Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? Part History, Part Mystery, and a New Solution!

[BitcoinFX]

Congrats! You have wasted your time knowing him instead of doing more productive things. Does it reward you? Why even this drama gets more attention and why don't just leave the man's privacy alone. If he want to reveal himself, he will.

Spending time to understand the history of cryptography, e-cash and ultimately Bitcoin is not a waste of time at all. All the interesting challenges and developments took place during the origin phase. In-fact all the future goals and where crypto needs to go was defined too. Nothing has changed and any information that helps reach the goals of the original whitepaper are of immense value to the whole community.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2216.msg29280#msg29280
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2080206.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=13.msg46#msg46
http://www.metzdowd.com/pipermail/cryptography/2008-November/014863.html
http://www.metzdowd.com/pipermail/cryptography/2008-November/014832.html
https://www.gwern.net/docs/bitcoin/2008-nakamoto
http://www.metzdowd.com/pipermail/cryptography/2008-October/014810.html
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=382374.0
http://www.metzdowd.com/pipermail/cryptography/2009-January/014994.html
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2346992.0
http://p2pfoundation.ning.com/forum/topics/bitcoin-open-source
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecash
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MnQJFEVY7s
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=43.msg346#msg346
https://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/finneynakamotoemails.pdf
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=116.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=820.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=116.0
https://marc.info/?l=cypherpunks&m=109961094015550&w=2
https://marc.info/?l=cypherpunks&m=98348154629779&w=2
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=83.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=507458.0
https://sourceforge.net/p/bitcoin/mailman/message/21303153/
https://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/finneynakamotoemails.pdf

+ MERIT

This one is a very good read. I remain impartial ...

The Parallel History of Bitcoin.
- https://medium.com/@donaldmulders/the-parallel-history-of-bitcoin-bc4c1d348939

[Peter Sm.]

Great effort, love reading it though I am not interested  on knowing who really is Satoshi, that is because I believe crypto will continue to grow if satoshi will remain anonymous. 

That is a perfectly reasonable position. As you can see, we did not reveal any name from our findings. A lot of people state why so much research into Satoshi? Well part history and part trying to find the missing pieces of the puzzle.

Would you be interested if the search revealed unpublished code and ideas that were never made public that could take cryptocurrency forward towards mainstream adoption? And accomplish the goals of the original whitepaper. To do all that you need to find Satoshi first and then discover the more important information.

In the research there is one interesting clue from 1'st bitcoin source code: "the world needs an online marketplace that does not have a central administrative or corporate point of attack..."

So, there is one crypto-project, which exactly aims the above Satoshi's clue: litemint.com with it's upcoming decentralized marketplace.

[podpaymentcoin]

+ MERIT

This one is a very good read. I remain impartial ...

The Parallel History of Bitcoin.
- https://medium.com/@donaldmulders/the-parallel-history-of-bitcoin-bc4c1d348939

Thanks for sharing the post. Very interesting and the author has definitely put a lot of time and effort into collating all the information. There are many real people and mysteries around the whole Bitcoin story that one day it will make a great tv series - movie!

Episode 1 - Cryptography -> Early Cyberphunks
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Episode 2 - Satoshi Nakamato -> Bitcoin -> Disappearance
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Episode 3 - Pirate Invasion and Scamsters
Episode 4 - Cryptocurrency adoption
Episode 5 - Banking takeover
Episode 6 - ?? who knows ??

All we can share is that Satoshi was only ever involved in Episode 2. Any big revolution brings all sorts of players to the table!

[podpaymentcoin]

Great effort, love reading it though I am not interested  on knowing who really is Satoshi, that is because I believe crypto will continue to grow if satoshi will remain anonymous. 

That is a perfectly reasonable position. As you can see, we did not reveal any name from our findings. A lot of people state why so much research into Satoshi? Well part history and part trying to find the missing pieces of the puzzle.

Would you be interested if the search revealed unpublished code and ideas that were never made public that could take cryptocurrency forward towards mainstream adoption? And accomplish the goals of the original whitepaper. To do all that you need to find Satoshi first and then discover the more important information.

In the research there is one interesting clue from 1'st bitcoin source code: "the world needs an online marketplace that does not have a central administrative or corporate point of attack..."

So, there is one crypto-project, which exactly aims the above Satoshi's clue: litemint.com with it's upcoming decentralized marketplace.

The extra details in the original Bitcoin v0.1 source code were some of the more interesting clues. Note the decentralised marketplace in-addition to the poker code! PM as there are lots of options for taking the decentralised marketplace roadmap forwards.
 

[olamidey]

Went through this research and well, and TS just another Satoshi thread. Various person has laidclaim to him and couldn't stand up to it. Let's leave the issue of knowing or tracing who he is and let's work on what he has given unto us- the bitcoin blockchain. That our gain. Bitcoin is presently at a high price. Let's enjoy that and leave Satoshi alone.

[FlightyPouch]

That is a lot of ways and solutions to find Satoshi and in the end, we can't still say who he really is. Does it matter who really Satoshi Nakamoto is? No, then why are people still on the hunt? Even if that is really his Citizenship, we don't know 100% if that is really him, as others say, he might be an immigrant and we might be mislead by another article.

[cryp24x]

I admire how you compiled your facts and observations. But I think some of them are not solod facts with definite value. Well, if we don't really have a solid basis then I think the journey are not really SOLVED. Keep it up. Great research but I will appreciate it when you show evidence not just illustrations from what you observed.

[atjiat]

I think that creating an artificial agiotage around the name Satoshi Nakamoto, many users of cryptocurrency are not beginning to adequately perceive and act inadequately due to the fault of such information.  People have been somewhat suspicious of late and are reacting to any positive or negative news precisely so that the consequences on the cryptocurrency market we have been raking for months.

[podpaymentcoin]

But I think some of them are not solod facts with definite value.

Thanks for the feedback. Let me know which facts are being queried and I can provide further details (where feasible).

[slomski007]

Q: Why all the research?
A: Understanding the history and origins of cryptography, e-cash, cryptocurrency and Bitcoin was an interesting journey that spanned over 20 years. Finding the details and information of the key players that made 'Today' and the 'Tomorrow' possible was invaluable. Often one must understand the past to build the future.

Q: Why are you searching for Satoshi Nakamoto?
A: Contrary to mainstream information available, Satoshis exit from Bitcoin was not planned or scheduled. Anyone who has read the detailed posts, actions and timelines would conclude that it was unexpected and abrupt. The only way to know Satoshi was 'safe' and 'ok' was to find him. Anyone involved in the world of activism would understand this.

Q: What value does your information have?
A: As Bitcoin grew in the early years, the main world governments tried to track down who was behind Bitcoin. The reason is simple, most governments wanted to know if the creation was by a friend or foe. Western governments distrust China/Russia and vice versa. Our findings finally show the creation was not via any government agency, or anarchist criminal group but simply a very smart academic with financial transformation goals.

A: It is very easy to fake digital information. However it is very hard to fake and manipulate timelines. Findings provide additional information to stop any faketoshi claiming Bitcoin. Select [faketoshi candidate]. Find out what/where they were on Monday 12 Jan 2009. Verify they were not able to receive incoming connections. Rule out [faketoshi candidate]. Apply for the other criterias listed and you would be amazed how few names remain on any list!

To understand the document one must reference some of the key public information available (links extracted from PDF):

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2216.msg29280#msg29280 : 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.' - Satoshi Nakamoto.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2080206.0 : Mike Hearns emails with Satoshi Nakamoto.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=13.msg46#msg46 : The Bitcoin network has been running for almost a year now. The design and coding started in 2007' - Satoshi Nakamoto.
http://www.metzdowd.com/pipermail/cryptography/2008-November/014863.html : Satoshi at vistomail.com
http://www.metzdowd.com/pipermail/cryptography/2008-November/014832.html : 'I appreciate your questions. I actually did this kind of backwards. I had to write all the code before I could convince myself that I could solve every problem, then I wrote the paper. I think I will be able to release the code sooner than I could write a detailed spec' - Satoshi Nakamoto.
https://www.gwern.net/docs/bitcoin/2008-nakamoto : Wei Dei emails with Satoshi Nakamoto.
http://www.metzdowd.com/pipermail/cryptography/2008-October/014810.html
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=382374.0 : Bitcoin source from November 2008.
http://www.metzdowd.com/pipermail/cryptography/2009-January/014994.html : Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper announcement.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2346992.0 : Payment No. 1: A Closer Look at the Very First Bitcoin Transfer.
http://p2pfoundation.ning.com/forum/topics/bitcoin-open-source : Bitcoin P2P announcement by Satoshi Nakamoto.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecash : History of Ecash.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MnQJFEVY7s : Milton Friedman predicts the rise of Bitcoin in 1999!
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=43.msg346#msg346 : Satoshi Nakamoto location 'timebox' due to reference to yesterday.
[Suspicious link removed]j.com/public/resources/documents/finneynakamotoemails.pdf : Hal Finney emails with Satoshi Nakamoto.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=116.0 : Bitcoin Mac OS X universal build for testing.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=820.0 : Clues to Satoshi Nakamotos computer (or lackof)
https://marc.info/?l=cypherpunks&m=109961094015550&w=2 : Hal Finney P2P gambling game (like poker or something) using rpow.net which is a sort of play-money ecash.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=83.0 : Satoshi Nakamotos file sharing knowledge.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=507458.0 : Chain Archaeology - Answers from the early blockchain.
https://sourceforge.net/p/bitcoin/mailman/message/21303153/ : Bitcoin Sourceforge remnants.

how did you get the actual number of posts?

I have counted 519 with my Python bitcointalk scrapping script.

Please find copy of my code below:


<sub>import requests
import urllib.request
import time
import lxml.html
import matplotlib
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import pandas as pd

import plotly.offline as pyo
import plotly.graph_objs as go
import plotly.express as px
import pickle
pyo.init_notebook_mode(connected=True)
%matplotlib inline


def get_data(v):
    url = f'https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=3;sa=showPosts;start={v}'
    response = requests.get(url)
    doc = lxml.html.fromstring(response.content)
    samples = doc.xpath('//div[@id="bodyarea"]/table/tr/td/table/tr/td/table/tr/td')
    results = [samples.text_content() for i in range(2,len(samples), 5)]
    results = [i.replace('on:', '').strip() for i in results]
    return pd.DataFrame(results, columns=['dt']).apply(pd.to_datetime)


all_data = [get_data(x) for x in range(20,530, 20)]

concated = pd.concat(all_data)
df = concated.sort_values(by=['dt'], ascending=True)
df = df.reset_index(drop=True)</sub>

[bittraffic]

Great documents in here. Very interesting findings about Satoshi.

Q: Why are you searching for Satoshi Nakamoto?
A: Contrary to mainstream information available, Satoshis exit from Bitcoin was not planned or scheduled. Anyone who has read the detailed posts, actions and timelines would conclude that it was unexpected and abrupt. The only way to know Satoshi was 'safe' and 'ok' was to find him. Anyone involved in the world of activism would understand this

If so do you think the government is watching him then in order for him to get away he just self destruct his computer and walk away like he is no part of anything?
Its really a mystery why all of a sudden that without saying anything that he is leaving and then vanish.

British Asian could really mean he is a Japanese/Chinese and studied in England.

[Eclipse26]

Actually this is a great analysis and research done by op i guess? But no matter how we tried looking for the real Satoshi, we still cannot confirm it. There's always a missing link that can connect every pieces to find the real Satoshi.
Let's not underestimate Satoshi's capability. If he were able to create bitcoin, he's capable of hiding his identity without no one knowing it. It just mean that he really wanted to to keep his identity as a secret from the public. So let's just respect it. And wait if he'll possibly reveal himself

[NathanJB]

Great documents in here. Very interesting findings about Satoshi.

Q: Why are you searching for Satoshi Nakamoto?
A: Contrary to mainstream information available, Satoshis exit from Bitcoin was not planned or scheduled. Anyone who has read the detailed posts, actions and timelines would conclude that it was unexpected and abrupt. The only way to know Satoshi was 'safe' and 'ok' was to find him. Anyone involved in the world of activism would understand this

If so do you think the government is watching him then in order for him to get away he just self destruct his computer and walk away like he is no part of anything?
Its really a mystery why all of a sudden that without saying anything that he is leaving and then vanish.

British Asian could really mean he is a Japanese/Chinese and studied in England.

Satoshi Nakamoto did not just vanish all of a sudden. In his posts, he was clearly hinting that he will not be around for so long. He is saying that to the public and so people have already the idea that Satoshi is going to vanish in the coming days. In fact, Satoshi even prepared everything for his demise. He entrusted everything he left to the right people.

[Shasha80]

Excellent analysis and details related to the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto in the OP. I really like the detailed information,
although at the end this was only speculation. But I appreciate the explanation, it is always a consumption interesting public
about the identity of satoshi nakamoto. Actually not a problem for Satoshi Nakamoto for as long become a mystery, the problem
is too many people are curious about the identity of satoshi nakamoto.Then from that news or the discussion about satoshi nakamoto
will never stop.

[o48o]

Damn that's some beautiful, interesting and clear infographics. But honestly i would prefer that that question about Identity of Satoshi would never be solved. If he wanted to be found he would said so and it's not like it would paramount to find him. But at the same time i understand the fascination that probably grows to be one of the biggest mysteries in the world. I just hope that he won't get in this treasure hunt.

[thirdprize]

Satoshi was an AI sent back from the future to save the world.

[simplemachines01]

I think it will be a government because

if not, they would have stopped Bitcoin.

[podpaymentcoin]

how did you get the actual number of posts?

I have counted 519 with my Python bitcointalk scrapping script.

Please find copy of my code below:


<sub>import requests
import urllib.request
import time
import lxml.html
import matplotlib
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import pandas as pd

import plotly.offline as pyo
import plotly.graph_objs as go
import plotly.express as px
import pickle
pyo.init_notebook_mode(connected=True)
%matplotlib inline


def get_data(v):
    url = f'https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=3;sa=showPosts;start={v}'
    response = requests.get(url)
    doc = lxml.html.fromstring(response.content)
    samples = doc.xpath('//div[@id="bodyarea"]/table/tr/td/table/tr/td/table/tr/td')
    results = [samples.text_content() for i in range(2,len(samples), 5)]
    results = [i.replace('on:', '').strip() for i in results]
    return pd.DataFrame(results, columns=['dt']).apply(pd.to_datetime)


all_data = [get_data(x) for x in range(20,530, 20)]

concated = pd.concat(all_data)
df = concated.sort_values(by=['dt'], ascending=True)
df = df.reset_index(drop=True)</sub>

The 575 post count came from Satoshis profile view on this forum: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=3 . So some posts are not public // deleted.

Name: satoshi
Posts:  575
Activity: 364
Merit: 2292
Position: Founder
Date Registered: November 19, 2009, 07:12:39 PM
Last Active: December 13, 2010, 04:45:41 PM

For the timezone analysis slide we used all the data from the posts on this forum + crypto mailing list + p2pfoundation + all released emails + original sourceforge forum.

[podpaymentcoin]

Great documents in here. Very interesting findings about Satoshi.

Q: Why are you searching for Satoshi Nakamoto?
A: Contrary to mainstream information available, Satoshis exit from Bitcoin was not planned or scheduled. Anyone who has read the detailed posts, actions and timelines would conclude that it was unexpected and abrupt. The only way to know Satoshi was 'safe' and 'ok' was to find him. Anyone involved in the world of activism would understand this

If so do you think the government is watching him then in order for him to get away he just self destruct his computer and walk away like he is no part of anything?
Its really a mystery why all of a sudden that without saying anything that he is leaving and then vanish.

British Asian could really mean he is a Japanese/Chinese and studied in England.

Satoshi Nakamoto did not just vanish all of a sudden. In his posts, he was clearly hinting that he will not be around for so long. He is saying that to the public and so people have already the idea that Satoshi is going to vanish in the coming days. In fact, Satoshi even prepared everything for his demise. He entrusted everything he left to the right people.

Based on the research, Satoshi did leave in an untimely and unplanned manner. There is a lot of evidence to back this up; but highlighting using two posts on this forum:

August 07, 2010
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=750.0
Here's an outline of the kind of escrow transaction that's possible in software.  This is not implemented and I probably won't have time to implement it soon, but just to let you know what's possible.

December 05, 2010
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1735.msg26999#msg26999
No, don't "bring it on".

The project needs to grow gradually so the software can be strengthened along the way.

I make this appeal to WikiLeaks not to try to use Bitcoin.  Bitcoin is a small beta community in its infancy.  You would not stand to get more than pocket change, and the heat you would bring would likely destroy us at this stage.

So in August, Satoshi is sharing ideas on how escrow transactions can be supported and to be implemented later. Then 3 months later its game-over "No, don't bring it on.!".

[xvids]

Woah some people are really putting up a lot of effort just to reveal Satoshi's true identity.
But I really wonder if there would be someone who could do it and if they could would Satoshi stillbe alive at that time?
10 years has past since Bitcoin started many things had happened and we don't know if Satoshi is still alive or healthy right now.
And could we really reveal Satoshi's real identity ? Satoshi is a genius who have created Bitcoin so I think he also have a great talent in clearing all of the things that could trace him.