Will the Real Satoshi Nakamoto, Please Stand Up

A judge overseeing a legal battle about who invented Bitcoin has ruled that it is not Australian computer scientist Craig Wright.  The question had been examined in a five week trial at the High Court. The judge, Mr. Justice Mellor, made his ruling as soon as the proceedings had concluded.  He had been expected to retire to consider the case but said he was able to reach a decision so quickly because the “evidence was overwhelming”.  So the identity of the person or people who invented Bitcoin remains unknown, other than they go by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto.  Dr. Wright, who is from Australia, has claimed to be Satoshi since 2016, but his claims and evidence to back them up have long been questioned by cryptocurrency experts.  He has been in and out of court for years in legal battles with individuals who challenged his story.  For self-publicists, using Nakamoto’s name is a surefire way of provoking curiosity.  British-­American businessman John McAfee announced he would expose Nakamoto’s true identity, only to back down shortly afterwards.  A company connected to the brother of drug lord Pablo Escobar, Roberto de Jesus Escobar Gaviria, has registered the Bitcoin trademark. A coloring book and a book of illustrations are both due to be published under Nakamoto’s name.  Chinese entrepreneur Wei Liu registered the copyright for the original Bitcoin white paper, “just to let people know anyone can register a copyright.  Everyone can be Satoshi Nakamoto”.  Even the person with the strongest claim, Australian computer scientist Craig Wright, who was outed as Nakamoto by Wired magazine in 2015 and later said it was true, is now considered to be simply another Faketoshi.  For a while it was thought that Steve Jobs of Apple fame was the real Satoshi Nakamoto.  Bitcoin is the world’s best known cryptocurrency – and has very recently captured the headlines after surging to a new record high valuation of $73,835.57 per bitcoin but just nosedived slipping to $61,000+.  

To create a Bitcoin, a procedure called “mining” must take place, which involves a computer solving a difficult mathematical problem with a 64-digit solution.  For each problem solved, one block of Bitcoins is processed and the miner is rewarded with new Bitcoins.  There are currently about 15 million Bitcoins in existence.  To receive a Bitcoin, a user must have a Bitcoin address – a string of 27-34 letters and numbers – which acts as a kind of virtual post-box to and from which the Bitcoins are sent.  Since there is no registry of these addresses, people can use them to protect their anonymity when making a transaction.  These addresses are in turn stored in Bitcoin wallets, which are used to manage savings.  They operate like privately run bank accounts – with the proviso that if the data is lost, so are the Bitcoins owned.  It is suggested that at least 2 million of these Bitcoins have been lost forever.  There can only be 21 million Bitcoins in existence, hence the value being placed on them.