Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?

“I’ve shifted (my energy) to other things.”   Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious creator of Bitcoin, wrote in an email in April 2011. Since then, there has been little information about him (except for a few, but most of them are considered hoaxes). No one has ever seen him, and there are no photos of him, even though he controls a Bitcoin wallet with 1 million Bitcoins (currently worth nearly $400 million). So who is the mysterious creator of Bitcoin technology?

Most books about Bitcoin have a chapter about who Satoshi Nakamoto is. Each book has its own theory, often based on the same sources. Some think he was British (because of his use of Britishisms, such as the phrase "bloody hard"). Others think he was from the East Coast of America (because of his email timestamps). He has been variously identified as a Finnish sociologist, a Japanese mathematician, and an Irish student. The most commonly mentioned identities are Nick Szabo and Hal Finney, two American cryptographers, but the former has denied the claim and the latter died in 2014. Last March, Newsweek magazine confirmed that an elderly man living in California named Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto was Satoshi Nakamoto, but it turned out to be an embarrassing rumor. Then there is the idea that Nakamoto's Bitcoin code was so good that it must have been written by multiple people.

Speculation about Satoshi’s identity will likely continue, as will other evergreen topics, such as who killed JFK or whether Elvis is still alive. A more interesting question is whether Satoshi’s absence is a good thing for Bitcoin. Whether or not this was planned, Satoshi’s disappearance is as remarkable as the technology he created in 2008. Not only does this disappearance generate sustained publicity, it also leaves Bitcoin with a powerful creation myth that helps the currency attract followers and gain momentum. It proves that a monetary system does not require a central bank or a leader. It also makes the project less vulnerable to attack: if Satoshi had chosen to stay in the community, or even create a startup to manage his creation, he would have become a target for all kinds of attacks, just like the founders of Napster, the first P2P music sharing service.

In recent months, however, the absence of Bitcoin’s creator has become a serious drawback. In Bitcoin’s early days, Satoshi Nakamoto made important decisions about how to improve the system’s software, by making the project open source. But Bitcoin grew so fast that its developer community couldn’t agree on major decisions, lacking a benevolent dictator. Now, they may be headed for a split: The two camps are locked in an ugly fight over how to scale the system. If they can’t resolve the disagreement, some worry that the digital currency could split into two incompatible versions. Unsurprisingly, calls are already being made for Satoshi Nakamoto to return. But it may be too late: even if someone were to show up claiming to be the crypto prophet, would people really trust him? If Satoshi Nakamoto were a real person, the world of Bitcoin would lose a lot of its magic.

－－－－

Original article: http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2015/11/economist-explains-1
Author: economist
Compiled by: Satuoxi
Editor: Satuoxi
Source (translation): Babbitt Information