When we think of the father of different fields, we usually have someone to point to, whether it's Socrates, father of western philosophy or Gregor Mendel, father of genetics. But what about in Bitcoin? Who ushered us down this path in the first place, leading to platforms like Steemit where we all try and be helpful, cool and interesting for each other with a nice reward in the process if we play our cards right?
I just went back and read a October, 2011 article in The New Yorker magazine entitled "The Cryptocurrency--Bitcoin and its Mysterious Inventor" by a writer named Joshua Davis. The article presents a perspective back when Bitcoin was still in it's infancy, when a single bitcoin was worth about 30 bucks (just over 1% of what a bitcoin is worth now).
It goes over a how an apparent genius coder going by the alias Satoshi Nakamoto, with C++ expertise and extensive banking and economics knowledge created the seemingly impenetrable 30,000 lines of bitcoin code (If you subscribe to New Yorker you can read it here. The author goes on a little journey to try and discover the true inventor of Bitcoin, using clues like the "flawless English on his website posts" and the use of English spelling (flavour, colour), and terms like "maths" that are specific to the U.K to deduce that Nakamoto was probably British. He tries to identify him at an esoteric Cryptocurrency conference in 2011, and it seems there is still some suspicion at the end of the article that a perhaps a standout, young (23 at the time) computer scientist and expert in cryptography, peer-to-peer networks, and economics named Michael Clear could be the Bitcoin puppeteer.
According to the article, Bitcoin was created by Nakamoto after the market crisis in 2009 to "create a currency that was impervious to unpredictable monetary policies as well as to the predations of bankers and politicians". So it looks like he was working on a way to improve society by giving people more power over their currency. I'm a novice in the world of coding and cryptocurrency, but it definitely seems a little ominous to me that there may be an anonymous person out there with the power to alter the code that runs Bitcoin.
I'm obviously one of countless to inquire about the identity of the real Keyser Söze.....ermm....uh.... I mean Satoshi Nakamoto. In 2014, we thought it was this fella cause of false Newsweek article:
This Satoshi Nakamoto seemed to fit the bill (same name, liberal, government skeptic, physicist and computer engineer), but was later debunked. The "accused" Satoshi even did an AMA on Reddit in 2015.
Currently controversy arises from Craig Wright. There have been articles by news organizations BBC and the Economist about Wright's witnessed use of the key utilized for the first Bitcoin transaction ever. Other Bitcoin leading executives Jon Matonis, who is former director of the Bitcoin Foundation, and developer Gavin Andresen backed his claims. However, when push came to shove in May 2016, it appears that the incredible baggage which would undoubtedly go along with proving he is indeed Satoshi Nakamoto was too much. Either that, or the baggage of having everybody realize he'd been lying the entire time was too much....Here's a photo of Craig Wright:
Anyway, there's obviously a lot of speculation out there on this, and sorry if this is old news to a lot of you. As someone just starting to get my feet wet in the Scrooge McDuck Crypto Pool, I'm finding this whole enterprise fascinating. The New Yorker article also told a story about a Kentuckian named Kevin Groce who his family found....let's say idiosyncratic for his home-fashioned Bitcoin mining ways.... I bet he's doing pretty well now haha.
I'd love to hear any insights out there. Hope you found this interesting Steemit.
Peace and have a good evening,
-STEEMMATE
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/10/10/the-crypto-currency
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satoshi_Nakamoto
https://cryptoinsider.com/australian-computer-scientist-claimed-bitcoin-founder-elaborates-actions-beliefs/
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/may/05/craig-wright-u-turn-on-pledge-to-provide-evidence-he-invented-bitcoin
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/3nzqqh/hi_rbitcoin_i_am_dorian_nakamoto_ama/