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In 2008, computer programmer Satoshi Nakamoto created the digital currency Bitcoin and made history.
Last updated Feb 22, 2023 at 04:35 PM
Posted Oct 28, 2017 at 02:15 AM
In 2008, computer programmer Satoshi Nakamoto created the digital currency Bitcoin and made history. But who is this enigmatic persona, one who worths today more than $5 billion?
Well, that’s one of the biggest mysteries in the technology world because nobody knows who Satoshi Nakamoto is and even if this pseudonym represents a man, a woman, or even a group of people.
Since the cryptocurrency was created in 2008, no one has been able to figure out who Nakamoto really is. But if someday people find out this well-kept secret, it could have an immense impact on Bitcoin’s economics and internal politics.
Nine years have passed since Nakamoto published a nine-page white paper containing the first-ever mention of bitcoin, calling it a “peer-to-peer electronic cash system.” Seeing the potential, Satoshi released bitcoin’s first software just a few months later and ensured a partnership with developers and coders.
Then, in 2011, Nakamoto simply vanished, leaving an email to a fellow Bitcoin developer saying it had “moved on to other things.” But the genius mastermind behind Bitcoin didn’t leave empty-handed.
According to CNBC, Sergio Demian Lerner, an Argentine researcher, has estimated that Nakamoto accumulated around a million bitcoins before disappearing, an amount that today would worth over $5 billion.
“The thing about bitcoin is if you control a million of them, you have the ability to flood the market at any point. Think of them as rare baseball cards. They’re valuable because they’re rare. If somebody could dump hundreds or thousands of Mickey Mantle trading cards, rare ones, onto the market, they wouldn’t be worth so much anymore,” said Matt Green, a cryptocurrency professor at Johns Hopkins University. Having five percent of the entire cryptocurrency, Satoshi Nakamoto has to power to deeply influence the market.
And he could worth even more in the future. Kay Van-Petersen, a Saxo Bank analyst, believes that Bitcoin could hit $100,000 by 2027.