The identity of Bitcoin's creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, remains a mystery for over 15 years.
A California engineer with the same surname was wrongly suspected to be Nakamoto due to mistaken identity.
Australian computer scientist Craig Wright's claims of being Nakamoto were exposed as lies through lawsuits and court rulings.
Early Bitcoin developer Gavin Andresen had a close association with the project but denies being Nakamoto.
Nick Szabo created a similar concept called BitGold years before Bitcoin and has the technical knowledge to be Nakamoto, but denies involvement.
What is perhaps one of the biggest mysteries in crypto has endured for the last 15 years, and remains unlikely to be uncovered soon, for all we know.
This mystery revolves around Bitcoin and its elusive creator.
Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? Where did he/she/they get the idea to build what has now become one of the single most important financial systems in the world? More importantly, where is Nakamoto now?
We still do not know if Nakamoto is an individual or a group of people, or if they are even Japanese, as the pseudonym implies.
What we do know is that this person, whoever they are, is sitting on a massive 1 million BTC chunk, worth 10 billion USD by today’s rate.
Here are five people who may—or may not be one of the greatest inventors of all time.
One of the funniest episodes of the Nakamoto story is that of Dorian Nakamoto.
Nakamoto—who as you may have noticed—bears the same surname as Bitcoin's creator, is a 69-year-old retired engineer from California.
Dorian Nakamoto
Nakamoto found himself at the bad end of unwanted media attention from people who “accused” him of being Satoshi Nakamoto.
Nakamoto, so far, has vehemently denied any involvement with Bitcoin before or after its creation. Moreover, the retired engineer’s name and lack of Knowledge make his denial a little more believable.
Is Dorian Nakamoto Bitcoin’s creator?
Quite unlikely. However, if he was, how would we know it?
Given that whoever proves themselves to be Satoshi Nakamoto gets access to all 1 Million Bitcoin, one can understand why several people have claimed to be Nakamoto over the years.
Craig Wright
Of all the claimants, Australian computer scientist, Craig Wright stands out as one of the most outspoken.
Over the years, Wright has made several bold claims about being Bitcoin’s mastermind. So much so, that he had to be sued by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) in 2023.
In 2024, a UK court finally ruled that Wright lied, falsified documents and wasted everyone's time in general, kicking his claims of being Nakamoto out of the window.
Moreover, Wright also had around $8 million of his personal assets frozen over the Nakamoto claims in March 2024, putting a possible end to the Wright saga.
Gavin Andresen is one of the most prominent figures from back then in the early crypto days.
Gavin Andresen has one of the strongest claims over Bitcoin—if he chose to pursue one.
Gavin Andresen
While Andresen has denied being Nakamoto from the beginning, he was one of the key players in the creation of Bitcoin before it ever launched.
Andresen's close association with Bitcoin has fueled speculation about his potential connection to Nakamoto.
A potential chink in the argument, however, is how Andresen endorsed Craig Wright's claim to the Bitcoin whitepaper, even after Wright was proven to have lied and falsified claims.
Nick Szabo is one of the contenders with the strongest claims over Bitcoin—even though he vehemently denies being Nakamoto.
Szabo was one of the first people who dreamt up smart contracts and the idea of a digital currency and was one of the core contributors in the early days of Bitcoin.
Nick Szabo
Moreover, considering his deep understanding of cryptography and blockchain technology, Szabo is one of the only few people with the prerequisite knowledge to have created Bitcoin in the first place.
Even crazier is how Szabo created BitGold (a cryptocurrency much like Bitcoin) in 1998, which was a whole 11 years before Bitcoin’s launch.
The project was never fully completed, but many see it as a precursor to Bitcoin. Szabo detailed that the inspiration for BitGold was to “solve inefficiencies he saw in the traditional financial system”—the same thing Nakamoto says in Bitcoin’s whitepaper.
However, Szabo continues to deny being Bitcoin’s creator, further deepening the mystery surrounding Satoshi Nakamoto's true identity.
Among the fray of “potential Nakamotos”, Finney holds a unique position.
Why?
It is interesting how Finney lived in the same town as Dorian Nakamoto, and is speculated to have heard the name somehow, before adopting it as Bitcoins’s creator.
Hal Finney
Moreover, Finney also worked so close to Nakamoto himself, that he was the recipient of the first Bitcoin transaction.
Finey's connection to crypto's origins is undeniable and is arguably one of the strongest contenders for the Nakamoto title.
So much so, that even if Finney wasn’t Nakamoto, he definitely knew who was, on a personal level.
However, Finney battled with ALS and eventually passed on in 2014, relegating him to the realm of speculation and potentially leaving the Satoshi Nakamoto mystery forever unresolved.
Despite the passage of time, the quest to reveal who Satoshi Nakamoto was, and the challenge of solving one of the greatest mysteries of the digital age live on.
The real identity of Satoshi Nakamoto and the mysteries surrounding the creation of Bitcoin, remain a mystery to this day and are unlikely to be resolved.
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