The identity of Satoshi Nakamoto has always been one of the most mysterious things that have been discussed in the world of cryptocurrency. There are many assumptions and guesses around the Satoshi Nakamoto, however, till date, Nakamoto remains a mystery and the thing to think about is that it could be anyone from an individual to being an organization.

Bitcoin was introduced in 2009 and throughout the years there have been many speculations about who Satoshi Nakamoto could be.

In this blog, we are going to introduce you to the 7 Suspected Satoshi Nakamoto - The Bitcoin Creator:

1. Hal Finney

Hal Finney - Harold Thomas Finney II is a developer for PGP Corporation and he was credited as a lead developer in many console games. He is stated to be as one of the popular candidates to be suspected as Satoshi Nakamoto as he was one of the first individuals to run the Bitcoin codebase. The factors that led to believe him to be Satoshi Nakamoto are - he has the expertise to invent Bitcoin, his Libertarian leanings, the timeframe of his retirement from PGP Corporation, he is also known for reusable PoW system, and he was the recipient of the network’s first transaction. However, he passed away in August 2014, and since there is no one to confirm, we believe this part of Hal Finney is always going to stay in mystery. 

2. Wei Dai

Wei Dai is a computer engineer, he is also known for his contribution in cryptocurrency and cryptography, he also developed the Crypto++ cryptographic library, he is also the creator of b-money cryptocurrency system, and co-proposed the VMAC message authentication algorithm. The factors that led to believe him to be Satoshi Nakamoto are - most of the reasons are based on circumstantial believes as he is capable to create BItcoin, his reference in Bitcoin’s white paper, and similiarity of the writing text between Satoshi Nakamoto and Wei Dai.

Also Read, Bitcoin: It’s 11 Years Journey

3. Ian Grigg

Ian Grigg is the inventor of Ricardian contracts and he is a financial cryptographer. The factors that led to believe him to be Satoshi Nakamoto are - his technical expertise, his 2005 paper ‘Triple-Entry Accounting’ as it discussed the blockchain technology concept and the solution on the Byzantine generals’ problem some 3 years before the release of Bitcoin, his association with Craig Wright - the self-proclaimed Bitcoin inventor, and Michael Chon had stated that the emails by Satoshi Nakamoto resembled Ian Grigg’s writing >

4. Dorian Nakamoto

Dorian Nakamoto is an engineer and he was highly suspected to be Satoshi Nakamoto in the year 2014 after the publishing of a story ‘The Face Behind Bitcoin’ by the Newsweek columnist Leah McGrath Goodman. However, later in time, Dorian stated that he was not referring to Bitcoin but was discussing classified engineering projects that he worked for the government and he denied being Satoshi in his conversation with a reported from the AP - Associated Press. The other factor that led to believe him to be Satoshi Nakamoto is his libertarian leanings.

5. Shinichi Mochizuki

Shinichi Mochizuki is a mathematician who works in the subject of number theory and arithmetic geometry. He has also made contributions to anabelian geometry. The factors that led to believe him to be Satoshi Nakamoto are - his prodigy in mathematics, his writing >

Also Read, Top 3 Largest Bitcoin Mining Countries

6. Adam Back

Adam Back is a businessman, the CEO of Blockstream, a cryptographer and a cypherpunk. The factors that led to believe him to be Satoshi Nakamoto are - he was cited in Bitcoin white paper, the video by Barely Sociable,   ‘Bitcoin - Unmasking Satoshi Nakamoto’ gave a possibility for Adam Back to be the creator of Bitcoin, the similarity of the writing >

7. Nick Szabo

Nick Szabo is a computer scientist, a legal scholar and he is a known cryptographer especially for his research work in digital currency and contracts. He created a project called Bit Gold and that too even before the Bitcoin release, however, the interesting fact is stated to be that the publish date of his blog post was altered and Wei Dai reportedly in an email talked about bit gold to Satoshi Nakamoto. The factors that led to believe him to be Satoshi Nakamoto are - he coined the term ‘smart contracts’, he has written extensively on the subject of cryptography and contract law.