The origin of Bitcoin and the entire cryptocurrency industry is very mysterious. In fact, the project was created by an anonymous figure operating under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, who was unheard of for a long time. But who is the true creator of Bitcoin? Who is Satoshi Nakamoto and how much BTC does he have? These and other questions are answered in the following lines.

HOW BITCOIN WAS CREATED? A SHORT STORY

Satoshi Nakamoto is one of the most mysterious figures in the history of cryptocurrencies. Despite numerous attempts to reveal the creator of Bitcoin, it may be one case where the world of cryptocurrencies benefited from this mystique. After all, the main thing Satoshi Nakamoto wanted to achieve was complete independence from financial instruments. And his deanonymization could be one of the main weaknesses of Bitcoin.

In October 2008, a user named Satoshi Nakamoto published "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System" - the famous Bitcoin whitepaper. He described a decentralized settlement system that did not require the mediation of a third party - such as a bank. And just two months later, in January 2009, the genesis block of Bitcoin was mined.

Satoshi Nakamoto was motivated to create the first cryptocurrency with the idea of ​​solving the basic problems of the existing financial system - especially the policy of depreciating fiat currencies by central banks.

SATOSHI NAKAMOTO - WHO IS HE AND WHAT IS KNOWN ABOUT HIM?

Satoshi Nakamoto's activities were closely related to the crypto-punk community, whose ideology has always been based on the importance of privacy and data protection. Torrents, VPNs, and electronic signatures are ideas that have been brought to life in one way or other thanks to the efforts of the crypto-punk community.

Cryptocurrencies were no exception - before Bitcoin, there were many attempts to create a decentralized settlement system. However, it was Satoshi Nakamoto who first proposed a functional model.

To this day, no one knows exactly who is behind this pseudonym. It is assumed that it could be a person of any gender or origin, or perhaps even a group of programmers who wish to remain anonymous. There is even a conspiracy theory that it is a CIA working group.

On his profile on the P2P Foundation website, Satoshi Nakamoto stated that he is from Japan. However, this information has been repeatedly questioned. There are many indications that Satoshi Nakamoto worked and corresponded from London.

For example, Satoshi always sent all his messages during hours that corresponded to the London time zone. The hashtag "genesis block" referred to the headline of an article titled "Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks" from The Times in London.

In addition, Satoshi often used words in his letters that are unique to native English speakers. The Bitcoin whitepaper was also written in perfect English and has never been translated into Japanese. However, the possibility that Satoshi simply tried to cover his tracks should not be excluded.

There is also a dispute over Satoshi's date of birth. According to one version, the date of April 5, 1975, which Satoshi chose, was not random and is actually a reference to a significant event in the history of the financial system.

On April 5, 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt signed an executive order prohibiting Americans from saving and storing gold. Americans were able to regain this right only in 1975.

Perhaps this was Satoshi's way of drawing attention to the imperfections of the current financial system while also showing the world what role he saw Bitcoin playing in the future. It can be said that this message turned out to be prophetic - today, many refer to the original cryptocurrency as the "second" or "digital" gold.

The name, which according to experts may also have a hidden meaning, has also been repeatedly questioned. In Japanese, the word "Satoshi" means "wise" or "clear". The word "Naka" can be translated as "inside" and "Moto" as "base, foundation".

At the same time, if you break down the name into characters, then the words "naka" and "moto" together can be interpreted as "in the book". In any case, something like "clear thinking in the foundations" or "wisdom in the book" (in the Bitcoin book?) emerges.

SATOSHI NAKAMOTO DISAPPEARED. WHY IS THIS PERSON SO IMPORTANT?

From the very beginning of his activity, Satoshi placed great emphasis on anonymity. He entered the network only through a secure Tor browser and carefully concealed his identity. While others speculated whether Satoshi could be crazy, monitored his sleep phases, and even suspected him of ties to the Yakuza, Satoshi continued to work on the Bitcoin source code with other cryptocurrency enthusiasts.

In solving existing problems with Bitcoin and creating new solutions, Satoshi was an authoritative figure for everyone for a long time. And any errors and quirks in the network were always addressed only with his participation. Over time, however, Satoshi's policy and actions in relation to Bitcoin began to be criticized.

This eventually led to him removing his name from the Bitcoin copyright statement, updating the Bitcoin.org website, and adding contacts for other active developers.

Satoshi Nakamoto was last seen online almost 11 years ago on April 26, 2011. That day, he wrote a short letter to one of his colleagues, Gavin Andresen, in which he handed over a copy of the cryptographic key to the security system of Bitcoin and wrote a few words about his vision for the network's further development.

Since then, constant attempts have been made to reveal the true identity hiding behind the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto - without success.

SATOSHI NAKAMOTO - RUMORS, CLUES, AND MYSTERIES

According to many in the community, the two most likely candidates for the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto are Nick Szabo and Hal Finney.

Nick Szabo is an American cryptographer who created the first concept of digital currency in 1998, which he called Bit Gold. Unfortunately, the predecessors of Bitcoin failed to gain popularity due to many technical limitations. Szabo has always denied any involvement in the creation of Bitcoin.

Another likely candidate is Hal Finney. The first Bitcoin transaction was sent to him on January 12, 2009. Finney himself communicated with Satoshi Nakamoto and supported his plans for Bitcoin, even later publishing their correspondence as evidence. However, many still believe that Finney's correspondence could have been easily forged.

Unfortunately, Finney passed away in 2014, but there is a chance that he may someday reveal the truth. Finney was not buried traditionally, his body was cryopreserved.

There have also been self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamotos, such as Australian scientist Craig Steven Wright. In recent years, he has presented various pieces of evidence to support his claims. However, there were many inconsistencies in his statements, and practically no one believes him.

Initially, he said that he discussed the idea of creating Bitcoin with his partner, computer forensics expert Dave Kleiman, in 2008. Later, in court, he claimed that he first met Kleiman in August 2010. It seems that the cryptographic keys provided by Craig as evidence of being Satoshi Nakamoto were created earlier.

There is also a fun theory that a research consortium consisting of four companies - Samsung, Toshiba, Nakamichi, and Motorola - chose Satoshi's pseudonym. However, no one has been able to confirm or deny this theory.

In the history of Bitcoin, there have been no less than nine candidates, but no one knows for sure who Satoshi really was: a man, a woman, or a group of people. And perhaps it doesn't really matter. If Satoshi's identity were revealed, the very foundations that were based on complete decentralization could be shaken.

SATOSHI NAKAMOTO - HOW MUCH BTC DOES HE HAVE?

Satoshi Nakamoto is not only a legendary figure, but also one of the richest people in the world: he owns over 1 million BTC, which is worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

This is not surprising, as Satoshi was the first person to start mining bitcoins. At the beginning of the network's development, the mining difficulty was very low and there was no competition, for understandable reasons. The creator of Bitcoin, therefore, did not have any major problems in quickly accumulating such a huge amount of coins in their wallets.

HOW CAN SATOSHI NAKAMOTO INFLUENCE THE VALUE OF BITCOIN?

The identity of Satoshi Nakamoto must remain a secret. At least that is what most professional traders and many other participants in the cryptocurrency market believe today. In the case of his deanonymization, Bitcoin would formally have a "master," which means that in the minds of many people, it could cease to be fully decentralized and lose its main advantage.

Any statement by Satoshi, and even his death, could destabilize the first cryptocurrency and the entire market. It would be similar to if he suddenly wanted to sell all of his assets. Satoshi Nakamoto, whoever he is, still owns almost 5% of the total supply of the Bitcoin network, which could significantly affect the price of BTC and spread panic.

After Satoshi, a unit of Bitcoin (smaller than the whole Bitcoin) is also named. This unit is named after its inventor - Satoshi.

How does Satoshi work?

To understand how Satoshi works, you first need to understand what Bitcoin mining is about. It involves solving complex mathematical operations, which are made possible by high computing power using mining rigs, which are computers used to mine BTC. Cryptocurrency miners solve a chain of complex mathematical operations, and these sequences become increasingly complicated as the number of mined bitcoins increases. According to the Satoshi Nakamoto manifesto, the number of bitcoins is limited to 21 million units.

Not every miner can afford to mine a whole Bitcoin, as it requires the use of massive amounts of energy. Therefore, the value of BTC increases over time.

The division of Bitcoin into Satoshis is useful, especially when many users operate with a small amount of BTC, or rather a fraction of individual bitcoins. The existence of Satoshis makes it easier to read and understand BTC transactions. The introduction of this cryptocurrency unit was also intended to more accurately calculate cryptocurrencies and indicate to its holders how much BTC they actually hold.

How many Satoshis are in 1 Bitcoin?

1 BTC is equivalent to 100,000,000 Satoshis. Similarly, 1 Satoshi (or 1 Sato) is 0.00000001 BTC. 100 Satoshis are equal to 0.00000100 BTC. Although Satoshis are only a hundred millionth of a BTC, investors may use such a unit more frequently in practice than BTC itself. Expressing Bitcoin in Satoshis can increase its attractiveness in the eyes of buyers.

Summary

Many people claim to be the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto. It could belong to one person or a group. The creator of Bitcoin may or may not still be alive. However, without concrete evidence, we will never know who Satoshi Nakamoto really was.

One thing we can be sure of is that Satoshi Nakamoto HODLs a lot of Bitcoin.