Theories about Satoshi
Bitcoin’s emergence as a store of value, gold’s successor as a hedge against inflation, and possible fiat replacement have left many wondering who its founder or, perhaps, founders are. The whole project seems too organized, coordinated, and highly scalable to be the thought process of one man, leaving many to believe the name Satoshi Nakamoto is a pseudonym to hide its many project workers. The project has birthed many other aspects: from trading platforms like Redot.com to crypto mining activities, and all these have cumulated in Bitcoin’s growth.
As bitcoin increases in value and popularity, several names have been linked with it. From Hal Finney, who had some early involvement with Satoshi himself, to Craig Wright, who, if not Satoshi, has done a great job trying to convince everyone that he is Satoshi Nakamoto, then there is Nick Szabo, who admittedly had an interest in a bitcoin-like protocol since 1998. He claimed only two people other than him had an interest in the idea; Wei Dai and Hal Finney. The claims are endless, with at least 6 other people being linked to Satoshi. Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto has also been called severally as the original Nakamoto only to deny it severally. Coincidentally, Nakamoto’s P2P Foundation account posted the evening of one such Nakamoto’s denial that they’ve got the wrong Satoshi.
There are some details we have from the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto. First, in a 2012 mail, he said that he is a 37-year-old man living in Japan. Though his messages’ timing analysis revealed he couldn’t have lived in Japan, his age shows he is not yet 50 years old. If this is anything to go by, then many of the people linked with Bitcoin are already disqualified, but if he lied about living in Japan, who says he didn’t lie with his age?
Latest possible claim
Recently, Gerald Votta, who is a director of Quantum Economics’ at popular research institute; GameFi research, claims he has a full grasp of who Satoshi Nakamoto is. The ‘new Satoshi’ has some overwhelming similarities to Satoshi Nakamoto .everyone looks for and it is shocking that despite he being in front of us, we have gone to believe self-acclaimed satoshis. Being the first person to comment on bitcoin’s white paper in 2008 shows that if he isn’t the bitcoin’s creator, he has some very early connections with him. Suppose you have ever read the bitcoin white paper. In that case, you’ll understand that it is impossible to finish reading it in under three minutes, which happens to be the timeframe from when Satoshi posted the white paper and James A. Donald’s question. This timing called for some scrutiny, and Gerald Votta had the time for just that. A further analysis into who James A. Donald’s life revealed there might be just so much similarity between him and bitcoin’s founder for him not to be Satoshi.
James Donald’s understanding of the law, cryptography, economics, programming, and history showed vast similarities to Satoshi’s knowledge of these subjects, which are subtly imputed in his letters. Rumors ensued on a similar claim that was made in 2014 after an online platform post by Bruno Kucinskas on bitcointalk explained that the response was too fast not to be Satoshi. Still, all these were quenched with the consensus that Donald had some contact with Satoshi before he posted the white paper. Bruno Kucinskas didn’t have the resources to pursue his claim further, or perhaps he just gave up on it. Still, Gerald Votta of Quantum Economics took this research further by seeing one of James Donald’s creations, Crypto Kong, which uses cryptographic curves to sign documents electronically. The basis for the crypto kong shared many similarities with bitcoin and the logo, which showed a kong holding a digital signature similar to the one he sent to Satoshi up to the 34th character.
Perhaps the question on your mind is that why would Satoshi chat with himself using two different accounts? We believe it is to create a contrarian view on bitcoin.
Both James Donald and Satoshi also have a good command of English, especially North American English, and their use of the word “Chaumian.” which Satoshi used in 2009 but Donald used in August 2003 to respond to an email about Digicash.
Is it really valid?
There are undoubtedly some pieces of evidence to support James Donald’s personality being strikingly similar to that of Satoshi Nakamoto. Perhaps, more convincing than most of the other people on the list of theories about the identity of Satoshi. The main point to watch now is “who is James Donald?’ nothing much is known of who he is or what he looks like leading the chase for Satoshi’s identity to another dead end. James Donald is another anonymous personality, and it makes sense why Satoshi would want to use another anonymous personality to hide his real self. The implications for knowing Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity will prove both positive and negative. Why we still find answers to ‘Who is Satoshi?’, lets look at some implications of his unveiling
- Satoshi has a lot of unspent bitcoins, which is still unknown how they will be introduced to the market without tipping the balance of the market. His current network will be north of 50 billion dollars, ranking him high on the list of the world’s richest men.
- It is unclear if Satoshi is really alive or isn’t interested in making a profit for himself, seeing that he would be one of the biggest gainers on the token when it increased to $67,000 per token a while ago. If he isn’t and decides to burn the tokens instead, it could push the bitcoin price to double its current price as there will be more demand for the available bitcoins.
- Governments are not comfortable around bitcoin disrupting how they’ve handled their respective nations’ economic and financial interests. China has made its stand clear, but the United States and many European countries are cagey about cryptocurrencies. Lots of awe and government lawsuits will meet Satoshi Nakamoto’s appearance. It could potentially put paid to bitcoin, so he is better off enjoying the secrecy of anonymity.
If truly James Donald is Satoshi, the next logical task is finding out who James Donald is. Before then, we will enjoy bitcoin trading and exploring the possibilities of the DeFi space.
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