Bitcoin Forum

We always wonder who the real master mind behind the name of Nakamoto Satoshi the creator of bitcoin is.But what exactly would make you believe or convince you that "this" person is Satoshi if he/she ever decided to reveal himself.
There might be infinite wannabes and glory hunters wanting to rise to fame ,given the real Satoshi is one among them how would you go on about finding the right person.

For one, if the person can continue on the account satoshi started of with here in the forum, I believe that will be one proof even though maybe that could be hacked ??? and to me, I don't really see the need for Satoshi to reveal himself or herself cos the person could easily be a female as well, and yet we have all these men claiming to be satoshi. If (s)he did not reveal themself then why would they want to do so now? I really don't care but I give thanks to Satoshi for finding Bitcoin whoever (s)he is.  

Satoshi's email was hacked, his account is locked and even if it wasn't, odds are that he wouldn't know his password anyways... Since his posts were migrated from a different platform to bitcointalk.org.

If he really wanted to prove he is satoshi, he can move funds from a couple of the earliest block's block reward, or he can sign a message... That would conclusively prove it.

That account is locked by Theymos, this kinda raises the interesting question though of whether there would be something to persuade him to unlock it (for the real satoshi - or a good masquerader - if they return).

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There will always be doubters also even if the real satoshi does come forward one day and even if the real satoshi does come forward, they shouldn't be given too much weighting in discussions as they might hurt the growth of the currency (there were lots of people complaining about the segwit forks not being "satoshis bitcoin" - even before that Australian claimed to be satoshi).

The most popular wannabe couldn't sign a message from addresses he claims to be his (as Satoshi) that's why he just resorts to lawsuits and more lies.

Great, that means at the end of the day there must be a way that these guys can prove that they are the real satoshi which is all that is required so we don't want people coming up to claim to be satoshi if they cannot provide a single prove that they have access to any of what you have mentioned.

Attempting to prove identity is itself shady to me.
Because why did Satoshi go away in first place to want to come back now and need to prove his (her, their) identity. And why prove his identity in first place? If he wanted to do anything like contribute to Bitcoin he could do that under any identity he wanted. Maybe he is already creating pull requests and reviewing changes in Bitcoin!
Only those who are set to gain something would want to prove something. There is nothing to be gained for Satoshi to prove his identity. Only losses, loss of privacy, maybe even security as his life may be in danger, etc.

its hard to tell nowadays because it's already late and there's a bunch of frauds spreading in the internet and probably even the real nakamoto came back and claim what other people saying no one will gonna believe in him also unless if he had strong proof such from the beginning wherein bitcoin isn't not yet successful because for sure no one can say it's not legit.

Move funds from earliest known blocks to another, newly-generated address or any other address. That's the simplest and easiest way. Signed message also works, but CSW and co found some loopholes which makes their signed message appear legitimate.

Then again, the real satoshi would probably not try to make his/her identity known, and would just stick hiding and keeping a low profile.

He did extra steps to hide his real identity to remain anonymous. Tin-foil hats on, but I believe he changed his coding style to write Bitcoin, used Windows instead of Unix, or a Unix-like operating system, and he also probably changed his posting style in the forum.

I believe that's pretty much the only conclusive way to prove it, and yet I believe that even in this case some people will be left unconvinced, yelling that it's simply someone who got access to Satoshi's coins (perhaps by stealing it from the real Satoshi personally). But still, given that it's Satoshi rather than a newbie we're talking about, I don't think it's likely that Satoshi lost access to their coins. However, since it's hypothetically possible and something that could happen to anyone, there are other ways that wouldn't prove that it's Satoshi but could provide some evidence. That could be, for instance, providing an early draft of the whitepaper with an early date being proven.

Considering the fact that we don't have any proof of which coins belong to Satoshi, this is not a solid proof either. Many of the early mined coins belong to people other than Satoshi! The only 100% sure coin that belongs to Satoshi is the Genesis block reward which is unspendable :P

There is nothing that makes it all right proving Him as Satoshi if he Can Sign a Message and move the funds (that 1 million bitcoin or less depend on his interest) for this maybe the whole crypto community will listen and believe it was Him, though i doubt this will ever happen in front of everyone , if Satoshi decide to move the funds he will do this silently and no one will ever know (of course we can follow the transactions) .

So many people including Craight White have falsely claimed to be Nakamoto Satoshi. Now the situation is that if the real satoshi come in the public and reveals his identity, it will be hard to believe.
There is no point to hide your identity and reveal it when no one is willing to believe you.

Bitcoin gives you way to sign message from your private key. Why not think of it first?  ;)

Two main ways to prove one is real Satoshi Nakamoto

• Private key. Like what mentioned in this article Who Wants To Claim $2.5 billion ... Just Show Us Your Private Key ... Mr Satoshi Nakamoto (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/so-satoshi-craig-where-one-million-bitcoins-william-buchanan/)
• PGP key - Read more in Why is Satoshi Nakamoto's PGP Key not currently on bitcoin.org ? (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5284596.0)

And as time goes on, the proof from the signature becomes less significant. There'll definitely be a time in the future when someone finds the private key of the genesis' public key[1]. This won't make them Satoshi. Proof of ownership isn't proof of identity either way. It'll be really vague if a valid signed message appeared out of nowhere and I wouldn't hold my breath that they're Satoshi.

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[1] 04678afdb0fe5548271967f1a67130b7105cd6a828e03909a67962e0ea1f61deb649f6bc3f4cef3 8c4f35504e51ec112de5c384df7ba0b8d578a4c702b6bf11d5f

I don't think it would, as I've discussed in other threads previously. It would prove ownership of the private keys, but it would not prove identity. It is an important and necessary first step towards proving identity, and without it anyone claiming to be Satoshi can be ignored, but on its own it is not enough.

theymos previously said this about it:

That was over 8 years ago, though. Perhaps his opinion has changed and he would require more proof than a PGP signature.

There are no loopholes. They performed parlor tricks, including on some people who really should have known better. Nothing CSW has presented has ever come close to being considered legitimate.

I was reading all the Satoshi Nakamoto related articles for the last few weeks because I'm going to compile an article in my local language so that people can know the truth.
I don’t think Satoshi can have his identity proved without signing a message from his known address and a PGP signature. But I'm sure that's not going to happen ever because satoshi will not appear.

What does that mean? He himself has posted some old post from the previous Forum in this forum. So?

That’s a very good point! Because what if Hal Finney was the real Satoshi, and what if he gave all his private keys to his son/daughter/wife as an inheritance?

I believe it must be time to accept that Satoshi should be “dead” to the community, although should also be honored for opening the Pandora’s Box. 8)

An ego would do for a start. Proof comes with building it. Knowing every detail. Be able to move every brick in the mouse around even after it has been build. And to some extend leave it like it has always been like that.

But that's not the point if this discussion, you didn't thought that this is all just hypothetical? Yes, you're right and you've got a point as to why Satoshi won't go public but it's not the point.

To me, I think that the only proof that Satoshi could identify himself is probably doing a signed message on his address, or logging in his forum account or logging in the Bitcointalk forum prototype (forgot the name of predecessor).

Right. If he can leave a signed message  on his address, then it may be a proof of a real Satoshi. His own bitcoin forum account has been hacked already so there's no way he can access that anymore. If he can be the real Satoshi, i think he will do such a thing that we never thought of thinking and its only him who knows that.

However, i'm not really expecting that he'll show off one of these days because its better to make him anonymous for good than to make him known and confuse the whole crypto market.

To be honest, most likely Satoshi can't prove himself as a Bitcoin creator. I would be convinced if he signed a message from his Bitcoin address. But the community will still raise questions about either private keys held by Satoshi or by his next generation. It's become quite a complicated process since no one saw him ever. It's easy to prove ownership of the private key, but can't prove as a creator. It's not hard only, but also impossible IMO if the community refuses. What will do the community if sign a message after 100 years from Satoshi's address? Does it prove that the message signer is Satoshi Nakamoto?

The more evidences, the more confidence of Satoshi idenditity proof, e.g. sending transaction from his addresses (12cbQLTFMXRnSzktFkuoG3eHoMeFtpTu3S, 1NS17iag9jJgTHD1VXjvLCEnZuQ3rJED9L and so on) or signing a message with the corresponding keys combined with evidence of his English and C++ programming skills. Others may include:
- clarification of his vague explanation of the choice of 21 million BTC cap,
- explanation of his reasons for staying anonymous,
- confirmation by peer-reviewers (of source code and whitepaper),
- confirmation by witnesses who knew about him working on Bitcoin,
- materials created during his research on Bitcoin,
- release of the Bitcoin source code versions previous to the first published ones (and links to source code fragments that were copied or stripped down, e.g. poker bot),
- evidences of bitcoin.org domain registration,
- evidences of setting up the bitcoin.org website,
- publishing his correspondence,
- explanation of origin of his nick if not random,
- hand-written notes about Bitcoin,
- revealing unknown facts that could be verified.

If you're truly Satoshi or anybody claiming to be, then it shouldn't be a thing of threat or an hacullian task to het yourself verified being the Satoshi and there are many ways to achieve this, you must posses the said amount of bitcoin Satoshi is believed to have in possession, prove the ownership and access to the wallet address that has the bitcoin and lastly sign a message with that same address, you don't have to struggle in performing those task being the Satoshi because that's what we know to be in your capacity to do, but know this that Satoshi will always present himself with all integrity he's deserving by being reserved and away from all these.

The only way Satoshi has to reveal his identity is through his technology itself. REMEMBER: NOT YOUR KEYS, NOT YOUR COINS. Satoshi along with other early adopters is said to have millions of bitcoins stashed on specific wallets. So, if he signs a transaction from one of his addresses he proves he really is Satoshi Nakamoto. One of the genesis block that is said to be his, is this one: 1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa. You can read more about it here (https://bitcoinplanet.net/info/what-is-the-wallet-address-of-satoshi-nakamoto/).

This has a point. If he is the real Satoshi, I don't think he will bother to prove himself that he is the real one. After all, Satoshi doesn't need any spotlight or acknowledgement, all he aimed was just to help us by giving us the freedom from the banks and be our own bank. Otherwise, if he is not the real Satoshi and would want to steal the reputation of Satoshi, for sure proving himself to the people might only be his focus.

There are still flaws, I agree with the posts that proving ownership doesn't prove the identity.  One good example is cited by BlackHatCoiner  (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5377171.msg58734866#msg58734866)and supported by Wind_FURY (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5377171.msg58743209#msg58743209) posts.  Besides, if you are the real satoshi, you don't have to prove you really are Satoshi the more effort you made to prove yourself the more harder it is for the hesitant to believe.  Being oneself comes naturally and people will see the proof by themselves.

I guess we'll live on the belief that anyone who will try to prove himself as satoshi even with valid proof, won't be enough to make all of us believe.
Like what the others have pointed out earlier, it makes sense that if anyone has found out the private keys of satoshi or he has handed it to the one whom he's fully trusting, there will be a point in time when funds might be moved. Or like what wind fury said about Hal's fund and he's the true satoshi, that inheritance that his children, wife, or any relative will come to the point of time that they have to sell it.
But otherwise, until it's not moving, let's don't dig it anymore and I guess if satoshi is alive, he's liking more the situation that no one will ever know the true him/they.

I think finding Satoshi Nakamoto is very difficult, because Satoshi also doesn't want to show himself, surely it will be difficult to identify him.
and in my opinion satoshi must remain a secret, because if only satoshi divulged his identity, I'm afraid many people will target him, because surely behind the success of bitcoin, there must be those who don't like bitcoin.

Nakamoto Satoshi is one of the hidden identity of the world most transposed being. People have a strong belief that he's masculine but don't what he looks like. Many people have come out over the past years claiming to be Satoshi nakamoto but always failed the test. The owner of bitcoin is a team, and we all know that a team is not made up of one or two person but three to four. Cryptocurrency was invented in 2008 by unknown group of people who called themselves Satoshi nakamoto, so we can see that it's not only one man's name.

I don't think this is a meaningful thing. The development of Bitcoin will not be affected by the presence or absence of Satoshi Nakamoto, so I think Satoshi Nakamoto himself is well aware of this.
As for the proof, it is completely unnecessary, because as long as you are Satoshi Nakamoto, there will be Satoshi Nakamoto's way to prove yourself.

It also gives an impossible situation for people like Craig Wright, but a very good one for Bitcoin. Because indeed if he does possess the keys, his claims to be the "Real Satoshi Nakamoto" would not be recognized by the community, the Core Developers, and anyone who isn't a Flat-Earther of Bitcoin. This holds true even if he WAS actually Satoshi, the inventor of Bitcoin. It is only right for Satoshi to be dead for the community.

There's a fair chance CIA, FBI and other "3 letter agencies" know who Satoshi is/was. It's also possible that he's dead. If we don't take this into account, significant proof would be something like moving coins from "Satoshi's wallet". But if Satoshi is alive and not cooperating with the government agencies there's very little chance he will expose himself by cashing out or moving his coins.

We are still not sure if Satoshi was a single person or a group of people who created the Bitcoin, and I have no explanation on how to point out the right person.
But we all know that Satoshi holds a certain amount of BTC. And as far as I know, we know in which wallet it's in. If someone can show me the correct amount and the raw data of BTC which is not an open source information but exists in BTC ecosystem. Then that could convince me at some degree.
But I don't want to know who he is. I am just glad that he/they made this for us. That's all that matters.

I also think that Satoshi is dead (I hope I am wrong though)  since there is no way that the Bitcoin in his wallet will be untouched.  With all the increase in Bitcoin's price, there is no way Satoshi isn't tempted to move his coins unless he has extra addresses that hold another hundred thousand of BTC that is unknown to the public.

If something a person could do to prove his identity as satoshi is not desperately proving that he is the real satoshi.  Or even creating a Bitcoin beginners course[1] or paying someone just to cite he is the real satoshi.

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[1] https://coingeek.com/bitcoin101/what-is-blockchain/

At minimum he should sign a message from an address which is known that it belongs to him or move his coins to another address.

And I say this is the minimum necessary because there is always the possibility of someone getting access to his files and then trying to use this as evidence of being Satoshi while they would be just an impersonator, however I think it is safe to assume that Satoshi will never comeback, whether this is because he passed away already, he is afraid of being pursued by intelligence agencies or some other reason, this seems to be the best possible outcome for the market in general.

Signing a message with the key to the genesis block, or other well known block mined by Satoshi would be strong evidence that the person might be Satoshi.

Of course it could be someone else that stole the key, but at least it's a start.

Anyone that just says so has zero credibility.

What is the point of wanting to even know who the real Satoshi when it is obvious anyone can claim to be anybody these days. He should remain anonymous, that's good enough. For me, I would not believe if anyone comes out today with proof that he is Satoshi.

If anybody claims he/she is Satoshi Nakamoto and wants to be taken more or less seriously, he/she doesn't have to go to great lengths just to make everybody else curious. He/she only has to sign a message and perhaps people would indeed become really interested. While having access to the purported private keys of Satoshi doesn't prove beyond doubt that the person behind the signature is the real Satoshi, it is definitely enough for everybody to get curious and raise probing questions.

There is no need to find who the real Satoshi. Everyone having an expectation to see the real Satoshi is common thing. Staying anonymous is the what the network requires. Quite often we used to encounter different people coming up with the claim of being the real Satoshi. Nowadays that too have reduced as no one is able to prove themselves real Satoshi. Till the year 2120 this discussion will go on, and at some point conclusion will be reached assuming Satoshi to be dead.

Bitcoin is decentralized cryptocurrency, the only way for somebody to ever legitimately stake a claim to being Satoshi Nakamoto without getting laughed out of the building is cryptographically. He has sign a message from a well known Satoshi mined early block. That is literally the only only way, everything else is BS as we see with characters like Craig Wright.

Zero proof, I am sure that Nakamoto doesn't want to be known, so who ever comes forth to claim the identity knows better than everyone, he knew Nakamoto isn't coming, and claiming to be the Real Nakamoto can give him the drive juice.

Revealing who the real creator of BTC is means the decentralized part of BTC is officially broken, this is why I believe that the real Nakamoto isn't coming to the public.

There are people that communicated with Satoshi in the early days, which might still have information or data that only Satoshi might have known .. and that were not made public. I think if he signs an address that was linked to him with a message to those people, then it might authenticate his real identity.

He left a message in the early days when he launched Bitcoin, so I think he will do the same.. if he wanted to communicate with us again.  ;)  I would prefer that he would not try to reveal his real identity... because that will just create more troubles.  ;)

Very on point, I don't see the need for identity proof by Satoshi since being anonymous is part of the original plans and features of Bitcoin and that is why, anyone can contribute to a network under any identity. Decentralization has eliminated identity proves and is needless for Satoshi to reveal his identity that is if there is an identity to the word SATOSHI, Identity verification is not part of BTC whitepaper and as much as we can we tried to remain anonymous and private so only those who have something to gain will come out trying to prove their Satoshi Nakamoto.

If Satoshi returns back with his forum account here and tells who he is, then it’s very likely that most people will believe that he is the real Satoshi. Moreover he can also give a signed message of the Bitcoin address that he used here. This will give more believe from the people that he is the real Satoshi. But Satoshi kept this alias in order to hide his real identity. So it’s completely possible that Satoshi won’t come out and reveal his identity against this cruel masses.

Note that his account is banned from this place, according to theymos. So, even if he tries to login, he won't.

Satoshi never disclosed his address(es), so any signed message from one of his "probably his" addresses isn't a proof of identity, but rather a proof of ownership of the private key. The only action that can act as proof of identity is to provide a signature from his never used PGP key[1][2].

[1] https://bitcointalk.org/Satoshi_Nakamoto.asc
[2] https://web.archive.org/web/20090131115053/http://bitcoin.org/Satoshi_Nakamoto.asc

I think an immutable proof of Satoshi's existence is right from his addresses. As far as I know his is one of if not the oldest addresses out there, holding bitcoins worth as much as billions of dollars. A fund transfer from one address to another through these addresses could be an indicator that they are still alive and breathing, but that itself could be fabricated should a hacker get hold of his wallets. Another would be signing a message from the addresses he owns, which could both give hint to who they really are, and of his existence as well.

All in all, I don't think he's needed anymore, as it stands today bitcoin is self-thriving and doesn't need a Satoshi Nakamoto to hold everything together. The enterprise has become bigger than themselves in an amazing fashion, and I think this is what he wanted in the first place.

Let's face it the crypto system is an open threat to the conventional economy and it was and still is a wise decision for Satoshi to remain anonymous for his safety because some sort of false narrative could be propagated against him and off he goes to jail.... Look at what is happening to Sam bankman fried.... Though you may say he's somewhat guilty but we all in the crypto space knows the impact of arresting such personality and the effects it will create in the already volatile environment we are... So you see why it's not wise for Satoshi to come out?

Sam Bankman-fried's situation is a very different one, SBF committed a crime by using people's money for his own personal gain and losing it, so it is correct for him to be arrested. SBF, CZ and other owners of centralized crypto exchanges, altcoins and services all did or are all doing things totally different from BTC or Satoshi, they created services that allow them to control and keep people's money and use it for their own profit and gain, their service also allows people trade shitcoins, lose their personal data to bad people, the government or blockchain analysis company, these has led to so many losses and cause for regulation outcry.

Satoshi created a network that allows people to choose what they want to do with their coins, a network that doesn't give him any control, but for the community and the owner of the money to control, a network that works perfectly without him ever needing to come out of his anonymity status. Satoshi didn't create a network that would warrant him to be arrested if he is known. Though the government may only attack him because he freed people out of their financial oppression.

I would say that whoever can produce a digital signature with the private key of the Genesis block address has the strongest claim to actually be Satoshi Nakamoto.