Satoshi Nakamoto

Satoshi Nakamoto is the pseudonym given to the creator or creators of bitcoin. (the identity is still unknown). One of their notable achievements include, the paper, Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. It is important to note that cryptocurrency was not a new idea at the time, however Satoshi addressed a very significant issue. 

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Unlike the US dollar, crypto currency is not a physical object. If someone spends the coin on a transaction, it does not mean it is removed from their possession. Hence, the problem of “double-spending” emerges. “Nakamoto proposed a decentralized approach for transactions using ledgers, a network, Merkle roots and trees, timestamps, incentives, cryptography, and a consensus mechanism.” “The encrypted data cannot be changed but must be validated. The network must verify the authenticity of the transactions based on a majority consensus mechanism called proof-of-work.” This is the first instance of a practical application of the blockchain technology.

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Not much is known about the origin of Satoshi Nakamoto. Though many people have claimed to be the founder of bitcoin,  few notable stands out above the rest.

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Craig Wright

In December 2015, two separate magazines, Wired and Gizmodo, published articles inviting the idea that Craig was the inventor of Bitcoin. These articles were later retracted by the publishers when  inconsistencies in the evidence supporting the notion that Craig Wright is Satoshi Nakamoto came to light . Wright filed for U.S. copyright on the Bitcoin white paper and was awarded the copyright in April 2019. It is important to mention that anyone can file for copyright.

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Hal Finney

Hal Finney was computer scientist, who received the first bitcoin from Satoshi himself in 2009. Some assumes that Finney is Satoshi because Finney simply could have sent the bitcoin to himself.  Finney reportedly was the first person to have downloaded Bitcoin’s software and worked on debugging and improving the open sourced code.  However he stopped mining after a couple weeks. We may never know the answer because Hal Finney sadly passed away at the age of 58 in 2014.

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At the end, whether Nakamoto is an individual or a group of people, that really is not important. What matters most is the fact that the "entity" has paved the way to one of the key technological innovation in modern times. Bitcoin and the underlying blockchain technology not only shook up the financial services world since its inception, but has since made broader impact in other industries like retail and logistic.