Who is Satoshi Nakamoto and why does he hide in the shadows?

[TheGodson]

While at work today, I've been thinking about who Satoshi Nakamoto could be and why would he keep his identity a secret?

I've thought of three possibilities for keeping his name secret.

1) He is someone who doesn't want to be in the spotlight, because he enjoys his anonymity.
2) His actual identity could ruin the reputation of Bitcoin.
3) Satoshi is a showman and did this to build up suspense for his grand entrance.

I can really understand number 1. Some of the greatest geniuses among us lurk in the shadows. Maybe he doesn't want to be harassed by the press. All the praise could put him on an uneasy pedestal if Bitcoin succeeds. If it fails people may accuse him of running a Ponzi scheme. Yada yada. So much crap could happen. Say goodbye to the private peaceful life.

Number 2 makes sense as well If Satoshi Nakamoto were a criminal it may be harder to get people on board. Who would ever put their trust in a currency created by a criminal. Keeping your name secret here would be much more prudent for business.

Satoshi is clearly innovative enough to come up with this new currency. He surely has the imagination and vision of the future to make a grand revelation at a later date. Number 3 is pretty epic. Everybody loves an epic introduction.


Number 2 makes the most likely to me. Number 1 seems possible too, but even for an introvert who may not want attention, how could you not want people to know what you've contributed to the world? This leads me to believe that Satoshi is most likely a criminal or has a bad reputation somehow. Of course that is just speculation though.


I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that Satoshi Nakamoto isn't even Asian. If I were Asian, I would choose an alias that didn't sound Asian. As a non-Asian I may end up picking an Asian alias because it sounds cool.

Another interesting thought. What if Satoshi Nakamoto is an anagram for his real name? I mean, it does make sense right? Cryptography would be right down his alley. Or her alley. Whoa, maybe Satoshi isn't even a guy.


I've been rearranging the letters in "Satoshi Nakamoto" to spell out a name. No luck thus far. Another thing that cryptographers do is they code the letters to stand for other letters. For example: A is really C, because it is two down. K is really M, because it is two down. I've considered writing a program in C++ to maybe solve it through brute force with a list of first names and last names. Given how many computer nerds are out there it wouldn't surprise me if this has been done already however.

Thoughts?

[hilariousetc]

While at work today, I've been thinking about who Satoshi Nakamoto could be and why would he keep his identity a secret?

I've thought of three possibilities for keeping his name secret.

1) He is someone who doesn't want to be in the spotlight, because he enjoys his anonymity.

I think this is more likely to be the case. I think it's interesting that he's never moved any of his coins because which leads you to believe he doesn't really care about money, fame or recognition which is rare in people these days. If he was a showman then he likely would have not used a pseudonym or would have revealed himself by now. In retrospect I think it was probably a smart idea to separate or distance himself from bitcoin because there's no central figurehead to attack. I can only imagine the level of hate and threats he would get when people lost money or demand he make changes to the protocol to suit their own financial interests etc. Part of me would like to know who he his and his story, but a bigger part of me think he's best left anon, but if he did reveal himself I think it would almost certainly be a disappointment.

[Minecache]

Have you seen the vitriolic trolling that Vitalik Buterin receives?

There's your answer.

[xbiv2]

Because he have a lot of money but he is not part of big strong family.

[bodimun2]

I do not know who is he,but i heard some where he is the founder of the bitcoin.i did not see his pic also.i think bitcoin is not handling by the government and price also not stable according to this issues may be he hide in shadows.

[coin@coin]

I don't think it matters and we don't know if he hides in the shadows or he/she/they/it are spending their time sipping Martinis on a beach.

What matters is Bitcoin itself and the new opportunities that have arisen since its inception.  

[hatshepsut93]

Satoshi is an oldschool cypherpunk, and he did a good job to preserve his anonymity, so there are very low chances that someone will find out who he is. This means that any theories about Satoshi are just pure speculation, you can't prove anything so it's pointless to discuss them. There's no evidence to who he is, why he left us, is he alive, what's he going to do with his coins. The only thing we can do, is to request proof from people who claim to be Satoshi (looking at you, Craig Wright) and see what they got.

[BTCLovingDude]

why don't YOU reveal your identity? post your real name here, your home address and with your picture while holding up your drivers license.

you won't do it, and we don't even know if you own bitcoin or not. you may have $10 worth of it.

now how do you expect someone who is speculated to be holding 2.7 billion dollar worth of bitcoin come forward.

all the privacy aside, i always find the fact that Satoshi is anonymous a nice thing. you see it is the living proof that you can be in bitcoin and you can be anonymous.

besides without Satoshi being anonymous at least 10,000 topics would have never existed in this board

[Juggy777]

Why do you care who he is?

Don't you have better things to do at work, like work instead of thinking stuff whose answer you won't get

Do you actually get paid to think this kind of work, then most of the newbies who ask this question on a daily basis can join you there, and you all can continue your discussion.

Why don't you and other newbies get it, he sacrificed his identity and life for Bitcoins, he knew Bitcoins were bigger than him.

Stop thinking about him and focus on work and gaining Bitcoins. It will help you in the long term. Ps no one knows who he is so move on in life.

[Basmic]

I think that such a person does not exist. Such a large-scale project of crypto currency could not run by one person. I'm sure it's a whole team of people and likely creating a crypto currency was the work of a whole team which aims to destroy the foundations of the global financial system. So we'll never know who is hiding behind a pseudonym Nakamoto.

[krishnapramod]

It would have been nice to get this attention in any other context.  WikiLeaks has kicked the hornet's nest, and the swarm is headed towards us.

This is one of the last posts made by Satoshi Nakamoto on this forum, https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2216.msg29280#msg29280

From the very beginning itself Satoshi tried to remain as anonymous as possible. Now around 2010, Bitcoin wasn't as popular as today, but still being the creator Satoshi knew it had a huge potential and when WikiLeaks started accepting Bitcoin Satoshi might have realized that:

1. Bitcoin getting attention from WikiLeaks might possibly endanger his anonymity.

2. Bitcoin could also be used for illegal purposes thus not only jeopardizing his privacy/anonymity for being the creator of such a currency, but might also get him into legal trouble.

If he wasn't anonymous the Feds would have charged and locked him up for creating a currency which could be used for illegal purposes.

We don't know exactly how many bitcoins does Satoshi owns, but it definitely would be a substantial amount. If he wasn't anonymous then this amount does possess a threat to not only his life, but also his family's.

Satoshi, be it He/She/Or a group are enjoying their anonymous freedom, let them enjoy it.

[tiggytomb]

I don't think we will ever know for sure unless Satoshi decides to reveal themselves, wouldn't it be something if it was an AI released secretly to setup a new global currency under the radar

[iamTom123]

There is a big possibility that Satoshi Nakamoto is just a code representing a group of people who had been working to make blockchain technology come into fruition and then they decided to make it as a gift to humanity. There has been a continuing speculations about the person of Satoshi but for me it does not really matter at all if he remains to be anonymous.

Now, of course, some people are saying that had he been around just like what the founder of Ethereum is currently doing then Bitcoin can have the many benefits of an existing leadership. Well, that can be possible but then again maybe there were some important reasons why he (or a group of people) decided to bow out of the limelight.

[cjmoles]

Satoshi obviously doesn't want to be associated with this experiment anymore....I find that a more intriguing thought!  What scared Satoshi Nakamoto away?....was it the meeting Gavin had with the CIA?....was it the Wikileaks donations?....was it a Dr. Frankenstein variety regret?.... was it merely a sense of accomplished achievement and an overwhelming urge to work on something more challenging?....was it all of the above?

[Manuj]

I think you are hitting the question with your first guess. And he really enjoys it I assume. When he goes out and jam with people who are into bitcoin, listening to their ideas about it, I wonder how he would just smile and simply agree.

It is also perfect to be anonymous since his invention is also promoting anonymity. Perfect combination.

[Gorgonio]

Why do you care who he is?
Does that mean something to you，Interest, curiosity?

[chiller]

Believe it or not, bitcoin wasn't the first cryptocurrency. Not even a second. If you did some research about previous echash systems creators you would notice a correlation between a real person and a lawsuit against him. That would be a one more reason.

[aesma]

Knowing who (s)he is would cause more problems than it would solve.

[TheGodson]

Never knew that there were other cryptocurrencies before bitcoin. I will have to take a closer look into that. Bitcoin was the first successful one it seems.

Satoshi being AI seems doubtful, but it is an interesting idea and fun to think about.

I didn't know he had posted on the forum either. I'll have to check it out.


For those wondering why I care, it is simply curiosity. I don't consider wonder a bad thing. Also, I am very good at my job. It is very mundane at times and thought is great for my entertainment. Is it really a waste of time to question things we will never know the answer to? With that logic we'd never wonder about religion, the meaning of life, if aliens exist, how far the universe goes, or why I view life from my perspective and not somebody else's. I feel it is in my human nature to dwell on such things. Some of you may not be curious, but I think a lot of people, like me, do.

[joebrook]

While at work today, I've been thinking about who Satoshi Nakamoto could be and why would he keep his identity a secret?

I've thought of three possibilities for keeping his name secret.

1) He is someone who doesn't want to be in the spotlight, because he enjoys his anonymity.
2) His actual identity could ruin the reputation of Bitcoin.
3) Satoshi is a showman and did this to build up suspense for his grand entrance.

By revealing his identity he puts himself at a great risk, the US government may bring money laundering charges and even finance of terrorism to his backdoor,i think its a very wise move by him hiding under the shadow and not revealing his identity.