Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? It is a billion dollar question that has been going around since Bitcoin became famous. The New York Times may have found the answer. There have been speculations going around and news publications have been pointing their fingers at various people ever since the research paper was published under the name of Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008.
According to a recent article on The New York Times written by Nathaniel Popper, Satoshi Nakamoto is none other than Nick Szabo. Nick Szabo is one of the well-known figures in the bitcoin community. He is known for his contributions towards digital currency and digital contracts which are also known as smart contracts. This article by Nathaniel draws few parallels between Nick Szabo and the elusive Satoshi Nakamoto, thereby building a strong theory.
Even before Bitcoin came into the picture, Nick was involved in developing a digital currency called “bit gold”. Digging deeper into bit gold reveals that it shared many remarkably similar services as Bitcoin. What makes it more interesting is a blog post by Nick where he talks about resurrecting his bit gold project, which was soon followed by the introduction of Bitcoin. Once Bitcoin was introduced, he changed the date on his blog to make it appear as if it was published after the launch of Bitcoin.
Other clues that point towards Nick as Satoshi Nakamoto includes his role in Vaurum (now Mirror), a bitcoin based start-up which was meant to become a bitcoin exchange. Under Nick’s guidance the company started using Bitcoin technology to create smart contracts, which requires great in-depth understanding of the technology. As a creator of Bitcoin, Nick will definitely have understanding and access to the tech.
The writing about Bitcoin by Satoshi Nakamoto was found to be remarkably similar to that of Nick Szabo’s writing about bit gold. According to researchers from the Aston University, it is possible that the similarities exist because Nick was involved in the creation of bitcoin at one point or another.
Last year, Newsweek has published an article wrongly identifying an elderly Dorian Prentice as Satoshi Nakamoto. This wrong revelation greatly affected his life and he decided to sue Newsweek for all the trauma and damage caused by their erroneous reporting.
READ MORE: Man Pegged By Newsweek as Satoshi Nakamoto Plans Legal Action
Some believe that Nakamoto is not one but a group of people who were responsible for the creation of Bitcoin, others want him to continue being anonymous and there are few who continue searching for his real identity.