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

[Congyang]

what Nick Szabo is referring to as a satoshi at this time is that he was in touch with BitGold a few years ago and after BitGold disappeared then bitcoin appeared and this can be used as a reference when talking about matchology.
basically the systems of BitGold and Bitcoin have significant similarities.
But this is again just wild speculation circulating at this time without being able to know whether it is true or not.
Maybe now Satoshi is smiling and seeing how the debates and claims against him are getting hotter and hotter with lots of arguments in it.
Apart from that, I personally don't really care who his real identity is, but what is clear is that I will only be grateful for his hard work in creating a technology that can be said to be phenomenal in this century and hopefully he will always be healthy whenever and wherever he is now.

[Wind_FURY]

it's just an assumption from Elon, even though it's true that Mr. Szabo is Satoshi, he has to prove it himself to be valid.

btw. I really like Elon's way of joking, even though it's getting less and less funny

The fact that Elon Musk and many others believe that Nick Szabo is Satoshi, makes my belief stronger that Nick Szabo is NOT Satoshi. Believe me, Satoshi took those extra steps to confuse the cypherpunks, the Bitcoin community, and the general public.

For me, Satoshi was Hal Finney.

I personally still believe that Satosthi was Len Sassaman

And then we wonder why EM thinks Nick Szabo is Satoshi, and everyone has their own opinion. Since no one mentioned Wei Dai, I will say that it is possible that he is Satoshi - although he has repeatedly denied this possibility. What we do know is that Satoshi was very familiar with the work of Wei Dai and contacted him several times while working on the project.

Wei Dai and Adam Back were the first two people contacted by Satoshi Nakamoto as he was developing Bitcoin in 2008 and the b-money paper was referenced in the subsequent Bitcoin whitepaper.

In a May 2011 article, noted cryptographer Nick Szabo stated:

Myself, Wei Dai, and Hal Finney were the only people I know of who liked the idea (or in Dai's case his related idea) enough to pursue it to any significant extent until Nakamoto (assuming Nakamoto is not really Finney or Dai)

One of them is Satoshi, and he’s confusing the other two. Hahaha.

[Emitdama]

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?

It is quite funny that the person the world is believing to be the real satoshinakamoto is denying knowing anything about how Bitcoin was created, why those that we don't even believe that they are satoshinakamoto are the ones who are coming out to claim that they are the creator of Bitcoin.

Anyways, for now we can say that we have not seen the real Satoshi , although this guy that everyone is pointing at right from time (Nick Szabo) seems to be quite close to being the real satoshinakamoto due to a lot of things about him can be linked to the idea of Bitcoin. Apart from him, others who have come out to claim that they are the satoshinakamoto doesn’t really have much to prove for it. And at the end they just fell, because they have nothing to backup their claims.

[Dhaniii]

I still have my doubts with people who claim to be the creators of bitcoin or with satoshi people. I am more arguing that the name Satoshi is not a person but a nickname from an organization that is deliberately created as a specific person's designation. behind the creator bitcoin must have many people but the status is deliberately kept secret, with the aim that they are safe from all sectors of threats and apart from that it is easy for them to control various cryptocurrencies so that they are always centralized.

[oHnK]

Elon musk really like made a new rumor just for his own benefit. In the beginning, he accepted BTC for buying tesla, and he invest a lot of money for BTC then he said about an environmental issue and impact on BTC price. I don't believe what Whales said. In the fact that they're really easy for making an issue which influenced the psychology of penny's investor. I ever watched on fyp's Tiktok, Dan Pena said if you know who's behind BTC, the price will be zero, then he said crypto is just Putin's conspiracy. So, whatever they said is just an issue and we don't have to consider it seriously.

https://coinnounce.com/dan-pena-reveals-the-person-behind-bitcoin-says-it-will-go-to-zero/

[Cling18]

Lots of speculations about who the real Satoshi is have been existing for years but no one could provide pieces of evidence to prove it. I believe that it's easy for anyone to guess but even influential personalities just like Elon Musk could prove it. The real Satoshi Nakamoto might have chosen peace and silence over power and fame so he's keeping his identity private.

[suzanne5223]

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?

I was surprised after some research to find out that the issue of Nick Szabo being the author of the Bitcoin Whitepaper had happened in the year 2014 before I even join the Bitcoin scheme.
According to coindesk article which was written in the year 2014, the specific word phrases and publications used to judge Nick Szabo as the author of the Bitcoin whitepaper is

“trusted third parties”, “for our purposes”, “need for ...”, “chain of ...” among others. The bitcoin paper also includes commas before ‘and’ and ‘but’, plenty of hyphenation, ‘-ly’ adverbs, pronouns ‘we’ and ‘our’ in a paper supposedly written by a single author.

Furthermore, the researchers found that the bitcoin whitepaper was drafted using Latex, an open-source document preparation system. Latex is also used by Szabo for all his publications.

[pawanjain]

I personally don't care if it is Elon Musk or a random guy who says he thinks who Satoshi might be.
If any person claims to be Satoshi then the only way to prove the ownership over Satoshi's identity is to sign a message using Satoshi's keys.
I wouldn't trust any other way of verification because anybody can claim he is Satoshi.

[Leviathan.007]

Happy new year,
Saw this on the news yesterday, We cannot be sure about Satoshi and his real identity. He didn't log in to the forum for years and none heard anything about him during all these times just some famous and infamous people tried to say I'm the great Satoshi and stead his work and reputation, even if Elon is right and Szabo is the real Satoshi he will never say such thing because this would have a negative effect on the market also will put his own life in danger, I also don't know Szabo and got no information about it but maybe Elon is just trying to attract some attention to him.

[Fesatmas]

what Nick Szabo is referring to as a satoshi at this time is that he was in touch with BitGold a few years ago and after BitGold disappeared then bitcoin appeared and this can be used as a reference when talking about matchology.
basically the systems of BitGold and Bitcoin have significant similarities.
But this is again just wild speculation circulating at this time without being able to know whether it is true or not.
Maybe now Satoshi is smiling and seeing how the debates and claims against him are getting hotter and hotter with lots of arguments in it.
Apart from that, I personally don't really care who his real identity is, but what is clear is that I will only be grateful for his hard work in creating a technology that can be said to be phenomenal in this century and hopefully he will always be healthy whenever and wherever he is now.

Not significant, it is only 0.1% based on the research of a Skye Gray. In a conversation between the questioner and the relevant resource person, regarding the suitability that is being studied. Even the SG was not convinced at all. I remind you it's only about 0.1%. So let's take a look at how this started and what their conversation was like. I found it here https://techcrunch.com/2013/12/05/who-is-the-real-satoshi-nakamoto-one-researcher-may-have-found-the-answer/

SG: Originally it was simple curiosity that drew me to the question. I like mysteries. Then I decided to publish what I found for two reasons:
– so that other people could attack my method and findings, or validate them. I want certitudes, and keeping for me what I had found would not get me anywhere.
– so as to address people’s concerns that a “bad guy” might have created Bitcoin. I think this question is what could harm the mainstream adoption of Bitcoin in the near future.

TC: How sure are you it’s Nick Szabo?
SG: I am not certain it’s Nick Szabo, but I have quite a few independent pieces of evidence pointing in his direction, each one interesting in itself:
– text analysis (only 0.1% of cryptography researchers could have produced this writing style –again, please, attack my methods on this)
– fact that Nick was searching for technical collaborators on the bit gold project (a very similar cryptocurrency) a few months before the announcement of Bitcoin (and then the bit gold project became perfectly silent)
– lack of citation of Nick’s work by Satoshi, whereas he cited other, less related cryptocurrencies
– lack of reaction on Nick’s part about Bitcoin, whereas a decentralized currency like Bitcoin had been a major project of his for 10 years
– fact that Nick deliberately post-dated his bit gold articles to look posterior to Bitcoin, shortly after the announcement of Bitcoin

Currently I am in contact with two different persons who will be running their own independent textual analysis to confirm my own.

TC: Does it matter? What would it change if it did, in your opinion?
SG: I think it’s very important to identify Satoshi at this point in Bitcoin’s history. The “agenda” behind Bitcoin, if there is any, cannot stay in the shadow if Bitcoin is to become a mainstream alternative currency, a challenge to the world’s monetary status quo. There has been speculation that Bitcoin may have been created by a government agency (the main employers of cryptographers of mathematicians) in an attempt to make financial transactions easier to mine for interesting data patterns: we need to clear that up before we start relying heavily on Bitcoin in our lives.

I think it would be great news for Bitcoin if Nick Szabo turned out to be the mastermind behind it. Nick appears to be a remarkably brilliant, disinterested polymath academic. Who would you rather have at the origins of Bitcoin, a visionary professor and collaborators, or spooks?

TC: How has your digging gone over in the BTC community? It seems like an unpopular topic at best.
SG: It has not been received well, many people are telling me to “leave Satoshi alone”. But when one starts having a huge impact on the world, one loses his right to anonymity. Satoshi currently holds about BTC 1M, valued at USD $1B, and has the power to potentially crash the Bitcoin markets. We need to know who the people who have power over us are, and what their intentions are. This is why we require background checks on our elected leaders. In the same way we need a “background check” on the Bitcoin system before we start handing it our monetary exchanges. Next would be to know what has become of Satoshi’s BTC stash.

The anonymous figure of Satoshi probably played a role in the early adoption of Bitcoin (“we are all Satoshi”), because the mystery created a powerful story drawing in early enthusiasts. Now this anonymity has become an obstacle to mainstream adoption, because there is legitimate concern over the origins and purpose of Bitcoin.

TC: How easy is it to assess identity via written “tics?”
SG: It’s rather easy. We all use language in our own particular way: the probability distribution over rare expressions, sentence structures, and stop words in our writing constitute a “signature” of sorts. It is not nearly as uniquely discriminative as a fingerprint, or DNA, but it is discriminative enough to distinguish one person out of a few hundreds or even thousands. For some people who tend to have more particular tics, like authors or academics, it constitutes a solid identification process.

In the case of Satoshi, I identified a number of unusual content-neutral expressions used both in Satoshi’s whitepaper and in Nick’s papers. For 4 of these expressions, I was able to estimate (using Google Scholar) the proportion of researchers in the cryptography community susceptible of using these expressions in a paper. These proportions are respectively 15%, 10%, 15%, and 50%. Assuming the use of each one is independent of the use of the others, the joint probability of finding a researcher using all of them in their writing is on the order of 0.1%. So this particular combination of writing tics could identify one cryptographer out of 1000. Even if these approximations are off by a large factor, the joint probability will stay quite small.

TC: Are there any close runners-up for the Satoshi identity?
SG: Nick is by far the number one candidate. I have nothing else significant enough to be worth mentioning.

TC: How many bitcoin do you have?
SG: Let’s say I have between 1 and 10 BTC. I am not heavily invested in Bitcoin, but I am definitely bullish on its adoption prospects.

[tyz]

I personally don't care if it is Elon Musk or a random guy who says he thinks who Satoshi might be.

In the wording Musk did not say that he knows who Satosthi is, but only what he believes or considers most likely. And there was the name Nick Szabo. Of course, you could dismiss this as pure speculation, but maybe Elon Musk knows more than we do. However, as I already said, I personally don't believe that Szabo is Satoshi. But I guess everyone has their own opinion on that.

[franky1]

to add a bit of old fuel to the speculation fire, how about some todler cryptography

its not nick..
but i do love some of the theories and 'proofs'

the funniest one is using the letters of his name
someone said nicks middle name was thomas

NICK THOMAS SZABO

take the C and the B change them to numeric (c=3 b=2)
3x2=6
6= 1 and 1 and 1 and 1 and 1 and 1
1=A and 1,1,1,1,1     (A and five 1's)
1,1,1,1,1= 3 and 2
3x2=6
6=3 and 3
3x3=9

take the Z and change it to numeric (z=26)
26+9=35

just note that the missing letters  of satoshi nakamoto from nick thomas szabo are O=15 T=20   =35

so numerically we can see there is a conversion method for CZB=AOT
now take out the CZB nick thomas szabo and add in the AOT

NICK THOMAS SZABO
NIK THOMAS SAOAOT

now mix them letters up from:
NIK THOMAS SAOAOT

to:

S   (NIK THOMAS AOAOT)
SA   (NIK THOMAS OAOT)
SAT   (NIK HOMAS OAOT)
SATO   (NIK HMAS OAOT)
SATOS   (NIK HMA OAOT)
SATOSH   (NIK MA OAOT)
SATOSHI   (NK MA OAOT)
SATOSHI N  (K MA OAOT)
SATOSHI NA  (K M OAOT)
SATOSHI NAK  ( M OAOT)
SATOSHI NAKA  ( M OOT)
SATOSHI NAKAM  (  OOT)
SATOSHI NAKAMO  (  OT)
SATOSHI NAKAMOT  (  O)
SATOSHI NAKAMOTO

i know nick is not, but i just liked this bit of speculation and wordplay.. put a smile on my face

[Woodie]

Elon Musk needs to learn to stay mute about certain topics, he doesn't need to give his thoughts on every topic that goes round the crypto ecosystem if he wants to remain relavant and making his comments now and giving an opinion based on what is already in the public domain changes nothing. But his input is well appreciated, hope he doesn't make a new enemy with Craig Wright who seems not to be his candidate.

[hyudien]

I personally don't care if it is Elon Musk or a random guy who says he thinks who Satoshi might be.

In the wording Musk did not say that he knows who Satoshi is, but only what he believes or considers most likely. And there was the name Nick Szabo. Of course, you could dismiss this as pure speculation, but maybe Elon Musk knows more than we do. However, as I already said, I personally don't believe that Szabo is Satoshi. But I guess everyone has their own opinion on that.

And this is also just speculation that keeps haunting my mind. I won't mention his name, but the one he is "ranked 2 in Most Merit" https://bpip.org/ seems to know better than Elon Musk about who Satoshi is. Maybe, again this is just my wild speculation, which still doesn't find a valid statement.

Back to the many articles that I found, and in the end, all said the most responsible candidate so far Nick. However several times Nick denied the accusations even in 2014 if I'm not mistaken he emphatically said: "I'm not Satoshi". Seeing the wordplay from Mr @franky1 is enough to make me waver and love the game and word counting.

From the abstraction found in the article Nick Szabo, 1997 generally describes the line of thought regarding smart contacts which is considered the forerunner to the emerging version of Bitcoins.

Abstract "Smart contracts combine protocols with user interfaces to formalize and secure relationships over computer networks. Objectives and principles for the design of these systems are derived from legal principles, economic theory, and theories of reliable and secure protocols. Similarities and differences between smart contracts and traditional business procedures based on written contracts, controls, and static forms are discussed. By using cryptographic and other security mechanisms, we can secure many algorithmically specifiable relationships from breach by principals, and from eavesdropping or malicious interference by third parties, up to considerations of time, user interface, and completeness of the algorithmic specification. This article discusses protocols with application in important contracting areas, including credit, content rights management, payment systems, and contracts with bearers".

[so98nn]

I’m wondering how this could be of much importance if we came to know about whose real satoshi? In one of the discussion it was concluded that Satoshi might be hidden because he just don’t like the idea to be presented in front of the world or may be he has his own privacy concerns. I think none of this matters for real Satoshi and that’s why we should not be much worried about real charmer.

Let him be where he is and live his life at the fullest. He might have crossed us on the beach holding pint of beer or could be standing next to burger guy!

For curiosity the discussion is fine. But come on let him live for God Sake.  

[OgNasty]

I thought it was hilarious seeing Elon be asked if he was satoshi.  The fact he felt he actually needed to clarify he wasn't was a bit funny to me.  I saw a meme that perfectly described it...  It showed Elon denying being satoshi and then said, "nobody thought you were."  Which I felt was pretty accurate. 

Elon does some pretty amazing stuff, but he isn't sitting around at night trying to code a new global financial unit.  He thinks crypto is a neat little game but his attention goes toward making mankind a multi-planetary species.  The fact is that Elon probably knows less about crypto than many people on this board, but his knowledge of money and criticisms of Bitcoin are valid.  Bitcoin developers who think they know more about money than the richest person on earth should probably give themselves a reality check...

[Stedsm]

--snip--
Since no one mentioned Wei Dai, I will say that it is possible that he is Satoshi - although he has repeatedly denied this possibility. What we do know is that Satoshi was very familiar with the work of Wei Dai and contacted him several times while working on the project.
--snip--

I don't believe Satoshi could be Wei Dai because Satoshi could be his fan or disciple based on what the theory elaborated in your mentioned article, and it doesn't directly relates to Satoshi being him. However, this debate is a never-ending debate because even if Satoshi himself shows up some day but says that he lost the private key of his address where he's got his BTC, trust me nobody will believe even the real Satoshi Nakamoto to be him only and the debate will continue.

[ven7net]

Again Elon Musk introduces his agenda for discussion. But the question arises, is it very important to know who the creator of Bitcoin is, or are there more important questions? It is believed that Elon Musk is again taking the crypto message in a different direction, or simply, as already indicated above, to PR in order to be always relevant in the media. But still, how can information about who such Satoshi help the successful development of the crypto industry? But what if the received answer, on the contrary, makes the crypto industry worse? It's strange that no one thinks about it.

[Fortify]

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?

It's kind of nice to live in a world of (good) mysteries and if Satoshi wanted to make themselves known then they would have done so already. I'm sure if they're still alive they're getting more than enough pleasure from the the whole new financial world that they have spawned and the marvelous new uses of blockchain technology that are taking place every day. A decentralized currency is a powerful tool against oppressive governments and stands alongside free speech as something that every freedom loving person should allow and embrace. Writing comparison is a very powerful tool however, as we all write in certain ways that can be compared like a fingerprint - so that is pretty powerful evidence.

[Stalker22]

I personally don't care if it is Elon Musk or a random guy who says he thinks who Satoshi might be.

In the wording Musk did not say that he knows who Satosthi is, but only what he believes or considers most likely. And there was the name Nick Szabo. Of course, you could dismiss this as pure speculation, but maybe Elon Musk knows more than we do. However, as I already said, I personally don't believe that Szabo is Satoshi. But I guess everyone has their own opinion on that.

Not sure what to think about this whole Elon Musk/crypto thing. He may have a hidden agenda, but the guy does have a history of doing some odd things. Well, at least Musk didn't say Craig Wright was Satoshi. That has to count for something. I wonder if CSW will sue Musk for defamation? lol