Going into the mysterious world of Bitcoin, the identity of its mysterious founder, Satoshi Nakamoto, has always been a topic of interest. Who is this person or group behind the most disruptive digital currency of our time? The answer remains unknown to this day. An anonymous message bearing Satoshi Nakamoto's signature surfaced in October 2008, introducing Bitcoin to the world. For two years, Satoshi continued to participate in Bitcoin's development and community, leaving behind a trail of communication. However, the last public message from Satoshi was posted in December 2010, while some have claimed unverified private messages from April 2011. Even though many people have tried to figure out who Satoshi is, no one has been able to do so.

However, Satoshi Nakamoto's importance to the Bitcoin ecosystem transcends their identity as a founder. The persona is regarded as a philosophical icon, and cryptocurrency proponents often invoke it when discussing Bitcoin's future. For instance, both sides involved in the contentious fork of Bitcoin Cash (a fork of the original Bitcoin blockchain) claimed to uphold Nakamoto's original vision for the currency.

It is nearly impossible to determine how much bitcoin Nakamoto actually owns, given that it is suspected that they may have used different addresses when mining early blocks. However, it is believed that Bitcoin wallets associated with Nakamoto hold roughly 1.1 million BTC, which represents 5% of all bitcoin to be created since only 21 million bitcoins will ever be mined.

Several individuals have been proposed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, but none have been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Here are three candidates:

Dorian Nakamoto:

In March 2014, Newsweek identified Dorian Nakamoto as Bitcoin's creator. The article pointed out that Satoshi Nakamoto and Dorian Nakamoto have a lot in common, like being libertarians and having Japanese roots. Dorian Nakamoto is a physicist who graduated from California Polytechnic and worked on classified defense projects. The author also claimed that Nakamoto said he was "no longer" involved with Bitcoin and had "turned it over" to other people. The magazine's biggest mistake was to publish a photograph of Nakamoto's home, which led to the violation of his privacy. Dorian Nakamoto later denied the quote and claimed that he had nothing to do with Bitcoin. But the media attention helped him raise money through a crowdfunding campaign, which helped him get through the hard time.

Craig Wright:

Wired Magazine wrote in December 2015 that Wright's appearance via Skype at that year's Bitcoin Investor's Conference in Las Vegas was "the strongest proof yet of Satoshi Nakamoto's real identity." Wright is an Australian scientist who listed his degrees, which include a master's in statistics and two doctorates. Since then, Wright has become a well-known figure in the crypto community. He led a controversial split of Bitcoin Cash into Bitcoin SV and is now the chief science officer at nChain, a blockchain solutions company that works with large businesses. But Wired later pointed out that Wright's story didn't make sense, and there was evidence that public encryption keys linked to Satoshi Nakamoto were created in the past. Even Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who is otherwise reticent about politics in the cryptocurrency world, came out against Wright, publicly calling him a fraud. Wright is still in the middle of a number of court cases that could prove or disprove his claims.

Nick Szabo:

Nick Szabo is a computer engineer and legal scholar who is said to have come up with the idea of smart contracts in a paper he wrote in 1996. In 2008, he conceptualized a decentralized digital currency called "Bit Gold," which shared similarities with Bitcoin. The pronoun "we" is used throughout Nakamoto's Bitcoin white paper, leading some to suspect that Nakamoto was a collection of individuals using a single anonymous

While it's impossible to know for certain who Satoshi Nakamoto really is, the search for their identity continues to fascinate many in the crypto community. Some believe that Satoshi's anonymity is an intentional part of his legacy, while others see it as a security measure or a way to avoid legal repercussions. Whatever the reason, the mystery surrounding Satoshi Nakamoto is one that may never be fully solved.