The many alleged identities of Bitcoin’s mysterious creator, Satoshi Nakamoto

  • The identity of Bitcoin’s creator is at the center of a Florida lawsuit over Satoshi Nakamoto’s $54 billion stake.
  • Since it was created in 2009, bitcoin has become a top digital currency.
  • Many names have been dropped as Bitcoin potential creators, but none have been proven.

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The mystery behind the creator of Bitcoin and their over $54 billion stake has captured public attention once more, as a court case in Florida seeks to verify the creator’s identity — an unlikely effort toward unraveling an enigma that has been over a decade in the making.

The family of a deceased man, David Kleiman, is claiming their family member helped create the popular digital currency and is suing Kleiman’s alleged business partner in the endeavor, Craig Wright, for half of Satoshi Nakemoto’s 1.1 million cache of Bitcoin. 

For the past five years, Wright has been claiming on and off that he created Bitcoin, but has failed to provide any proof of his ownership.

The creator could easily prove their identity by moving even a fraction of the cache of Bitcoin, or using the private key that controls the account.

The identity of Bitcoin’s creator, known only as “Satoshi Nakamoto,” has long been a point of major interest, especially as their personal wealth continues to grow. Since it was created in 2009, Bitcoin has experienced significant highs and lows. In the past year, the currency has risen over 400%.

Bitcoin is considered the top cryptocurrency in the world by market value, but there’s still plenty of mystery surrounding its creation. Who came up with Bitcoin? Was it created by more than one person? And who is Nakamoto?

Here’s a rundown on the currency’s strange beginnings: