Satoshi

Satoshi Nakamoto

Bitcoin

would

<p>Benjamin Wallace has an amusingly direct way of trying to solve the identity of Bitcoins creator in his book <em>The Mysterious Mr Nakamoto.<br><br></em>He just asks every possible candidate: Are you Satoshi Nakamoto?</p>
<p>I still didnt rule out the possibility that Nakamoto was frustrated no one had bothered to simply ask him, Wallace writes.</p>
<p>It seems like every other week, theres another newspaper investigation, documentary or nonfiction book promising to unmask Satoshi.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Two years ago, I waded into those waters myself by attempting to answer a long-running conspiracy theory about whether Bitcoin was, in fact, <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/big-questions-did-the-nsa-create-bitcoin/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">a lab leak</a> by the US National Security Agency, devised during one of the most turbulent economic times in modern history.</p>
<p>Speaking to a former NSA cryptanalyst while piecing together flakes of so-called evidence, my queries ultimately concluded with the same meandering answer that every Satoshi-conspiracy buff (read Nakamologist) arrives at maybe, maybe not.&nbsp;</p>
<p>[Spoiler Alert!]<br><br>And after 15 years of investigative journalism condensed into 340 pages, <em>The Mysterious Mr Nakamoto</em> also leaves the riddle unsolved.</p>
<p>But Wallace also believes theres value and romantic allure in a mystery and that if we ever find out who invented Bitcoin, whatever the answer is will most likely be a letdown.&nbsp;</p>
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<p>One of the things that really struck me, as I studied similar past mysteries and their resolutions, is how often the unknown is more interesting than the known, Wallace tells Magazine.</p>
<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
 <p>Solving the Satoshi Nakamoto mystery in a clear-cut way would have given me puzzle-solving pleasure, and journalistic satisfaction [] But I always felt that the information itself might provoke a shrug.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="em-the-mysterious-mr-nakamoto-em-book-review"><em>The Mysterious Mr Nakamoto</em> book review</h2>
<p>Sometimes getting there is half the fun, and Wallaces journey is a fascinating one, taking him around the world from Bitcoin meet-ups in midtown Manhattan, an unkempt bungalow in Australias Sunshine State, to a cryonics facility in the desert state of Arizona, as he searches for the person (or people) who created Bitcoin.</p>
<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-large is-resized">
 <img width="1024" height="615" src="https://s3.magazine.cointelegraph.com/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/cropped-Satoshi_193-scaled-1-1536x922-1-1024x615.jpg" alt="Mysterious Mr Nakamoto author: Finding Satoshi would hurt Bitcoin" style="width: 100%">
 <figcaption>
  <em>Satoshi Nakamoto is a modern-day deity representing financial freedom (and Lambo money). Source: </em><a href="https://www.statueofsatoshi.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"><em>Statue of Satoshi</em></a>
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</figure>
<p>Wallace uniquely uses a combination of text and code stylometry (a computer-assisted method to detect similarities in writing/ coding style) and circumstantial evidence to narrow down his suspects.</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="to-be-or-not-to-be-bitcoins-creator">To be or not to be Bitcoins creator</h2>
<p>Amateur Nakamologists will be familiar with some of the content, and Wallace spends considerable time dissecting and mulling over the usual suspects, none of which he comes to a hard conclusion about.&nbsp;</p>
<p>One of these is the late <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/learn/hal-finney" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Hal Finney</a>, an American computer scientist who received the first-ever Bitcoin transaction. But Wallace doesnt just recount the familiar story he actually managed to chat with the legendary Bitcoiner on emails before a rare neurodegenerative disease took his life in 2014, and Finney was cryogenically frozen.</p>
<p>Finney and his family have repeatedly denied that he is behind Bitcoin.&nbsp;</p>
<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full">
 <img width="800" height="449" src="https://s3.magazine.cointelegraph.com/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Alcor-tubes.jpg" alt="Mysterious Mr Nakamoto author: Finding Satoshi would hurt Bitcoin">
 <figcaption>
  <em>Finneys body is now cryogenically frozen, waiting for the day doctors can revive him. Perhaps we can ask him again then. Source: </em><a href="https://x.com/AlcorCryonics/status/1783218135820083574" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"><em>Alcor Life Extension Foundation</em></a>
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<p>The book picks up speed after Wallace introduces <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/nick-szabo-bitcoin-hbo-satoshi-nakamoto" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Nick Szabo</a>, another famous computer scientist and blockchain pioneer, who gets considerable coverage due to his 1998 Bit gold proposal, widely seen as a precursor to Bitcoin, but weirdly left out of Satoshi Nakamotos white paper, almost on purpose. (Nakamoto later acknowledged Szabos bit gold proposal in a forum post.)</p>
<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
 <p>In Hungary, Nicks name would be Szabo Nikolas, and in Japan it would be, lets say Szaboshi Nickamoto.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There are countless other names that Wallace floats so many that I finish the book with a gnawing hope that maybe hes brushed past the answer without knowing it, and that Satoshis real name lies in the pages of this book.&nbsp;</p>
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<p>Wallace, however, tells Magazine it could be someone weve never heard of.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The process of researching this book made me much more open to the possibility that Satoshi is someone weve never heard of, such as an ex-cypherpunk who went on to work for the NSA and created Bitcoin as a personal side project, he says.&nbsp;</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="should-you-read-em-the-mysterious-mr-nakamoto-em">Should you read <em>The Mysterious Mr Nakamoto</em>?</h2>
<p>Just like when fictional super detective Sherlock Holmes shows hes not an infallible crime-solving machine (he <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/SherlockHolmes/comments/oygxjg/failures_of_sherlock_holmes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">failed</a> to solve four cases out of 60), Wallace can also be forgiven for being unable to crack cryptos most persistent mystery.</p>
<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full">
 <img width="800" height="474" src="https://s3.magazine.cointelegraph.com/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Nick-Szabo.jpg" alt="Mysterious Mr Nakamoto author: Finding Satoshi would hurt Bitcoin">
 <figcaption>
  <em>Picture of one of Wallaces main suspects, Nick Szabo, speaking on the sidelines of a conference in Switzerland nine years ago. (</em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXCOfTteQAo" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"><em>YouTube</em></a>)
 </figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Wallace does arrive at a conclusion about Satoshis identity, however. He argues that Bitcoin is now larger than Satoshi Nakamoto and that <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/hbo-documentary-peter-todd-satoshi-nakamoto" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">unveiling Nakamoto</a> as anything other than a faceless benevolent deity will probably only hurt Bitcoin, which is currently sitting on a $2.24 trillion market cap.</p>
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Mysterious Mr Nakamoto author: Finding Satoshi would hurt Bitcoin

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