Satoshi: an introduction
A figure shrouded in mystery, Satoshi Nakamoto is the creator of the Bitcoin blockchain, as well as one of the fathers of the entire crypto industry.
But who is behind this name? Will it really be a single person or are we dealing with an entire team? Well, today we will carry out a small investigation of the world’s most famous Satoshi, going back in time and reliving the beginnings of Bitcoin.
We will also learn about the main theories about what happened to him/her and how many BTC he/she might have. Most importantly, we will learn about one of the absolute stars of the cryptocurrency world.
Index
Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?
Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? It only takes a quick search on the Internet to find that so many people are constantly looking for information and clues about the identity of the person who invented bitcoins.
We wish we could have a scoop to reveal to the world, but unfortunately this is not the case: we do not know who he is either. However, we can tell what is known and find out more about this mysterious and interesting figure.
Let’s rewind the tape of the history of cryptocurrencies and go back to the beginning, when nothing was created yet. In truth, the American company Ripple was already thinking about an alternative system for the world of finance, still far from the concept of blockchain and crypto that we know today, however.
It is 2008, to be precise, at the end of October. On the mailing list of the website metzdowd.com appears the whitepaper of an alternative currency called bitcoin, published by a certain Satoshi Nakamoto. This person, claiming to be a 33-year-old man residing in Japan, titled the post with these words:
“Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.”
According to what we know, the development of Bitcoin had been underway since the previous year. The historical context was the subprime mortgage crisis, which brought the entire global economic and financial system to its knees.
Noting the delicacy of the entire structure, caused mainly by bad practices (see the granting of mortgages to so-called NINJAs, people without jobs or income or assets) and excessive speculation, Satoshi wanted to create an alternative, decentralized currency that was truly in the hands of the people.
Bitcoin immediately garnered huge success among the geeky and enthusiastic public for the technology-finance combo. However, it was still a long time before the quintessential cryptocurrency gained the role it occupies today. Indeed, whether out of hate or love, BTC is now also known by the masses and continues to try to carve out more and more stability and authority for itself.
Returning to the main topic, who is Satoshi Nakamoto really? There are several theories but no certainties; in fact, Satoshi has never revealed himself in public.
The first hypothesis is the one released by him himself in 2012: a Japanese man born in April 1975. In 2014, a man named Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, a Japanese-American national, was fingered as the inventor of bitcoin; media coverage was significant, but he said he had no involvement.
Other people rose to prominence claiming to be Satoshi Nakamoto, or pointed to by others as potential candidates, including:
- Craig Wright, an Australian computer scientist;
- Nick Szabo, an American computer scientist known to be among the first eminent crypto scientists;
- Hal Finney, among the first to receive Bitcoin from Satoshi’s wallet, very active in the community since its inception;
In any case, definitive evidence to support these names is lacking.
Another theory is one that identifies Satoshi Nakamoto as a pseudonym for another person. Even, considering the complexity of Bitcoin, there are those who argue that the name covers a team of multiple people from various parts of the world.
There are also movements that support the cause of a female Satoshi Nakamoto. Indeed, we have no certainty, and this scenario is entirely plausible as well.
Amidst all this mystery, however, we do have one certainty: Satoshi created Bitcoin and gave the initial push to a new industry that is growing today. A sector full of alternatives for improving everyday life, developing complex business and institutional applications, helping less fortunate people, and much more.
How many bitcoins does satoshi have?
Come on, we know that underneath you are wondering “how much money does Satoshi Nakamoto have?”. In that sense, the blockchain can give us a little more certainty: since it is a public and immutable ledger, we have a way to trace it back to the Genesis Block, which is the first block ever created on the network.
Bitcoin’s Genesis Address is owned by Satoshi Nakamoto and contains the first 50 BTC produced and therefore not expendable.
The address, 1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa, can be inspected on portals such as blockchain.com.
At one time, this address interacted with others, sending sums in bitcoin. These include precisely the address of Hal Finney, mentioned in one of the previous paragraphs.
We cannot be certain that one (or more) of the first addresses are owned by Satoshi.
Reasoning from simple logic, however, it is quite likely that they are. So while it is impossible to estimate how many bitcoins Satoshi Nakamoto has, we can say that a nice bundle he has pocketed, indeed!
"Accurate figures? Impossible to get any because we don't know which addresses are actually from Satoshi"
Is satoshi nakamoto alive?
Speculation is rife on this point as well.
There are currents of thought that say Satoshi is enjoying life on some tropical island, and frankly we hope for his sake that he is.
In fact, there are those who believe that Satoshi is dead as he has been inactive in the community for over a decade. The “softer” ones, on the other hand, believe that he may be in jail, while others argue that he is simply staying well off the radar.
Of course, these considerations apply to a single person. If Satoshi Nakamoto were the pseudonym of an entire team, each would probably be going about his or her life or have had a worse fate.
In any case, we are certain that at least one real person behind Satoshi has not yet been identified.
Did you enjoy this brief insight into the bitcoin inventor? We hope “yes”!
How many satoshis in a bitcoin?
Satoshi Nakamoto is the inventor of Bitcoin, but the satoshi is also a unit of measurement related to the famous cryptocurrency.
The satoshi (SATS) is the smallest unit of measurement of the coin, thus the smallest fraction by which BTC is divisible.
Specifically, 1 satoshi = 0.00000001 bitcoin and, consequently, 1 bitcoin = 100,000,000 satoshi.
Quanto vale un satoshi?
Satoshi Nakamoto è l’inventore di Bitcoin, ma il satoshi è anche un’unità di misura legata alla celebre criptovaluta.
Il satoshi (SATS) è la più piccola unità di misura della coin, quindi la minima frazione per cui BTC è divisibile.
Nello specifico, 1 satoshi = 0,00000001 bitcoin e, di conseguenza, 1 bitcoin = 100.000.000 satoshi.
