Satoshi Nakamoto

The penname known as the “inventor” of Bitcoin.

The name was indeed a penname, or an online identity. Nobody actually knows who it is. In fact, it might not be a single person at all, but instead a group of people. All we know is that the original Bitcoin whitepaper was posted online using an online identity called “Satoshi Nakamoto”.

There has been a lot of speculation and investigation on who this actually is. In many cases, those theories remain only that – theories. Many have denied being Satoshi. In some cases, people have claimed to be Satoshi but are generally disbelieved because they think the person is just trying to gain notoriety.

It is actually quite the interesting story. And it might seem very odd to some that nobody truly knows who invented Bitcoin. But, the way I see it, it’s  better this way.

After all, if you want a truly decentralized, worldwide currency like Bitcoin, it remains much more decentralized if nobody “owns” it and there is no single identity that you can point to as the creator. Not to mention that the nature of Bitcoin can (and likely will) upset the power structure of many governments. This, alone, could make the creator of Bitcoin a potential target of numerous governments.