Satoshi Nakamoto
Satoshi Nakamoto
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Full Name and Common Aliases
Satoshi Nakamoto is the pseudonymous name used by an individual(s) who created the Bitcoin protocol as well as bitcoin.org, its online presence. The true identity of Nakamoto has remained unknown, but their contributions to the world of cryptocurrency have been profound.
Birth and Death Dates
Nakamoto's birthdate and death date are not publicly known, nor is any information regarding their personal life available due to their use of a pseudonym.
Nationality and Profession(s)
While the true nationality of Nakamoto is unknown, their work suggests that they were likely familiar with computer science and cryptography. The profession attributed to them by the broader community is computer scientist or cryptographer, but this is speculative in nature.
Early Life and Background
Not much is known about Satoshi Nakamoto's early life. It is believed that they began working on Bitcoin in 2007, but there are no concrete details regarding their background or personal experiences that may have shaped their vision for the cryptocurrency. Their first recorded involvement with the project was through a posting on The Cryptography Mailing List at metzdowd.com, where Nakamoto proposed the idea of a new form of electronic cash.
Major Accomplishments
Satoshi Nakamoto is credited as the founder of Bitcoin, and their work in creating the protocol has had far-reaching implications for the world of finance. The most notable achievements attributed to them include:
Designing the first blockchain: A decentralized ledger technology that enables secure, peer-to-peer transactions without the need for intermediaries.
Creating the concept of proof-of-work: A consensus mechanism that secures the network by requiring participants to solve complex mathematical puzzles.
Notable Works or Actions
Some notable works and actions attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto include:
Publishing the Bitcoin whitepaper: "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System" was first published in 2008, outlining the principles behind the new currency.
Launching the Bitcoin network: The first block of the Bitcoin blockchain was mined on January 3, 2009, marking the official launch of the network.
Impact and Legacy
Satoshi Nakamoto's creation has had a profound impact on the world. The decentralized nature of blockchain technology has enabled new financial systems, while also sparking innovations in various fields such as supply chain management and voting systems. Their work continues to inspire research and development in these areas.
Why They Are Widely Quoted or Remembered
Nakamoto's contributions have led to their widespread recognition within the cryptocurrency community. The quotes from them that are often referenced today include:
"The root problem when society is based on fiat currency (I'll exclude the possiblity of commodity based currency or any kind of resource-based wealth) with no observable/computable objective measure of output, is that some one can be enforced first. Unfortunately what usually happens in this case is that might makes right and a monopolistic tyrany often ensues."
"The only way to make it happen, though, is if people start really using this thing."
These quotes demonstrate Nakamoto's concern for the potential misuse of power and their vision for a more decentralized system.
Quotes by Satoshi Nakamoto
Once the latest transaction in a coin is buried under enough blocks, the spent transactions before it can be discarded to save disk space. To facilitate this without breaking the block’s hash, transactions are hashed in a Merkle Tree, with only the root included in the block’s hash. Old blocks can then be compacted by stubbing off branches of the tree. The interior hashes do not need to be stored.
Bitcoin addresses you generate are kept forever. A bitcoin address must be kept to show ownership of anything sent to it. If you were able to delete a bitcoin address and someone sent to it, the money would be lost.
It is strictly necessary that the longest chain is always considered the valid one.
Total circulation will be 21,000,000 coins. It’ll be distributed to network nodes when they make blocks, with the amount cut in half every 4 years. first 4 years: 10,500,000 coins next 4 years: 5,250,000 coins next 4 years: 2,625,000 coins next 4 years: 1,312,500 coins etc... When that runs out, the system can support transaction fees if needed. It’s based on open market competition, and there will probably always be nodes willing to process transactions for free.
The main properties: Double-spending is prevented with a peer-to-peer network. No mint or other trusted parties. Participants can be anonymous. New coins are made from Hashcash style proof-of-work. The proof-of-work for new coin generation also proof-of-workers the network to prevent double-spending.
A block header with no transactions would be about 80 bytes. If we suppose blocks are generated every 10 minutes, 80 bytes * 6 * 24 * 365 = 4.2MB per year. With computer systems typically selling with 2GB of RAM as of 2008, and Moore’s Law predicting current growth of 1.2GB per year, storage should not be a problem even if the block headers must be kept in memory.
The Bitcoin network might actually reduce spam by diverting zombie farms to generating bitcoins instead.
SHA-256 is very strong. It’s not like the incremental step from MD5 to SHA1. It can last several decades unless there’s some massive breakthrough attack.
Sigh... why delete a wallet instead of moving it aside and keeping the old copy just in case? You should never delete a wallet.