Jump to content

Satoshi Nakamoto

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by OlEnglish (talk | contribs) at 00:36, 16 February 2014 (mark dead reflink, rmv external links as not directly relating to the subject of this article which is the person(s) behind bitcoin not bitcoin itself). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Satoshi Nakamoto
Known forinventing Bitcoin
Scientific career
Fieldsdigital currencies, computer science, cryptography

Template:Japanese text

Satoshi Nakamoto (中本哲史, Nakamoto Satoshi) is the pseudonymous person or group that designed and created the Bitcoin protocol and reference software, Bitcoin-Qt. In 2008, Nakamoto published a paper[1][2] on The Cryptography Mailing list at metzdowd.com[3] describing the Bitcoin digital currency. In 2009, he released the first Bitcoin software that launched the network and the first units of the Bitcoin currency.[4][5]

Nakamoto continued to contribute to his Bitcoin software release with other developers until contact with his team and the community gradually began to fade in mid-2010. Near this time, he handed over control of the source code repository and alert key functions of the software to Gavin Andresen.[citation needed] Also around this same time, he handed over control of the Bitcoin.org domain and several other domains to various prominent members of the Bitcoin community.

Nakamoto is believed to be in possession of roughly one million bitcoins. At one point in December 2013, this was the equivalent of 1.1 billion US dollars. [6]

Identity

There are no records of Nakamoto's identity or identities prior to the creation of Bitcoin. Satoshi is a male, Japanese name, whose meaning is variously given as "wise", "clear-thinking", "quick-witted"[7][8] or "intelligent history", i.e. a person with intelligent ancestors.[9] "Nakamoto"(中本) is a Japanese family name.

On his P2P Foundation profile, Nakamoto claimed to be an individual male at the age of 37 and of Japanese origin, which was met with great skepticism due to his use of English and his Bitcoin software not being documented nor labelled in Japanese.[10]

The first release of his original Bitcoin software is speculated to be of a collaborative effort, leading some to claim that Satoshi Nakamoto was a collective pseudonym for a group of people.[11]

British English spelling in both source code comments and forum postings work implies Nakamoto, or at least one individual in the consortium claiming to be him, may be of Commonwealth origin.[1][12] One of his postings used the Anglicism "Bloody hard".[13] Bloody is an expletive attributive that is commonly used in Great Britain, Ireland, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, and by those who speak Indian English. However, it is seldom heard in North America outside of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Stefan Thomas, a Swiss coder and active community member, graphed the time stamps for each of Nakamoto's bitcoin forum posts (more than 500); the resulting chart showed a steep decline to almost no posts between the hours of 5 am and 11 am Greenwich Mean Time. Because this pattern held true even on Saturdays and Sundays, it suggested that Nakamoto was asleep at this time.[10] If Nakamoto is a single individual with conventional sleeping habits, it suggests he resided in a region using the UTC−05:00 or UTC−06:00 time offset. This includes the parts of North America that fall within the Eastern Time Zone and Central Time Zone, as well as parts of Central America, the Caribbean and South America.

Many articles have been written about possible identities of Nakamoto. Here is a list of the notable possibilities

  • In a 2011 article in the New Yorker, Joshua Davis claimed to have narrowed down the identity of Nakamoto to a number of possible individuals, including the Finnish economic sociologist Dr Vili Lehdonvirta and Irish student Michael Clear, then a graduate student in cryptography at Trinity College Dublin.[14] Clear strongly denies he is Nakamoto,[15] as does Lehdonvirta.[16]
  • In October 2011, investigative journalist Adam Penenberg cited circumstantial evidence that identified Neal King, Vladimir Oksman and Charles Bry.[17] This included a patent application they filed in 2008.[18] All three men denied being Nakamoto when contacted by Penenberg.[17]
  • In May 2013, Ted Nelson speculated that Nakamoto is really Japanese mathematician Shinichi Mochizuki.[19] Later, an article was published in The Age newspaper, in which it was claimed that Mochizuki has denied these speculations.[20]
  • Jed McCaleb is claimed by some to be Nakamoto.[21] McCaleb is the creator of Overnet, the eDonkey2000 file-sharing application and the founder of Mt.Gox Bitcoin exchange. Once a strong supporter of Bitcoin, McCaleb later co-founded the company Ripple Labs, to develop another digital currency, Ripple.[22]
  • In 2013, two Israeli mathematicians, Dorit Ron and Adi Shamir, published a paper claiming a link between Nakamoto and Ross William Ulbricht, alleged by the FBI to be the owner of the Silk Road online black market. The two based their suspicion on an analysis of the network of Bitcoin transactions,[23] but later retracted their claim.[24]
  • In December 2013, Nick Szabo was implicated using reverse textual analysis. Nick Szabo is a decentralized currency enthusiast and published a paper on "bit gold"[25] that is considered a precursor to bitcoin.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Nakamoto, Satoshi (24 May 2009). "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System" (PDF). Retrieved 14 December 2010Template:Inconsistent citations{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)[dead link]
  2. ^ "Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper".
  3. ^ "Satoshi's posts to Cryptography mailing list". Mail-archive.com. Retrieved 2013-12-14.
  4. ^ Davis, Joshua. "The Crypto-Currency: Bitcoin and its mysterious inventor". The New Yorker.
  5. ^ Penenberg, Adam. "The Bitcoin Crypto-Currency Mystery Reopened". Fast Company. A New Yorker writer implies he found Bitcoin's mysterious creator. We think he got the wrong man, and offer far more compelling evidence that points to someone else entirely.
  6. ^ Liu, Alec. "Bitcoin Mints Its First Billionaire: Its Inventor, Satoshi Nakamoto | Motherboard". Motherboard.vice.com. Retrieved 2013-12-14.
  7. ^ "Male Japanese Names". 20000-names.com. Retrieved 13 December 2013.
  8. ^ "Satoshi". Our Baby Namer. Retrieved 13 December 2013.
  9. ^ "Satoshi". babynames.com. Retrieved 13 December 2013.
  10. ^ a b Wallace, Benjamin. "The Rise and Fall of Bitcoin". Wired. It seemed doubtful that Nakamoto was even Japanese. His English had the flawless, idiomatic ring of a native speaker.
  11. ^ Jefferies, Adrianne. "The New Yorker's Joshua Davis Attempts to Identify Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto". Betabeat. Retrieved 31 October 2012. 'Either there's a team of people who worked on this, or this guy is a genius.'
  12. ^ Benjamin Wallace: The Rise and Fall of Bitcoin, Wired, November 23, 2011
  13. ^ Jeffries, Adrianne (10 April 11). "The New Yorker's Joshua Davis Attempts to Identify Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto". Beatbeat. Retrieved 27 December 2013. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  14. ^ Davis, Joshua (10 October 2011). "The Crypto-Currency". The New Yorker. Retrieved 17 December 2013.
  15. ^ Clear, Michael (4 April 2013). "Clarifications on Joshua Davis' Article on Bitcoin in the New Yorker". Retrieved 17 December 2013.
  16. ^ "Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?". coindesk.com. 26 November 2013. Retrieved 17 December 2013.
  17. ^ a b Penenberg, Adam (11 October 2011). "The Bitcoin Crypto-currency Mystery Reopened". The Fast Company. Retrieved 17 December 2013.
  18. ^ Updating and Distributing Encryption Keys US 20100042841 A1
  19. ^ "I Think I Know Who Satoshi Is". YouTube TheTedNelson Channel. 18 May 2013.
  20. ^ Eileen Ormsby (2013-07-10). "The outlaw cult". Theage.com.au. Retrieved 2013-12-19.
  21. ^ Liu, Alec. "Who Is Satoshi Nakamoto, the Creator of Bitcoin?". vice.com. Retrieved 17 December 2013.
  22. ^ McMillan, Robert (30 September 2013). "Bitcoin Maverick Returns for New Crack at Digital Currency". Wired. Retrieved 17 December 2013.
  23. ^ Markoff, John (23. november 2013). "Study Suggests Link Between Dread Pirate Roberts and Satoshi Nakamoto". New York Times. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  24. ^ Wile, Rob. "Researchers Retract Claim Of Link Between Alleged Silk Road Mastermind And Founder Of Bitcoin". Business Week. Retrieved 17 December 2013.
  25. ^ "Satoshi Nakamoto is (probably) Nick Szabo".
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Satoshi_Nakamoto&oldid=595661732"