聡
satoshi
"clear-thinking"
中本
nakamoto
"central source"
Pseudonymous · whitepaper Oct 31, 2008 · vanished April 23, 2011
He wrote the paper, mined the first block, ran the network for two years, then disappeared.
He spoke to a few people. He posted around 575 times. We never knew who he was. This is everything we have.
He didn't come from nowhere.
These were the ideas he inherited. Tap a node to see the borrowing.
He synthesized them all into one nine-page document, then dropped it on a mailing list of strangers.
Halloween, 2008.
He posted to a small cryptography mailing list. The thread is still archived.
- From
- Satoshi Nakamoto <satoshi@vistomail.com>
- To
- cryptography@metzdowd.com
- Date
- Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:10:00 -0700
- Subj
- Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper
I've been working on a new electronic cash system that's fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party. The paper is available at: http://www.bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf The main properties: Double-spending is prevented with a peer-to-peer network. No mint or other trusted parties. Participants can be anonymous. New coins are made from Hashcash style proof-of-work. The proof-of-work for new coin generation also powers the network to prevent double-spending.
— Satoshi
He spoke to a few people.
Almost none of it was personal. Most of it was code.
Hal Finney
Jan 11, 2009
cypherpunk · first node operator after Satoshi
— hal@hashcash.org
Wei Dai
Aug 22, 2008
author of b-money · cited in the whitepaper
“I'm getting ready to release a paper that expands on your ideas into a complete working system.”
— wei@—
Gavin Andresen
Dec 19, 2010
the person he handed it to
“I would prefer that you wouldn't keep talking about me as a mysterious shadowy figure.”
— gavin@—
Mike Hearn
Apr 23, 2011
last known correspondent
“I've moved on to other things. It's in good hands with Gavin and everyone.”
— mike@plan99.net
Then, nine days after he turned the network on, he made a send.
from
Satoshi Nakamoto
Pseudonymous · last seen 2011
to
Hal Finney
Cypherpunk · 1956–2014
txid
f4184fc596403b9d638783cf57adfe4c75c605f6356fbc91338530e9831e9e16
Then he was gone.
April 23, 2011. His last known message:
“I've moved on to other things. It's in good hands with Gavin and everyone.”
- [2010-12-12 04:14]<satoshi> added some DoS limits
- [2010-12-13 03:21]<satoshi> patched the integer overflow
- [2011-03-07 18:09]<satoshi> wallet privacy improvements landed
- [2011-04-22 21:18]<satoshi> reviewed gavin's commit
- [2011-04-23 13:12]<satoshi> i've moved on to other things
- [2011-04-23 13:13]<satoshi> it's in good hands
- [████-██-██ ──:──]<satoshi>
- [████-██-██ ──:──]<satoshi>
- [████-██-██ ──:──]<satoshi>
░░░ connection lost ░░░
What we have.
Clues, not answers.
Estimated holdings
~1.1M BTC
≈ $0 today
never moved
Forum posts
~575
across 2 years
Active hours
UK evening / US morning
Writing style
British English
Last login
Apr 23, 2011
never returned
The genesis address. Still here.
- Address
- 1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa
- Balance
- 50.00000000 BTC
- Last activity
- January 3, 2009
Since 2009, the internet has been trying to unmask him. Journalists have outed the wrong person and ruined his life. Hobbyists have built linguistic profiles, financial graphs, timezone analyses. Courts have ruled on people claiming to be him. None of it has stuck. Here are the leading suspects.
Hal Finney
Cypherpunk · 1956–2014
Evidence
- Received the first ever Bitcoin transaction in January 2009
- Lived in the same Temple City, CA, neighborhood as a man named Dorian Nakamoto
- Veteran cryptographer, PGP contributor, deep in the cypherpunk scene
Alibi
- Personally denied it before dying of ALS in 2014
- Writing style differs from Satoshi's in forensic comparison
Status · DENIED · DECEASED
Dorian P. S. Nakamoto
Physicist · Outed by Newsweek 2014
Evidence
- His given name is literally Satoshi Nakamoto
- Was a physicist and engineer by training
Alibi
- Furiously denied it, hired a lawyer, was hospitalized from the stress
- Profile doesn't match — model train hobbyist, no crypto background
Status · WRONG GUY
Nick Szabo
Cryptographer · Bit Gold (1998)
Evidence
- Designed 'bit gold,' a clear Bitcoin precursor a decade earlier
- Linguistic analysis flags strong overlap with Satoshi's writing
- Active in the cypherpunk mailing lists of the late 1990s
Alibi
- Has consistently denied being Satoshi
- Some forensic patterns and timestamps don't match
Status · DENIED · UNCONFIRMED
Craig Wright
Australian comp. scientist · Self-proclaimed
Evidence
- Publicly claims to be Satoshi
- Produced documents and signing demonstrations
Alibi
- Documents found to be forged
- UK High Court ruled in March 2024 he is NOT Satoshi
- Considered a fraud by the broader crypto community
Status · RULED A FRAUD
Adam Back
British cryptographer · Hashcash (1997)
Evidence
- Invented Hashcash, the proof-of-work system Satoshi cited in the whitepaper
- Long-time cypherpunk, active in the same circles
Alibi
- Denies it; says he wasn't paying close attention to Bitcoin early on
- Writing style differs from Satoshi's in some analyses
Status · DENIED · UNCONFIRMED
Or maybe…
Central Intelligence Agency
Three-letter agencies · Allegedly
Evidence
- NSA published 'How to Make a Mint: The Cryptography of Anonymous Electronic Cash' in 1996
- SHA-256 — Bitcoin's hash function — was designed by the NSA
- Bitcoin launched at the exact moment of the 2008 banking crisis
- No US government has ever seriously moved to ban it
Alibi
- A government creating a system designed to bypass government monetary control is paradoxical
- No leaker, defector, or whistleblower has confirmed it
- The codebase is open-source — no hidden backdoor has ever been found
Status · Unconfirmed. Always Unconfirmed.
He left. The network kept running.
That was the point all along.
block height 872,451 · climbing · the ledger has been alive every block since