoshi Nakamoto is a Japanese name that, literally, means "the foundation inside clear thinking," or -- more colloquially -- "central intelligence." However, the name Satoshi Nakamoto can also have a number of meanings -- in fact, the developers specifically chose that name because of the multitude of meanings.

Speech Patterns

Then there's the issue of Nakamoto's speech patterns: when Nakamoto's first paper on Bitcoin was published on The Cryptography Mailing List in 2008, many eagle-eyed readers noted that Nakamoto spoke perfect English, and that the Bitcoin software was neither labeled nor coded in Japanese. While it is certainly possible for a Japanese businessman to speak perfect English, it isn't likely that he would know idioms, slang or figures of speech...something Nakamoto certainly knew, quite well, and in the correct context.

Registration Of The Bitcoin.org Domain

Further adding to the mystery of Nakamoto is the registration of the bitcoin.org domain name: while the registrant of the domain name came from a Japanese IP address, the actual company was registered in Finland. It's certainly possible to spoof an IP address,but it's impossible to spoof an actual physical address...so the disparity between the physical address and the IP is certainly something that has raised the antennae of a few perspective theorists. Today the Bitcoin Foundation helps sponsor and preserve the bitcoin.org domain and the bitcoin community.

Who Is Satoshi Nakamato

So, who -- or what -- is Satoshi Nakamoto, and why the mystery surrounding him (or them)?

Vili LehdonvirtaThe most popular theory of Satoshi Nakamoto is that it is a pseudonym for a series of developers that created the Bitcoin technology, and the collective includes Dr. Vili Lehdonvirta, Michael Clear, and Gavin Andresen who is the chief scientist of the bitcoin foundation and also active on Twitter.

Gavin Andresen

In addition, it is suggested that Nakamoto lives in the Eastern Time Zone, because of the non-existence of posts between 5AM and 11AM GMT (Greenwich Mean Time), which is a typical sleep pattern for someone living in the Eastern Time Zone.

However, many of the indivudals supposedly behind the pseudonym has either rejected the claims or met the "accusations" with silence as in the case with Michael Clear.

Another reason why many people believe that Satoshi Nakamoto is a series of people, and not just one person, is because there are occasional discrepancies in the patterns of speech.

For example, one communication from the Bitcoin community featured the idiom "bloody hard," used in the correct idiomatic context. This would lead an observer to believe that at least one of the people on the development team is from either the British Commonwealth, or from one of the colonies of the British Commonwealth (which lends further creedence to the belief that "Satoshi" lives in the Eastern Time Zone, because many countries in the Caribbean -- which were all, either in the past or present, under the rule of the British Commonwealth).

Development Of The Bitcoin Code

Finally, there is the observation that the actual development of the Bitcoin code is too complex to have simply been developed by one programmer. This theory was first put forth by former Bitcoin core developer Laszlo Hanyecz, and backed up by the observations of security expert Dan Kaminsky.

Laszlo Hanyecz also made the first documented purchase using bitcoin buying Pizza on May 22nd 2010. Laszlo then payed 10,000 BTC for two pizzas, which is equivalent to about 7 million USD today.

Why Choose A Pseudonym

So what would be the reason for a collective of developers to adopt a pseudonym and identity of a generous, intelligent Japanese businessman? And why hide behind a fake name, when one has done such a great development? Why not take full credit for this amazing currency?

The answer lies in the politics of the United States: in the past, software such as Napster was targeted -- and, ultimately, taken down -- by the federal government. The reason Napster was so easily taken down was because it was a "central" program -- that is, there was one central repository of all traded music, there was one developer of the program, and there was one owner of the company -- whereas pure peer-to-peer software, such as BitTorrent and Gnutella, continue to thrive in the face of clear adversity from the government.

Indeed, some senators -- and the CIA -- have made clear that their biggest concern about Bitcoin is that, because it's an anonymous currency trading system with no traceable tracks, it can leave itself open to terrorist transactions and other criminal and vice-like endeavors.

Perhaps this is the reason that "Satoshi Nakamoto" handed the control of the bitcoin.org domain name to some of the prominent members of the BitCoin community, and left control of the source code and key functions in the hands of Boston-based programmer Gavin Andresen, who graduated from Princeton, and is considered one of the many folks in the "Satoshi Nakamoto" consortium.

Indeed, Jeff Garzik, another Bitcoin core developer, said that the development of the Satoshi Nakamoto pseudonym had a simple goal: to force the users of the Bitcoin to focus on the technology itself, not on the man (or woman) who developed it. The interesting upshot to the story is, while Bitcoin is certainly a technological force to be reckoned with, the Satoshi Nakamoto legend has grown into a story all its own.

 

 

Satoshi Nakamoto - Gavin Andresen - How To Choose a Bitcoin Wallet

© BestBitcoin.eu