3 October 2023
The true identity of Bitcoin’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, has continued to be debated, with many speculating who Nakamoto might be. The debate has become more fueled by an old email and a tweet that suggests that the ‘real’ Nakamoto is still far from being identified.
Bitcoin Creator Correspondence With Wei Dei
An email correspondence between Satoshi Nakamoto and B-money founder Wei Dei has resurfaced. In the email (dated August 22, 2008), Nakamoto mentioned his interest in Dei’s B-money and noted the similarities between B-money and Bitcoin as he planned to release a paper that would expand Dei’s ideas into a “complete working system.”
Indeed, one could rightly point out that B-money and Satoshi’s Bitcoin share similarities, as the former was proposed by Dei in 1998 to be an “anonymous, distributed electronic cash system.” Interestingly, to make this work, Dei had proposed a proof-of-work protocol to make his B-money idea a reality and Bitcoin happens to run on a proof-of-work consensus mechanism.
In the email, Nakamoto told Dei that Adam Back (who happens to have pioneered the proof-of-work system) was the one who drew his attention to the similarities between B-money and Bitcoin.
The email has again led many to speculate whether or not Dei and Back may be letting more than they know, considering that they were one of the first persons Nakamoto reached out to concerning Bitcoin.
However, Back has mentioned in the past that he doesn’t know Nakamoto personally as the Bitcoin creator only reached out to him in an email (just the same way he reached out to Dei).
Alleged Satoshi Nakamoto X Account Surfaces
Meanwhile, a tweet from Nakomoto’s alleged X account surfaced on October 2 (the same day Ager-Hanssen revealed the email between Ayre and Wright). In the tweet, the handler revealed that different aspects not explicitly contained within Bitcoin’s whitepaper would be explored in the following months.
This tweet likely refers to the fact that Bitcoin has long been considered as only a store of value and wasn’t meant for other uses like Decentralized Finance (DeFi) or to host NFTs (non-fungible tokens).
While such news will usually be bullish for the Bitcoin ecosystem, many were more concerned if these tweets were indeed from the real Satoshi Nakamoto. Community notes also highlighted that the account was controlled by Craig Wright, who has been “proven to be a fraud” and should not be trusted.
Specifically, an influencer in the XRP community, Edward Farina, noted that the account was verified, meaning the handler had likely gone through a KYC verification. Therefore, it is “clearly” not the real Satoshi but someone looking for “X payout,” he stated.