There is controversy over whether Satoshi Nakamoto is currently the richest man in the world. According to Forbes' real-time billionaire rankings on June 1, 2024, Tesla's Elon Musk is the richest person in the world. However, if the price of Bitcoin increases significantly, Satoshi Nakamoto could become the richest man in the world. Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin holdings are huge. If the price of Bitcoin reaches $190,000, his wealth will increase significantly, and he may exceed becoming the world’s richest man.
But the most suspicious thing now is who is Satoshi Nakamoto?
The identity of Bitcoin founder "Satoshi Nakamoto" has always been a mystery.
Recently, HBO's latest documentary "Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery" was launched. Director Cullen Hoback identified the protagonist of the documentary, Canadian software developer Peter Todd, as "Satoshi Nakamoto", which triggered heated discussions in the currency circle.
In response, Peter Todd exclusively responded to the reporter of "Daily Economic News" on October 10, saying that he was not "Satoshi Nakamoto" and Hoback's identification was just to attract attention to the Bitcoin documentary.
In addition, Peter Todd also emphasized his concerns about personal safety in the interview. He said, "Being wrongly accused of having billions of dollars by (Cullen Hoback) will bring me risks." But he has not yet decided whether to take legal action to protect his own interests.
With the launch of the HBO documentary, transactions on the identity of the founder on the crypto gambling website Polymarket have become unusually active. The reporter of "Daily Economic News" noticed that at present, Nick Szabo, a 60-year-old American computer scientist and cryptographer, has become the most popular candidate for "Satoshi Nakamoto", with a probability of 12.8%. He proposed the concept of "decentralized" currency ten years before the birth of Bitcoin.
Analysis pointed out that the identity of "Satoshi Nakamoto" involves legal issues. If his identity is revealed, governments or regulators may try to talk to him to explore the legal status, taxation and role of Bitcoin in the global financial system.
In this 100-minute documentary, Karen Hobeck, director of "Electronic Currency: The Mystery of Bitcoin", interviewed several early players in the field of Bitcoin to explore the origin of Bitcoin and the identity of its creator "Satoshi Nakamoto".
As a conclusion, Hobeck hinted in the film that the true identity of "Satoshi Nakamoto" is Peter Todd, a Canadian software developer and currency expert, which caused a shock to public opinion.
"The reason why (Todd) used the name 'Satoshi Nakamoto' for anonymity is that he wanted people to take Bitcoin seriously and make people believe that it was created by a famous cryptographer, not a child who is still in school," Hobeck said in the documentary.
Hobeck said that he spent several years tracking down various information about the identity of "Satoshi Nakamoto" and finally determined that "Satoshi Nakamoto" was Todd. He cited Todd's 2010 Bitcoin forum post as evidence and determined that it was from "Satoshi Nakamoto".
Regarding Hobeck's statement, Todd responded exclusively to the reporter of "Daily Economic News" on October 10, emphasizing that he is not "Satoshi Nakamoto" and the so-called "evidence" mentioned by Hobeck is false.
For example, Hobeck mentioned that "Todd accidentally replied to himself as 'Satoshi Nakamoto', so he was exposed." In this regard, Todd said, "If he is really 'Satoshi Nakamoto', the easiest thing for him to do after being exposed is to just give up using that account, rather than changing the account name back to his real name."
Todd analyzed to reporters that "I think Hobeck's identification of me as 'Satoshi Nakamoto' is just a way to attract attention for his documentary."
He further mentioned that "During the production of the documentary, Karen interviewed him 4 to 5 times for many hours. Until the last interview, he did not give any impression of trying to find 'Satoshi Nakamoto'. He just introduced that he was trying to make a documentary about Bitcoin itself."
Regarding Hobeck's identification, Todd also emphasized to reporters his concerns about his personal safety. He said, "Being falsely accused of owning billions of dollars by (Hobeck) will bring me risks, and criminals will try to steal these wealth." But he has not yet decided whether to take legal action.
At the end of the interview, he emphasized to reporters again, "There is really nothing to say, I am not 'Satoshi'."
In an interview with foreign media, Hobeck said that he was not surprised that Todd denied that he was Satoshi Nakamoto: "Todd was there (interviewed) that day, he knew what we discussed, (if he was not 'Satoshi') he had every opportunity to explain on the spot."
It is reported that Todd is a Bitcoin core developer and cryptography expert, known for his contributions to the privacy, security and scalability of the Bitcoin network, and has an important position in blockchain technology and the Bitcoin development community.
Todd has participated in several improvement projects of the Bitcoin protocol, especially in terms of consensus protocols and transaction privacy. His views on Bitcoin and blockchain technology are relatively pragmatic and conservative, and he usually emphasizes the core principles of network security and decentralization.
In 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto, who claimed to be Japanese-American, published a white paper titled "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System", which described in detail how to use peer-to-peer networks to create an "electronic transaction system that does not rely on trust". In January of the following year, the Bitcoin network was launched.
By 2013, the price of Bitcoin ushered in a historic year. But in the same year, "Satoshi Nakamoto" mysteriously disappeared from the Internet. To this day, the true identity of "Satoshi Nakamoto" remains a mystery. In the process of communicating with the Bitcoin community, "Satoshi Nakamoto" provided very limited personal information, only saying that he was a Japanese-American living in Japan and was born on April 5, 1975.
As of press time, the price of Bitcoin has risen from the initial $0.0008 to more than $60,000, an appreciation of 76 million times, and the current total market value is $1.2 trillion. It is reported that "Satoshi Nakamoto" still holds about 1.1 million bitcoins, which is $68 billion.
In addition to Todd, who was exposed by the director of the HBO documentary, there are other speculations about the identity of "Satoshi Nakamoto".
Before the bets on the identity of "Satoshi Nakamoto" on the crypto gambling website Polymarket were closed, 60-year-old American computer scientist and cryptographer Nick Szabo surpassed HBO documentary producer Len Sassaman and became the most popular candidate for "Satoshi Nakamoto", with a probability of 12.8%.
It is reported that Nick Szabo has made great contributions to the blockchain field since the early 1990s. In 1998, he proposed a new form of currency called "Bit Gold" and claimed that it was "completely digital and solved the double payment problem through proof of work." This theory is 10 years earlier than the birth of Bitcoin.
In addition, the outside world believes that Nick Szabo's writing style and style in his book "Bitcoin: The Future of Money?" are highly similar to "Satoshi Nakamoto", and both have quoted economist Carl Menger. However, Szabo denied the rumors.
According to relevant reports, if the true identity of "Satoshi Nakamoto" is confirmed, then this discovery is tantamount to solving the biggest mystery on the Internet in the past decade. The Bitcoin network invented by "him" has triggered a multi-billion-dollar digital currency craze worldwide. This craze has promoted changes in the global financial field, but it has also led to widespread fraud and other illegal activities.
As a symbol of decentralization and personal privacy, Satoshi Nakamoto's anonymous identity represents an idea. If his identity is revealed, it may weaken this symbol, and the worst result may cause the community to split.
Therefore, we really don't need to pay too much attention to who Satoshi Nakamoto is. Because once we know who he is, Bitcoin may be devastated!
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