Journalists have named the possible creator of Bitcoin
It has been 17 years since the publication of the nine-page document that launched the world’s first cryptocurrency. Over this time, Bitcoin has evolved from an experiment into a vital part of the financial system, yet the identity of its creator, known by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, remains unknown.
Journalist John Carreiro has been researching this topic for over a year, analysing thousands of old online publications. With the help of journalist Dylan Friedman, a dataset was compiled which, according to the study’s findings, points to the British cryptographer Adam Back, aged 55. Adam Back himself has denied being Satoshi, dismissing such conclusions as coincidences, reports the NY Times.
The article notes that Adam Back had previously formulated most of the ideas that were later used in Bitcoin. Like Satoshi, he was a member of the Cypherpunks movement, which emerged in the early 1990s and brought together advocates of using cryptography to protect against state control and censorship.
In correspondence with Cypherpunks members in the late 1990s, Adam Back proposed creating electronic money that would allow users to avoid state interference in financial transactions. He described a decentralised network of computers that could function even in the event of attempts to seize control. A similar principle was later implemented in Bitcoin.
Adam Back also created the Hashcash system and proposed combining it with another movement member’s concept of b-money. According to the study, it was precisely this model that Satoshi Nakamoto later used.
The authors of the article highlight a number of similarities between Adam Back and Satoshi. These include the same field of specialisation, the use of the same programming languages, and experience in securing computer networks. Both also worked with public-key cryptography, which is used in Bitcoin.
Separately, the article mentions shared approaches to combating spam, as well as the use of anonymity online and pseudonyms. The article notes that both Adam Back and Satoshi described themselves as better programmers than writers.
Attention is also drawn to temporal coincidences. Following the emergence of Bitcoin in late 2008, Adam Back’s activity in discussions about electronic money ceased. In 2011, Satoshi Nakamoto disappeared, and six weeks later, Adam Back spoke publicly about Bitcoin for the first time.
Journalists also analysed the writing style. A database was created from the archives of three online mailing lists where Cypherpunks members communicated, and this was compared with Satoshi’s texts. In three separate analyses, the closest match was found with Adam Back’s texts.
Distinctive writing characteristics include double spaces between sentences, the use of British spellings, specific spellings of certain terms, and identical linguistic features. According to the analysis, only Adam Back met all these criteria.
Read the full investigation here.
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