Reddit users have raised a fun and interesting theory about Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity.
We know that Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto is a real person.
We also know that Dorian lived down street from Hal Finney.
And we know for sure that Finney was involved with the development of Bitcoin in its earliest public version.
No need to mention this glorious tweet!
Running bitcoin
— halfin (@halfin) January 11, 2009
(That tweet will be exactly 10 years old tomorrow!)
What are the odds?
There’s actually a guy, a real person, called Satoshi Nakamoto, who lives a few homes down from the guy who first ran Bitcoin (and who, perhaps, created Bitcoin himself).
What are the odds that the Bitcoin whitepaper would be attributed to a random person called Satoshi Nakamoto that had absolutely no relation to that one Satoshi living a few houses away from Hal Finney?
Mr. Dorian Nakamoto has requested his privacy be respected. Fine.
Has said he’s not Satoshi. Okay.
But maybe …his name, not him, is the Satoshi Nakamoto on the famous Bitcoin paper!
He’s telling the truth all along. He is not Satoshi, but his name is!
Neighborhood Prank?
Finney and Nick Szabo are part of the team which created Bitcoin. Perhaps they named their creation after someone who was always around, someone funny and who was frequent at their meeting place.
According to Redditors, “Satoshi” could actually be a prank on Dorian!
They’re neighbors, same street.
Dorian comes over, sees them messing with unintelligible codes, having a laugh while at it. Satoshi jokes about the whole thing and tells Szabo and Finney: “You’re two grown ups acting like kids on these computers. And what’s that alien language you’re working on!”.
They share a laugh, then suddenly Finney and Szabo stare blankly at each other.
At that very moment they decide to peg the “prank” on their visitor.
Szabo: “Dorian, you have no idea what you just got into!”
Mathematical Conjecture
Finney and Szabo are both sitting there doing their usual heavy duty math and suddenly Nick Szabo asks Hal Finney about that funny visitor from down street.
Szabo: “Where’s Dorian….what’s he called again?”
Finney speaks pausedly: “Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto”
Szabo: “Wow! Quite a mouthful! [turns notebook computer screen around] Check this out!”
Finney: “Oooooh yeaaaah. That’s Sato Tate! I’d recognize it a mile away.”
Szabo: “Nailed it!”
Finney: “Yeah, seen that before LOL”
Szabo: “Doesn’t…Sato….Tate sound a bit like your friend’s name? What’s his name again…Mr Sakamoto??”
Finney: [laughs] “Satoshi Nakamoto”
Szabo: “Bingo! That’s it, Hal. He’s our man!”
Finney: “Waddyamean?”
Szabo: “Well, we need a pen name for that paper of ours, right?”
Finney: “Yyyyeeeaaahhh….”
Szabo: “Let’s pin it on your funny neighbor! He’ll be famous! Perfect name, too. Japanese, everyone will immediately respect it.”
[generalized laughs]
Finney: “Deal!”
Pulp Fiction
Could this be the real story?
We’ll never know.
But truth is often stranger than fiction.
Credits
All credit for this delightful trip down imaginary lane go to Redditors vswr, KoBongSN, pitchbend and gloomers!