Chronology Satoshi Nakamoto

The Great Enigma: Satoshi Nakamoto

Satoshi Nakamoto is the name that underpins the entire cryptocurrency revolution, yet their true identity remains one of the greatest and most consequential mysteries of the digital age.

This pseudonym belongs to the individual or group responsible for authoring the 2008 Bitcoin White Paper.

"Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System," and subsequently releasing the first Bitcoin software client in 2009.

The Known Digital Footprint (2008–2010)

The public knowledge about Satoshi is derived entirely from their online communications, spanning a few key years:

• The White Paper (October 2008): The formal introduction of the concept, defining a novel solution to the "double-spending problem" via a peer-to-peer network and a cryptographically secured chain of timestamped records (the blockchain).
• The Launch (January 2009): Satoshi mined the first block, the "Genesis Block," which contained a message: "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks." This clearly indicated the philosophical, anti-central-bank stance and historical context of Bitcoin's creation.
• Development and Correspondence (2009–2010): For roughly two years, Satoshi collaborated directly with a small group of open-source developers, notably Gavin Andresen and Hal Finney (the recipient of the first Bitcoin transaction). They communicated primarily via email and the Bitcointalk forum, guiding the project's early development, fixing bugs, and articulating the core design principles.

During this period, subtle linguistic and behavioral clues emerged:

• Language: Satoshi’s use of British English spellings (e.g., "colour," "grey," "maths") and phrases (e.g., "bloody hard") has led to speculation of a Commonwealth or UK origin.
• Timeline: Analysis of the timestamps on their emails and forum posts suggests a pattern of activity that avoided certain periods, particularly those corresponding to late nights/early mornings in the UK and Eastern US time zones. This could suggest they were active in a European time zone, or were deliberately obfuscating their working hours.
• Code Quality: Developers working with the code noted its exceptional quality, leading some, like security researcher Dan Kaminsky, to conclude Satoshi was either "a team of people" or "a genius."

The Theories: Single Person, Cypherpunk Group, or Corporation?

The identity of Satoshi is highly debated, generally falling into three main categories:

1)

• A Single Person: This theory posits a gifted cryptographer/coder who intentionally sought anonymity. Prominent candidates include:
• Nick Szabo: A computer scientist and cryptographer known for developing "Bit Gold," a decentralized currency precursor, whose writing style and technical interests align closely with Bitcoin's design.
• Hal Finney: A renowned cypherpunk and the first person to run the Bitcoin software and receive a transaction. He strongly denied being Satoshi.
• Others: Various individuals, including Dorian Nakamoto (who was incorrectly identified by Newsweek in 2014) and Craig Wright (who has repeatedly and controversially claimed the title, though his claims have been widely discredited or legally rejected).

2)

• A Group of People: Given the complexity of the code, the broad expertise required (cryptography, distributed systems, economics), and the volume of work, many believe Satoshi Nakamoto is a collective pseudonym for a small team of developers or cypherpunks. This would explain the high-quality, multifaceted nature of the project.

3)

• A Company/Government Entity: While less popular in the community, some have speculated that the project required the resources of a private company or even a state actor. However, the cypherpunk ethos and decentralized structure of Bitcoin argue strongly against this, as the project's entire philosophy is against central control.

The Final Disappearance (Late 2010 – Early 2011)

Satoshi's withdrawal was as sudden and mysterious as their appearance.

- December 2010: This marks the end of Satoshi's regular public communication on the BitcoinTalk forum

.

- A Crucial E-mail (April 2011): Satoshi's final known contact was an email sent to Gavin Andresen, stating they had "moved on to other things" and that the project was "in good hands" with the current developers. Satoshi specifically entrusted Andresen with the source code repository's alert key.

- The Goal of Anonymity: The immediate cessation of contact, leaving behind an estimated one million Bitcoins (which have never been spent), strongly suggests a strategic decision to protect the project's decentralization. By disappearing, Satoshi ensured that no single, identifiable figurehead could be legally targeted, bribed, or pressured to compromise the network, forcing Bitcoin to become truly autonomous and leaderless.

The enduring mystery of Satoshi Nakamoto reinforces the revolutionary nature of Bitcoin: a powerful, self-sustaining financial network created by an anonymous figure who valued the integrity of the system more than personal fame or vast wealth.

Satoshi Nakamoto is the name used by the presumed pseudonymous person or persons who developed bitcoin, authored the bitcoin white paper, and created and deployed bitcoin's original reference implementation. As part of the implementation, Nakamoto also devised the first blockchain database.In the process, Nakamoto was the first to solve the double-spending problem for digital currency using a peer-to-peer network.

2008

August,18 Domain name bitcoin.org registered

Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper
Satoshi Nakamoto satoshi at vistomail.com
Fri Oct 31 14:10:00 EDT 2008
Previous message: Fw: SHA-3 lounge
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I've been working on a new electronic cash system that's fully
peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party.

The paper is available at:
http://www.bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

The main properties:
Double-spending is prevented with a peer-to-peer network.
No mint or other trusted parties.
Participants can be anonymous.
New coins are made from Hashcash style proof-of-work.
The proof-of-work for new coin generation also powers the
network to prevent double-spending.

Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System

https://www.metzdowd.com/pipermail/cryptography/2008-October/014810.html

Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System

November, 09 Bitcoin project registered at SourceForge.net

2009 

January 3 Genesis block established at 18:15:05 GMT

P2P foundation
Bitcoin open source implementation of P2P currency
Posted by Satoshi Nakamoto on February 11, 2009 at 22:27

I've developed a new open source P2P e-cash system called Bitcoin. It's completely decentralized, with no central server or trusted parties, because everything is based on crypto proof instead of trust. Give it a try, or take a look at the screenshots and design paper:

Download Bitcoin v0.1 at http://www.bitcoin.org

The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that's required to make it work. The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust. Banks must be trusted to hold our money and transfer it electronically, but they lend it out in waves of credit bubbles with barely a fraction in reserve. We have to trust them with our privacy, trust them not to let identity thieves drain our accounts. Their massive overhead costs make micropayments impossible.

http://p2pfoundation.ning.com/forum/topics/bitcoin-open-source

BitcoinTalk
Welcome to the new Bitcoin forum!
2009-11-22 18:04:28 UTC - Original Post - View in Thread

Welcome to the new Bitcoin forum!

The old forum can still be reached here:
http://bitcoin.sourceforge.net/boards/index.php

I'll repost some selected threads here and add updated answers to questions where I can.

FAQ
http://bitcoin.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php?page=FAQ

Download
http://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/files/

https://www.bitcoinbtc.pro/2021/01/bitcoin-forum.html

Jan-12-2009 Block 170 First transaction Bitcoin: Satoshi Nakamoto sent 10 BTC to Hal Finney.

Jan-10-2009 Hal Finney, the first Bitcoin user after Satoshi Nakamoto,
publishes the following message on his Twitter account: Running Bitcoin 

2010

Dec-13-2010 Satoshi last message on the Bitcointalk