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Satoshi Nakamoto

From Satoshipedia, the Satoshi Mail encyclopedia

Satoshi Nakamoto is the name used by the person or people who designed Bitcoin, wrote the white paper that describes it, and released its first software.[1] Between August 2008 and April 2011 Satoshi corresponded through mailing lists, forums and private email, made every change to the original client himself until mid-2010, and then stopped. Who was behind the name has never been established.[1]

This archive collects his known emails, forum posts and commits. Satoshi Mail opens his inbox; this article summarises what the messages show.

Creating Bitcoin

Satoshi registered the domain bitcoin.org on 18 August 2008.[1] Two days later he wrote to Adam Back to check how to cite Hashcash in “a paper that references your Hashcash paper” (the emails), and Back pointed him to Wei Dai's b-money. Satoshi wrote to Dai the same week (the emails).

On 31 October 2008 he announced the paper on the Cryptography mailing list: “I've been working on a new electronic cash system that's fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party.” (the announcement). In November he sent early source files to Hal Finney, Ray Dillinger and James A. Donald. The genesis block is dated 3 January 2009, and Bitcoin v0.1 followed that month.

Running the project

Until mid-2010 Satoshi made all changes to the code himself,[1] committing to the SourceForge repository and announcing releases on bitcoin-list. He recruited Martti Malmi to write the website and FAQ, opened the Bitcoin forum in November 2009, and from mid-2010 worked increasingly with Gavin Andresen.

He fixed the value overflow bug in August 2010 within hours,[2] added an alert system for emergencies, and in December 2010 asked WikiLeaks not to accept bitcoin (WikiLeaks and Bitcoin).

Departure

Satoshi's last forum post is dated 12 December 2010 and his last commit, SVN revision 202, 15 December 2010. In April 2011 he told Mike Hearn “I've moved on to other things”, and three days later sent Andresen the alert key (departure). In March 2014 the post “I am not Dorian Nakamoto” appeared on his P2P Foundation account; its authenticity is uncertain (Newsweek, 2014).

Identity

On his P2P Foundation profile Satoshi claimed to be a 37-year-old man living in Japan; it is widely doubted that he was Japanese.[1] His British spellings and posting hours have been read as clues (writing style). Many people have been publicly named as Satoshi and those named have denied it; a UK court ruled in 2024 that Craig Wright, who claimed the title, is not him. See Identity of Satoshi Nakamoto.

Wealth and legacy

Estimates of the bitcoins in Satoshi's possession range from 750,000 to 1.1 million, untouched since 2010 (Satoshi's coins).[1] Bitcoin's smallest unit is called the satoshi,[3] and there are statues of him in Budapest and Lugano (monuments).

In the archive

YearMailing listsForum postsPrivate emailCommits
200816040
2009184514028
2010551766175
201100110
20140100

Live, interactive version: open in Satoshi Mail.

See also

References

  1. Satoshi Nakamoto, Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 20 October 2026.
  2. History of bitcoin, Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 20 October 2026.
  3. Bitcoin, Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 20 October 2026.

Primary sources

The messages and commits this article draws on, in Satoshi Mail and where they were first published.

  1. Citation of your Hashcash paper, Private email with Adam Back, 20 August 2008. Original source
  2. Citation of your b-money page, Private email with Wei Dai, 22 August 2008. Original source
  3. Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper, Cryptography mailing list, 31 October 2008. Original source

Published by Tyler Howell for Satoshi Mail. Written with AI assistance from the sources listed above and checked against them. Last updated 22 October 2026. Spotted an error? Email itstylerhowell@gmail.com (how articles are made).

Categories: Satoshi Nakamoto · People