Satoshi Nakamoto is the alias of the shadowy creator of the virtual coins, but there has been a long-running debate about who that person actually is.
Bitcoin is a decentralised digital currency, meaning neither does it exist in the physical world, nor does it have a central bank such as the Federal Reserve.
The value of Bitcoin has soared in recent months, reaching the $10,000 mark on Tuesday. Bitcoin’s value has increased exponentially this year and has jumped by 20 per cent in the last three days alone. There are also a finite number of bitcoins in the world, according to Bitcoin.org.
Only 21 million bitcoins exist but this is not seen as a limitation because bitcoins can be broken down into smaller sub-units of bits with 1,000,000 bits in 1 bitcoin. Bitcoins can be divided up to 8 decimal places (0.000 000 01) and potentially even smaller units. The Bitcoin whitepaper was made open to the public under the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto. Tesla chief, Elon Musk denied being Satoshi Nakamoto after responded to a blog post circulating on several crypto-currency sites that he was the owner. There have been several people claiming to be Nakamoto.
In December 2013, a blogger named Skye Grey linked computer scientist Nick Szabo to the Bitcoin whitepaper, however, Szabo has denied being Satoshi. Australian entrepreneur Craig Wright told the BBC in May 2016 that he was the creator of the controversial digital currency. The BBC said Wright gave technical proof supporting his claim to using bitcoins known to be owned by Bitcoin’s creator. However, Wright failed to deliver on his promise to provide proof of his identity and subsequently he deleted his blog and replaced it with an apology saying that he did not have the courage to continue to try to prove his case. A Newsweek journalist identified Californian resident Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto, whose birth name is Satoshi Nakamoto, as the man behind Bitcoin. However, Dorian Nakamoto denied all connection to bitcoin, saying he had never heard of the currency before. Forbes journalist Andy Greenberg said that computer scientist Hal Finney may have been a ghostwriter on behalf of Nakamoto.
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