Elon Musk guesses who bitcoin's mysterious creator Satoshi Nakamoto is

[Hydrogen]

Elon Musk seems to agree with many that the hypersecretive cryptocurrency expert Nick Szabo might be Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious creator of the digital currency bitcoin.
"You can look at the evolution of ideas before the launch of bitcoin and see who wrote about those ideas," Musk told the artificial-intelligence researcher Lex Fridman in a podcast published Tuesday when asked what he thought about Nakamoto's identity.

The Tesla billionaire said while he "obviously" didn't know who created bitcoin, Szabo's theories seemed fundamental to the creation of the leading cryptocurrency.
"It seems as though Nick Szabo is probably, more than anyone else, responsible for the evolution of those ideas," he said. "He claims not to be Nakamoto, but I'm not sure that's neither here nor there. But he seems to be the one more responsible for the ideas behind bitcoin than anyone else."

Bitcoin was first proposed in October 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto, a pseudonym for who people believed could be one person or several people.

In 2014, a team of linguistic researchers studied Nakamoto's bitcoin whitepaper alongside the writing of Szabo and 10 other possible creators. They found the results to be indisputable.
"The number of linguistic similarities between Szabo's writing and the bitcoin whitepaper is uncanny," the researchers said, adding: "None of the other possible authors were anywhere near as good of a match."

A 2015 New York Times report also pinned bitcoin's invention on Szabo. He has spoken publicly about the history of bitcoin and blockchain technology, but he's repeatedly denied claims that he's the anonymous inventor behind the digital asset. Another reason he's linked to bitcoin is his creation of the "bit gold" cryptocurrency in 1998.

Musk indicated he didn't think there was much significance behind the identity of bitcoin's creator: "What is a name anyway? It's a name attached to an idea. What does it even mean, really?"

Backing his thought, he quoted William Shakespeare to say: "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/elon-musk-bitcoin-satoshi-nakamoto-creator-cryptocurrency-history-2021-12

The debate continues...

Elon Musk appears to have a pool of smart people he works with to discuss topics like these. It appears Nick Szabo is the leading candidate in their upper tier of their intelligentsia. If it is Nick Szabo he must be one of those who avoids media attention and the spotlight. In contrast to the Craig Wright's of the world, Szabo tends to keep a low profile.

Its been claimed linguistic analysis of bitcoin whitepapers best match Nick Szabo's writing style. But I don't remember specifics or examples being cited. Does anyone know which specific words or phrases were claimed to link Nick Szabo's writing style to any of the whitepapers authored by Satoshi Nakamoto?

[Accardo]

Alot of people claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto but only one man claims not to be Satoshi even when people point fingers at him as the inventor of bitcoin. He could be the one we are searching for in disguise. He has alot of tech backgrounds that can be linked back to the knowledge of Satoshi Nakamoto. He created Smart contract in 1998.

[Lucius]

I was wondering when this topic will come to the surface of the forum, and I read the article 2 days ago - it means that the forum is a little late in gathering information.

What people don’t realize is that Mr. Mars needs to be always in the media and he’s addicted to it, and now apparently in the absence of some better topic he’s started speculating about who Satoshi Nakamoto might be. The fact is that he knows nothing but what he has read, and he himself admits that some basic things are not clear to him - which does not make him as intelligent a person as many consider him.

Musk also told Fridman he doesn't understand ethereum-based smart contracts—blockchain-based, self-executing contracts that run when certain, preprogrammed conditions are met.

"I never quite understood how this whole smart contract thing, you know," said Musk, joking, "I'm too dumb to understand smart contracts" and saying: "My general approach to any kind of like deal or whatever is just make sure there's clarity of understanding.

I doubt that he can even meaningfully define Bitcoin, blockchain or altcoin, but in order for people to listen to you, you don't necessarily have to be intelligent, you just have to have a lot of money. Furthermore, one thinks about which currency will be the official currency on Mars, which is absurd at the moment and will be for decades to come.

However, Musk went on to predict that the meme-based bitcoin rival dogecoin, or perhaps some other cryptocurrency, will eventually become the official currency of Mars—something Musk has previously hinted at with a proposed project to use his rocket company SpaceX to "put a literal dogecoin on the literal moon."

"I think Mars itself will need to have a different currency ... I don't know if Mars would have a cryptocurrency as a thing, but probably it seems likely, but it would be kind of a localized thing on Mars," Musk said, adding: "The future of Mars should be up to the Martians."

As a final thought, I don't care what this character thinks about anything related to Bitcoin, he is not at all competent to express his opinion about it.

[tbct_mt2]

Elon has his talent to say joke. Again he shows his talent and I am sure not all crypto investors feel happy with his jokes because many of them are weak hands and use leverages so their positions and account balance should be liquidated and lose lots of value from such jokes.

Elon can guess so as we so please consider it as very simple guess. Don't over exaggerate its importance because the joke is from Elon.

More important, who is real satoshi nakamoto now not important, isn't it?

[BitMaxz]

I don't think if Nick Szabo is Satoshi Nakamoto look at the name Satoshi compared to his name and personality. Most people believe that Satoshi is Japanese even wiki that satoshi claimed that he is Japanese so how did he become a Nick Szabo?

I search a bit but many articles said Satoshi Nakamoto is Nick Szabo but he repeatedly denied it. According to Wiki, he is one who designed a mechanism for Bit Gold.
Still, no proof exists that Szabo is Satoshi Nakamoto but there are many people believe that he is Satoshi.

[BitcoinAccepted]

Elon can guess so as we so please consider it as very simple guess. Don't over exaggerate its importance because the joke is from Elon.

More important, who is real satoshi nakamoto now not important, isn't it?

It would be nice to know who Satoshi Nakamoto is, right? But I agree that not knowing the personality of Satoshi is detrimental on everyone’s part. Yes, it is a mystery that everyone has been looking forward to unlock but not being able to do so doesn’t result and mean anything bad. We could all guess who Satoshi is, including Elon Musk, by that will be all guesses at the end of the day.

[NeuroticFish]

What people don’t realize is that Mr. Mars needs to be always in the media and he’s addicted to it, and now apparently in the absence of some better topic he’s started speculating about who Satoshi Nakamoto might be.

Very well said.
I've seen the news for some time (at least 24h), but I said nothing hoping that somehow it'll get unnoticed.
But no. People talk about him again, so mission accomplished (by him). After all, it doesn't matter who Satoshi is. Elon had to be in the news and that's all that matters.

What's next? Will he post about Bitcoin reaching at <insert shockingly big number here> or will post about how bad bitcoin is?

[Finestream]

I don't think if Nick Szabo is Satoshi Nakamoto look at the name Satoshi compared to his name and personality. Most people believe that Satoshi is Japanese even wiki that satoshi claimed that he is Japanese so how did he become a Nick Szabo?

I search a bit but many articles said Satoshi Nakamoto is Nick Szabo but he repeatedly denied it. According to Wiki, he is one who designed a mechanism for Bit Gold.
Still, no proof exists that Szabo is Satoshi Nakamoto but there are many people believe that he is Satoshi.

Ofcourse, it isn't comparable because we are using names that is pseudo-anonymous so it couldn't be linked to our real name nor informations. Just like your name here in this forum.
We don't know for sure who is the real Satoshi Nakamoto but Nick Szabo is the best guess by the experts because his writings and the creators writings are too close. Especially when Nick created the Bit Gold way back 1998, it was an attempt to create a decentralized currency just like the successful bitcoin we have now.

[UmerIdrees]

The debate continues...

Elon Musk appears to have a pool of smart people he works with to discuss topics like these. It appears Nick Szabo is the leading candidate in their upper tier of their intelligentsia. If it is Nick Szabo he must be one of those who avoids media attention and the spotlight. In contrast to the Craig Wright's of the world, Szabo tends to keep a low profile.

Thank god, Elon Musk did not claim himself to be Satoshi Nakamoto. You can expect anything from his tweets.
I have stopped following his tweets and words ever since he has started promoting DogeCoin. I don't believe in Elon musk guesses for Satoshi Nakamoto. No one knows who is Satoshi Nakamoto.

[Iranus]

The debate continues...
Elon Musk appears to have a pool of smart people he works with to discuss topics like these. It appears Nick Szabo is the leading candidate in their upper tier of their intelligentsia. If it is Nick Szabo he must be one of those who avoids media attention and the spotlight. In contrast to the Craig Wright's of the world, Szabo tends to keep a low profile.

Thank god, Elon Musk did not claim himself to be Satoshi Nakamoto. You can expect anything from his tweets.
I have stopped following his tweets and words ever since he has started promoting DogeCoin. I don't believe in Elon musk guesses for Satoshi Nakamoto. No one knows who is Satoshi Nakamoto.

Lol, 

I will not be surprised if he claims himself as Satoshi.
Do you people believe his statement till now?? This man say one thing in the morning and said the opposite in the afternoon. At morning press conference he said Bitcoin is the digital gold, during supper, he said Bitcoin is not eco-friendly. I don't know how much confidence he has in his own words!

To me, it is unnecessary to search for Satoshi Nakamoto when he wants to be hidden from us.
Debate is not needed to convince him when he will want to express himself, people will believe him spontaneously.

[Husires]

Do we need to see every day a different topic for Elon Musk’s perception of cryptocurrencies? He is just an investor and he is the richest man in the world, but he cannot influence a currency with a market capacity of more than a trillion dollars.
It may have an impact on the Dogecoin market but we should not take it seriously in the major currency market.

The ambiguity of who is Satoshi Nakamoto is a media and legal issue more than it has an impact on the price of Bitcoin or the future development of the currency.

[Coyster]

A part of me somewhat thinks that Elon does not really mean most of the things he says as regards Bitcoin, but just does it so as to remain relevant in the network, and maybe sometimes cause manipulation, if you understand this whole scenario about who Satoshi is, you'll understand that actual Bitcoin users do not really care too much about who Satoshi is, not that they would not like to know, but just being in the network and benefiting from Satoshi's creation outweighs their desire to actually know who the creator is. But on the other hand, it's people who have openly said negative things about the network and do not actually believe in it that are so much concerned about who Satoshi is and are even trying to impersonate Satoshi.

[Argoo]

The debate continues...

Elon Musk appears to have a pool of smart people he works with to discuss topics like these. It appears Nick Szabo is the leading candidate in their upper tier of their intelligentsia. If it is Nick Szabo he must be one of those who avoids media attention and the spotlight. In contrast to the Craig Wright's of the world, Szabo tends to keep a low profile.

Thank god, Elon Musk did not claim himself to be Satoshi Nakamoto. You can expect anything from his tweets.
I have stopped following his tweets and words ever since he has started promoting DogeCoin. I don't believe in Elon musk guesses for Satoshi Nakamoto. No one knows who is Satoshi Nakamoto.

But already about Elon Musk they began to say that he is Satoshi Nakamoto. Of course, these conversations are not substantiated by serious arguments. After Elon Musk began to criticize the energy efficiency of bitcoin, he cannot be Satoshi Nakamoto. Nobody will ever establish the real Satoshi Nakamoto. He himself could have done it, but he took all measures to remain anonymous.

[titular]

I personally always thought Adam Back was Satoshi. There are an insane amount of similarities between the two.

Adam hasn't even tried to claim that he was. I was going to do a large write-up on what I thought but it seems this has been debated before on this forum and was not received well at all.

[Alanaz]

Actually I read this article a few days ago and was waiting for this thread to be on the forums because for me it would be really exciting.
The debate about who satoshi is currently still going on and hot enough to watch and witness
But on the other hand, debates like this will only lead to speculation. Anyone who argues about it is still only speculation and there is no clarity on what will happen next.
Satoshi probably laughed and was quite happy to see that he is still very mysterious and remains anonymous

[dificanovi]

The debate continues...

Elon Musk appears to have a pool of smart people he works with to discuss topics like these. It appears Nick Szabo is the leading candidate in their upper tier of their intelligentsia. If it is Nick Szabo he must be one of those who avoids media attention and the spotlight. In contrast to the Craig Wright's of the world, Szabo tends to keep a low profile.

Its been claimed linguistic analysis of bitcoin whitepapers best match Nick Szabo's writing style. But I don't remember specifics or examples being cited. Does anyone know which specific words or phrases were claimed to link Nick Szabo's writing style to any of the whitepapers authored by Satoshi Nakamoto?

Just according to the writing style alone we can't say Nick Szabo is the real Satoshi Nakamoto. There are still some things that we have to investigate such as the email that Satoshi used when he was still active in communicating via the internet. We have to ask more about Bitcoin to Nick Szabo if he understands and can explain the ins and outs of Bitcoin in the past until now, if he manages to prove not everything then he is the real Satoshi Nakamoto.

[Danydee]

Elon Musk appears to have a pool of smart people he works with to discuss topics like these. It appears Nick Szabo is the leading candidate in their upper tier of their intelligentsia. If it is Nick Szabo he must be one of those who avoids media attention and the spotlight. In contrast to the Craig Wright's of the world, Szabo tends to keep a low profile.

No matter how smart his pool may be, it will never be able to compete with people who take this question as seriously as a full job and have done a lot and lot investigating, even followed every lead and clue available.



I remember few years ago, there was a rumor that the NSA would have been discovered Satoshi's true identity !



About CSW, the reports circulating on the case are never very clear !
If it's really him Satoshi,  understand: if he go proof to everyone that's really is him, like with signing a message like Vitalik suggested, it will be his death warrant in a way !
 

[mynonce]

The debate continues...

Satoshi posted here on bitcointalk.org ~600 times. All these post have a timestamp. And for all proposed candidates to be Satoshi, we can find a post where the timestamp doesn't match the activity of the candidate. For example: Satoshi posted on X/Y/2010 12:00 UTC, but the candidate was at that time on a flight. All posts/candidates are checked.

[Smartvirus]

One thing is for sure. The Pseudomonous nature or Satoshi Nakamoto have sustained even when bitcoin ment nothing to nobody and how about now that it means something, it means, even those should there be any who bare truth and would have been willing to tell a tale would keep all ends closed and tied. There would be no knowing who Satoshi Nakamoto is no matter how hard they try.

Musk is just doing what he loves doing best, that is, staying in the media and making money where he could find it. Don't pay too much attention to garbage.

[Oilacris]

One thing is for sure. The Pseudomonous nature or Satoshi Nakamoto have sustained even when bitcoin ment nothing to nobody and how about now that it means something, it means, even those should there be any who bare truth and would have been willing to tell a tale would keep all ends closed and tied. There would be no knowing who Satoshi Nakamoto is no matter how hard they try.

Musk is just doing what he loves doing best, that is, staying in the media and making money where he could find it. Don't pay too much attention to garbage.

Even we do say that we shouldnt really pay attention but people or community around couldnt really just resists on not to make out any reactions or even do believe on what Musk is shitting out from his mouth.