A Bitcoin Who is Who

[Senor.Bla]

Everybody in the Bitcoin world knows Satoshi, but many newcomers and not so closely followers might not know all the names in the news stories and posts. Or if they know the name, they might not have the history of them in mind. I think it would help to understand Bitcoin and the more and more involved politics, if we knew the involved peoples history and affiliation.
I would like to make a list with all the better known people involved in Bitcoin and their history with Bitcoin. What do you think? How does this sound?
First i need a list. I started one already. Please add some names and how they where involved in Bitcoin.

My list contains so far:

Satoshi Nakamoto
Hal Finney
Gavin Andresen
Mike Hearn
Adam Back
Greg Maxwell
Roger Ver
Mark Karpelès
Ross Ulbricht
Vitalik Buterin
Craig Steven Wright
Theymos
James D'Angelo
Andreas Antonopoulos

I'll update the post with the new names.

edit:
Laszlo Hanyecz - bought the famous two pizzas for 10 000 BTC
Mike Caldwell - Casascius
Charlie Shrem

Prospects:
Luke Jr

some examples how the short info could look like:

Satoshi Nakamoto
- The name of the person or group that published the Bitcoin Whitepaper (Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System) in October 2008. In Januar 2009 he released the first version of the software and the first Bitcoins were mined.
He then worked on Bitcoin, together with others (but never revealed himself), until summer 2010 when he handed the project over to Gavin Andresen and disappeared shortly after. He remains unknown to this day.

Hal Finney
- He was a developer and active cryptographer that invented a reusable proof of work system in 2004. Its principals are a big cornerstone of Bitcoin. He also was the receiver of the first Bitcoin transaction. He died 2014 due to illness.
 
Mark Karpelès
- In March 2011 he bought a majority (88%) of Mt. Gox, a former exchange for "Magic: The Gathering" cards turned into a Bitcoin exchange. It became the biggest exchange that held for a long time the "all time high" price with $1165.
In February 2014 Mt. Gox closed and filed for bankruptcy. In April Mt. Gox announced that 850 000 Bitcoins were missing and most likely stolen. Later 200 000 Bitcoins have been found. The rest is still missing. Karpelès was arrested August 2015 in Japan for embezzlement and released on bail in July 2016. He is still facing charges.

[OmegaStarScream]

I wouldn't consider theymos as someone known in the bitcoin field personally except the fact that he is running bitcointalk, If that's enough for you then you should list the other staff members as well, I'm also against listing scammers like Mark Karpelès, otherwise It's a good list but you should give details about each person.

[Jeremycoin]

How about laszlo? The Bitcoin Pizza guy, isn't he quite important to the history of Bitcoin?

I don't really agree with you, theymos is the moderator but the other staff are not.

I wouldn't consider theymos as someone known in the bitcoin field personally except the fact that he is running bitcointalk, If that's enough for you then you should list the other staff members as well, I'm also against listing scammers like Mark Karpelès, otherwise It's a good list but you should give details about each person.

[Senor.Bla]

I wouldn't consider theymos as someone known in the bitcoin field personally except the fact that he is running bitcointalk, If that's enough for you then you should list the other staff members as well, I'm also against listing scammers like Mark Karpelès, otherwise It's a good list but you should give details about each person.

I will for sure make a couple of sentences for everyone with details. I do want to list "scammers" as when i do read the news i want to have informations on both sides. Imagin you just heard about Bitcoin and start reading about it or see see a tweet with his name mentioned. I think it would be helpful to immediately know that he is the one behind the MtGox fiasco.
I wasn't sure about theymos, but since r/bitcoin and bitcointalk are huge it might be nice to know who is behind it.

[ImHash]

As it will help for sure to know the minds and hearts of the people behind bitcoin what is disappointing that almost all of them left the scene and forgot about the community especially Satoshi, I really don't know if he is in fact dead or just in a defcon(silent) state but since he is the original developer his presence could effect the entire community significantly in a positive way, how come? the fact that he wanted to do good and had good intentions and people can actually see that otherwise bitcoin wouldn't be here could change the game for the good and benefit of the system.
Also a kudos to you for doing this

[Senor.Bla]

Here is a quick preview of how i imagine it would look.
This is just a short description and would become bigger with time.
What do you think? Have you more names for me?

Satoshi Nakamoto
- The name of the person or group that published the Bitcoin Whitepaper (Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System) in October 2008. In Januar 2009 he released the first version of the software and the first Bitcoins were mined.
He then worked on Bitcoin, together with others (but never revealed himself), until summer 2010 when he handed the project over to Gavin Andresen and disappeared shortly after. He remains unknown to this day.

Hal Finney
- He was a developer and active cryptographer that invented a reusable proof of work system in 2004. Its principals are a big cornerstone of Bitcoin. He also was the receiver of the first Bitcoin transaction. He died 2014 due to illness.
 
Mark Karpelès
- In March 2011 he bought a majority (88%) of Mt. Gox, a former exchange for "Magic: The Gathering" cards turned into a Bitcoin exchange. It became the biggest exchange that held for a long time the "all time high" price with $1165.
In February 2014 Mt. Gox closed and filed for bankruptcy. In April Mt. Gox announced that 850 000 Bitcoins were missing and most likely stolen. Later 200 000 Bitcoins have been found. The rest is still missing. Karpelès was arrested August 2015 in Japan for embezzlement and released on bail in July 2016. He is still facing charges.

[vladmitrofanov]

What about Joseph Lubin? At last - my friends don't know what is it Ethereum, but they know Joseph! 

[Senor.Bla]

What about Joseph Lubin? At last - my friends don't know what is it Ethereum, but they know Joseph! 

Thank you for the suggestion. First i would like to concentrate on Bitcoin and therefor no altcoins. Maybe some day in the future we could it expend. He isn't much involved with Bitcoin or did i miss something? Blockchain and Ethereum is more his domain as far as i know.

[Kieronbm]

Trace Mayer? 
Talking head...fox news, bbc, https://www.tracemayer.net/

Maybe you have two levels of people?  Try to get everyone who is full time bitcoin?

[Carlton Banks]

Talking head

Slippery slope

I strongly recommend sticking to people who've made technical contributions only, which is why Vitalik Buterin shouldn't be on the list

[Senor.Bla]

Trace Mayer? 
Talking head...fox news, bbc, https://www.tracemayer.net/

Maybe you have two levels of people?  Try to get everyone who is full time bitcoin?

Talking head

Slippery slope

I strongly recommend sticking to people who've made technical contributions only, which is why Vitalik Buterin shouldn't be on the list

The idea is that i want to give newcomers a place where they can go and check up on some names that they hear a lot about. Look at r/Bitcoin. Every 3rd to 4th post contains a name. I want people to read 3-4 sentences about a person and then be able to put it into context. So first i want People involved in Bitcoin and then also people who we talk about. This is the reason Vitalik is in and Trace not. I wasn't sure about Vitalik and he probably wouldn't have made the list without being a "Bitcoin Magazine" founder.
I know people will discuss the names and if they belong on the list or not (James D'Angelo for example made the list because newcomers will almost certainly stumble upon one of his youtube videos), but i want to postpone the debate and first gather names and write about them.
So give me name names names.

[NextSon]

Great list, thanks alot. I wanna learn more about the history of bitcoin it sounds really interesting.

[Sundark]

Talking head

Slippery slope

I strongly recommend sticking to people who've made technical contributions only, which is why Vitalik Buterin shouldn't be on the list

So we should eliminate Andreas Antonopoulos and Mark Karpeles as well as Roger Ver, Craig Wright and theymos...
It is a list of important people, it doesn't matter whether they were saints or devils, there is a place for every famous character.
I think it is better to include less known people as well than focus only on whales like Satoshi or Finney.

[cloverme]

Where do you plan on listing the information? There's already some wikipedia pages for these people, not all though. If you make a post, it just might get lost around here :/

[Senor.Bla]

Where do you plan on listing the information? There's already some wikipedia pages for these people, not all though. If you make a post, it just might get lost around here :/

That depends. First i want to complete the list so that i have 20 to 30 names on it with descriptions. Then we will see if people like it and use it or not. Maybe we could make a sticky thread or a whole website if it makes sense. We will see i guess.

[eternalgloom]

Where do you plan on listing the information? There's already some wikipedia pages for these people, not all though. If you make a post, it just might get lost around here :/

That depends. First i want to complete the list so that i have 20 to 30 names on it with descriptions. Then we will see if people like it and use it or not. Maybe we could make a sticky thread or a whole website if it makes sense. We will see i guess.

I'd opt for making a dedicated website for it.
People outside of this forum will also benefit from having a list like this and that makes it more accessible for them.

Plus the chances of being allowed to sticky something like that are pretty slim.

[Patatas]

I wouldn't consider theymos as someone known in the bitcoin field personally except the fact that he is running bitcointalk

Which is the most active bitcoin related forum since day 1 ? Also the most active place for bitcoin marketplace.As long as technical contributions are concerned,I may not list him there but serving the community in someday,he definitely deserves regardless of the technical aspect.

I strongly recommend sticking to people who've made technical contributions only, which is why Vitalik Buterin shouldn't be on the list

And so does Mark.

How about adding Luke Jr ?  https://github.com/luke-jr

[memequiserle]

bitcoin still anonymous, who is created, can anything people
this people interest bitcoin the first anonymous, and bitcoin founder still want him unknown and anonymous too
why not publish  i think this him have reason

[Scott J]

Mike Caldwell / Casascius

He minted the first ever physical Bitcoins and very nice they are too.

I also remember him writing some BIPs... I think.

[Carlton Banks]

Mike Caldwell / Casascius

He minted the first ever physical Bitcoins and very nice they are too.

I also remember him writing some BIPs... I think.

+1

Mike Caldwell not only made a technical contribution with BIP38, he was also responsible for the iconic Casascius physical Bitcoins, which will be what most people imagine when they think of Bitcoin as a photograph of a huge pile of Casascius coins was a very common image used for news articles.

Mike was probably one of the earliest victims of government caprice and aggression (he was told that describing his coins as "coins" was illegal IIRC )