Misplaced Pages

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81-477: Satoshi Nakamoto is the name used by the presumed pseudonymous person or persons who developed bitcoin , authored the bitcoin white paper , and created and deployed bitcoin's original reference implementation . As part of the implementation, Nakamoto also devised the first blockchain database. Nakamoto was active in the development of bitcoin until December 2010. There has been widespread speculation about Nakamoto's true identity, with various people posited as

162-505: A "handle" (a term deriving from CB slang ), " user name", " login name", " avatar ", or, sometimes, " screen name ", " gamertag ", "IGN ( I n G ame ( N ick) N ame)" or " nickname ". On the Internet, pseudonymous remailers use cryptography that achieves persistent pseudonymity, so that two-way communication can be achieved, and reputations can be established, without linking physical identities to their respective pseudonyms. Aliasing

243-726: A Web server that disguises the user's IP address. But most open proxy addresses are blocked indefinitely due to their frequent use by vandals. Additionally, Misplaced Pages's public record of a user's interest areas, writing style, and argumentative positions may still establish an identifiable pattern. System operators ( sysops ) at sites offering pseudonymity, such as Misplaced Pages, are not likely to build unlinkability into their systems, as this would render them unable to obtain information about abusive users quickly enough to stop vandalism and other undesirable behaviors. Law enforcement personnel, fearing an avalanche of illegal behavior, are equally unenthusiastic. Still, some users and privacy activists like

324-462: A chat message written by Todd where he commented on a technicality in one of Satoshi's last posts, shortly after Todd had created his personal account, and just an hour after the initial post was made. Hoback also notes Nakamoto's use of Canadian English , as well as a subsequent chat post by Todd where he rued being, "the world's leading expert on how to sacrifice your bitcoins [...] I've done one such sacrifice and I did it by hand." Hoback characterized

405-445: A degree of privacy, to better market themselves, and other reasons. In some cases, pseudonyms are adopted because they are part of a cultural or organisational tradition; for example, devotional names are used by members of some religious institutes , and "cadre names" are used by Communist party leaders such as Trotsky and Lenin . A collective name or collective pseudonym is one shared by two or more persons, for example,

486-421: A favorable reputation, they are more likely to behave in accordance with the site's policies. If users can obtain new pseudonymous identities freely or at a very low cost, reputation-based systems are vulnerable to whitewashing attacks, also called serial pseudonymity , in which abusive users continuously discard their old identities and acquire new ones in order to escape the consequences of their behavior: "On

567-509: A few people, including the Finnish economic sociologist Vili Lehdonvirta and Irish student Michael Clear, who, in 2008, was an undergraduate student in cryptography at Trinity College Dublin . Each of them strongly denied being Nakamoto. In October 2011, writing for Fast Company , investigative journalist Adam Penenberg cited circumstantial evidence suggesting Neal King, Vladimir Oksman and Charles Bry could be Nakamoto. They jointly filed

648-546: A field dominated by women – have used female pen names. A few examples are Brindle Chase, Peter O'Donnell (as Madeline Brent), Christopher Wood (as Penny Sutton and Rosie Dixon), and Hugh C. Rae (as Jessica Sterling). A pen name may be used if a writer's real name is likely to be confused with the name of another writer or notable individual, or if the real name is deemed unsuitable. Authors who write both fiction and non-fiction, or in different genres, may use different pen names to avoid confusing their readers. For example,

729-496: A flurry of media interest, including reporters camping out near Nakamoto's house and chasing him by car when he drove to an interview. Later that day, the pseudonymous Nakamoto's P2P Foundation account posted its first message in five years: "I am not Dorian Nakamoto." In a subsequent interview, Nakamoto denied all connection to bitcoin, saying he had never heard of it before and that he had misinterpreted Goodman's question as about his previous work for military contractors, much of which

810-434: A good reputation. System operators may need to remind experienced users that most newcomers are well-intentioned (see, for example, Misplaced Pages's policy about biting newcomers ). Concerns have also been expressed about sock puppets exhausting the supply of easily remembered usernames. In addition a recent research paper demonstrated that people behave in a potentially more aggressive manner when using pseudonyms/nicknames (due to

891-526: A hacker who broke into Wright's email accounts, claiming that Satoshi Nakamoto was a joint pseudonym for Wright and computer forensics analyst Dave Kleiman , who died in 2013. Wright's claim was supported by Andresen and former Bitcoin Foundation director Jon Matonis. Wright has said that he chose the name "Nakamoto" in honor of Japanese philosopher Tominaga Nakamoto , whom Wright learned about from his Japanese martial arts instructor, and "Satoshi" after

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972-481: A manner that the new name becomes permanent and is used by all who know the person. This is not an alias or pseudonym, but in fact a new name. In many countries, including common law countries, a name change can be ratified by a court and become a person's new legal name. Pseudonymous authors may still have their various identities linked together through stylometric analysis of their writing style. The precise degree of this unmasking ability and its ultimate potential

1053-460: A number of facts that circumstantially suggested he was the bitcoin inventor. Trained as a physicist at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona , Nakamoto worked as a systems engineer on classified defense projects and computer engineer for technology and financial information services companies. According to his daughter, Nakamoto was laid off twice in the early 1990s, turned libertarian , and encouraged her to start her own business "not under

1134-423: A patent application that contained the phrase "computationally impractical to reverse" in 2008, which was also used in the bitcoin white paper by Nakamoto. The domain name bitcoin.org was registered three days after the patent was filed. All three men denied being Nakamoto when contacted by Penenberg. In May 2013, Ted Nelson speculated that Nakamoto was Japanese mathematician Shinichi Mochizuki . Later, an article

1215-488: A process known as de-identification . Nicolaus Copernicus put forward his theory of heliocentrism in the manuscript Commentariolus anonymously, in part because of his employment as a law clerk for a church -government organization. Sophie Germain and William Sealy Gosset used pseudonyms to publish their work in the field of mathematics – Germain, to avoid rampant 19th century academic misogyny , and Gosset, to avoid revealing brewing practices of his employer,

1296-431: A pseudonym in literature is to present a story as being written by the fictional characters in the story. The series of novels known as A Series of Unfortunate Events are written by Daniel Handler under the pen name of Lemony Snicket , a character in the series. This applies also to some of the several 18th-century English and American writers who used the name Fidelia . An anonymity pseudonym or multiple-use name

1377-412: A pseudonym is called a stage name , or, occasionally, a professional name , or screen name . Members of a marginalized ethnic or religious group have often adopted stage names, typically changing their surname or entire name to mask their original background. Stage names are also used to create a more marketable name, as in the case of Creighton Tull Chaney, who adopted the pseudonym Lon Chaney Jr. ,

1458-401: A pseudonym representing the trio of James Madison , Alexander Hamilton , and John Jay . The papers were written partially in response to several Anti-Federalist Papers , also written under pseudonyms. As a result of this pseudonymity, historians know that the papers were written by Madison, Hamilton, and Jay, but have not been able to discern with certainty which of the three authored a few of

1539-441: A pseudonym to disguise the extent of their published output, e. g. Stephen King writing as Richard Bachman . Co-authors may choose to publish under a collective pseudonym, e. g., P. J. Tracy and Perri O'Shaughnessy . Frederic Dannay and Manfred Lee used the name Ellery Queen as a pen name for their collaborative works and as the name of their main character. Asa Earl Carter , a Southern white segregationist affiliated with

1620-427: A reclusive American man of Hungarian descent named Nick Szabo." On 8 December 2015, Wired wrote that Craig Steven Wright , an Australian academic, "either invented bitcoin or is a brilliant hoaxer who very badly wants us to believe he did". Wright took down his Twitter account and neither he nor his ex-wife responded to press inquiries. The same day, Gizmodo published a story with evidence supposedly obtained by

1701-554: A reward of 50 bitcoins. Embedded in the coinbase transaction of this block is the text: "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks", citing a headline in the UK newspaper The Times published on that date. This note has been interpreted as both a timestamp and a derisive comment on the alleged instability caused by fractional-reserve banking . Nakamoto continued to collaborate with other developers on bitcoin's software until mid-2010, making all modifications to

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1782-667: A right to speak using a pseudonym. This right does not, however, give citizens the right to demand publication of pseudonymous speech on equipment they do not own. Most Web sites that offer pseudonymity retain information about users. These sites are often susceptible to unauthorized intrusions into their non-public database systems. For example, in 2000, a Welsh teenager obtained information about more than 26,000 credit card accounts, including that of Bill Gates. In 2003, VISA and MasterCard announced that intruders obtained information about 5.6 million credit cards. Sites that offer pseudonymity are also vulnerable to confidentiality breaches. In

1863-422: A sample of Finney's writing to Nakamoto's, and found it to be the closest resemblance they had yet come across, including when compared to candidates suggested by Newsweek , Fast Company , The New Yorker , Ted Nelson , and Skye Grey. Greenberg theorized that Finney may have been a ghostwriter on Nakamoto's behalf, or that he simply used his neighbor's identity as a "drop" or "patsy whose personal information

1944-459: A soldier prêt à boire , ready to drink). In 1716, a nom de guerre was mandatory for every soldier; officers did not adopt noms de guerre as they considered them derogatory. In daily life, these aliases could replace the real family name. Noms de guerre were adopted for security reasons by members of World War II French resistance and Polish resistance . Such pseudonyms are often adopted by military special-forces soldiers, such as members of

2025-440: A study of a Web dating service and a pseudonymous remailer , University of Cambridge researchers discovered that the systems used by these Web sites to protect user data could be easily compromised, even if the pseudonymous channel is protected by strong encryption. Typically, the protected pseudonymous channel exists within a broader framework in which multiple vulnerabilities exist. Pseudonym users should bear in mind that, given

2106-600: A subjective probability of "at least" 15% that "Hal was more involved than he's said" before further evidence suggested that was not the case. In a high-profile March 2014 article in Newsweek , journalist Leah McGrath Goodman identified Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto, a Japanese-American man living in California , whose birth name is Satoshi Nakamoto, as the Nakamoto in question. Besides his name, Goodman pointed to

2187-697: A user suggested Sassaman was Satoshi. A presentation given by Kaminsky at the 2011 Black Hat Briefings revealed that a testimonial in honor of Sassaman had been permanently embedded into bitcoin's blockchain . In 2023, speculations arose that Canadian entrepreneur Changpeng Zhao , the co-founder and former CEO of Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume as of July 2024, could be Nakamoto. In 2024, an HBO documentary directed by Cullen Hoback titled Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery named former Bitcoin developer Peter Todd as allegedly being Satoshi Nakamoto. Hoback's claim relies on

2268-412: A web site at that address. On 31 October, Nakamoto published a white paper on the cryptography mailing list at metzdowd.com describing a digital cryptocurrency , titled "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System". On 9 January 2009, Nakamoto released version 0.1 of the bitcoin software on SourceForge and launched the network by defining the genesis block of bitcoin (block number 0), which had

2349-486: Is a decentralized currency enthusiast and published a paper on "bit gold" , one of bitcoin's precursors. He is known to have been interested in using pseudonyms in the 1990s. In a May 2011 article, Szabo said of bitcoin's creator: "Myself, Wei Dai , and Hal Finney were the only people I know of who liked the idea (or in Dai's case his related idea) enough to pursue it to any significant extent until Nakamoto (assuming Nakamoto

2430-406: Is a name used by many different people to protect anonymity. It is a strategy that has been adopted by many unconnected radical groups and by cultural groups, where the construct of personal identity has been criticised. This has led to the idea of the "open pop star", such as Monty Cantsin . Pseudonyms and acronyms are often employed in medical research to protect subjects' identities through

2511-624: Is attributable in large measure to its nearly non-existent initial participation costs. People seeking privacy often use pseudonyms to make appointments and reservations. Those writing to advice columns in newspapers and magazines may use pseudonyms. Steve Wozniak used a pseudonym when attending the University of California, Berkeley after co-founding Apple Computer , because "[he] knew [he] wouldn't have time enough to be an A+ student." When used by an actor, musician, radio disc jockey, model, or other performer or "show business" personality

Satoshi Nakamoto - Misplaced Pages Continue

2592-603: Is determined by the courts). In March 2024, in the Crypto Open Patents Association (COPA) case before the High Court , Judge James Mellor ruled that Wright was not Satoshi Nakamoto. First, that Dr. Wright is not the author of the Bitcoin white paper. Second, Dr. Wright is not the person who adopted or operated under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto in the period 2008 to 2011. Third, Dr. Wright

2673-621: Is known to system operators but is not publicly disclosed), and unlinkable pseudonyms (the link is not known to system operators and cannot be determined). For example, true anonymous remailer enables Internet users to establish unlinkable pseudonyms; those that employ non-public pseudonyms (such as the now-defunct Penet remailer ) are called pseudonymous remailers . The continuum of unlinkability can also be seen, in part, on Misplaced Pages. Some registered users make no attempt to disguise their real identities (for example, by placing their real name on their user page). The pseudonym of unregistered users

2754-495: Is not really Finney or Dai)." Financial author Dominic Frisby provides much circumstantial evidence but, as he admits, no proof that Nakamoto is Szabo. Szabo has denied being Nakamoto. In a July 2014 email to Frisby, he wrote: "Thanks for letting me know. I'm afraid you got it wrong doxing me as Satoshi, but I'm used to it." Nathaniel Popper wrote in The New York Times that "the most convincing evidence pointed to

2835-514: Is not the person who created the Bitcoin system. And, fourth, he is not the author of the initial versions of the Bitcoin software. The written judgment released on 20 May stated that documents submitted as evidence substantiate Wright's claim to be Satoshi were forgeries, and Dr Wright had "lied to the court extensively and repeatedly". In a 2011 article in The New Yorker , Joshua Davis claimed to have narrowed down Nakamoto's identity to

2916-462: Is the most likely candidate for Nakamoto. Elon Musk denied he was Nakamoto in a tweet on 28 November 2017, responding to speculation the previous week in a Medium post by a former SpaceX intern. In 2019, journalist Evan Ratliff claimed drug dealer Paul Le Roux could be Nakamoto. In 2021, developer Evan Hatch proposed cypherpunk Len Sassaman of COSIC as a possible candidate. Sassaman had been mentioned on bitcointalk on 15 March 2013 when

2997-453: Is the use of multiple names for the same data location. More sophisticated cryptographic systems, such as anonymous digital credentials , enable users to communicate pseudonymously ( i.e. , by identifying themselves by means of pseudonyms). In well-defined abuse cases, a designated authority may be able to revoke the pseudonyms and reveal the individuals' real identity. Use of pseudonyms is common among professional eSports players, despite

3078-506: Is their IP address , which can, in many cases, easily be linked to them. Other registered users prefer to remain anonymous, and do not disclose identifying information. However, in certain cases, Misplaced Pages's privacy policy permits system administrators to consult the server logs to determine the IP address, and perhaps the true name, of a registered user. It is possible, in theory, to create an unlinkable Misplaced Pages pseudonym by using an Open proxy ,

3159-712: Is uncertain, but the privacy risks are expected to grow with improved analytic techniques and text corpora . Authors may practice adversarial stylometry to resist such identification. Businesspersons of ethnic minorities in some parts of the world are sometimes advised by an employer to use a pseudonym that is common or acceptable in that area when conducting business, to overcome racial or religious bias. Criminals may use aliases, fictitious business names , and dummy corporations ( corporate shells ) to hide their identity, or to impersonate other persons or entities in order to commit fraud. Aliases and fictitious business names used for dummy corporations may become so complex that, in

3240-407: Is unknown, but speculations have focussed on various cryptography and computer science experts, most of non-Japanese descent. Bitcoiners and cryptographers have suggested various methods by which a person could prove their identity as Nakamoto, such as moving the earliest bitcoins mined or signing a message with the key associated with the first bitcoins. On the other hand a denial of being Nakamoto

3321-562: Is used to hide online exploits"; but after meeting Finney, seeing the emails between him and Nakamoto and his bitcoin wallet's history (including the first transaction from Nakamoto to him, which he forgot to pay back) and hearing his denial, Greenberg concluded that Finney was telling the truth. Juola & Associates also found that Nakamoto's emails to Finney more closely resemble Nakamoto's other writings than Finney's do. Finney's fellow extropian and sometime co-blogger Robin Hanson assigned

Satoshi Nakamoto - Misplaced Pages Continue

3402-434: Is very difficult to confirm. Hal Finney (4 May 1956 – 28 August 2014) was a pre-bitcoin cryptographic pioneer and the first person (other than Nakamoto himself) to use the software, file bug reports, and make improvements. He also lived a few blocks from a man named Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, according to Forbes journalist Andy Greenberg . Greenberg asked the writing analysis consultancy Juola & Associates to compare

3483-490: The Pokémon character Satoshi, because his name was anglicized as " Ash ", and thus "Satoshi" represents the current financial system that must be burned into ash to make way for cryptocurrency. Many prominent bitcoin promoters remained unconvinced by the reports. Subsequent reports also raised the possibility that the evidence provided was an elaborate hoax, which Wired acknowledged "cast doubt" on its suggestion that Wright

3564-539: The American Civil Liberties Union believe that Internet users deserve stronger pseudonymity so that they can protect themselves against identity theft, illegal government surveillance, stalking, and other unwelcome consequences of Internet use (including unintentional disclosures of their personal information and doxing , as discussed in the next section). Their views are supported by laws in some nations (such as Canada) that guarantee citizens

3645-559: The Guinness Brewery . Satoshi Nakamoto is a pseudonym of a still unknown author or authors' group behind a white paper about bitcoin . In Ancien Régime France, a nom de guerre ( French pronunciation: [nɔ̃ də ɡɛʁ] , "war name") would be adopted by each new recruit (or assigned to them by the captain of their company) as they enlisted in the French army. These pseudonyms had an official character and were

3726-456: The SAS and similar units of resistance fighters , terrorists, and guerrillas . This practice hides their identities and may protect their families from reprisals; it may also be a form of dissociation from domestic life. Some well-known men who adopted noms de guerre include Carlos, for Ilich Ramírez Sánchez ; Willy Brandt , Chancellor of West Germany ; and Subcomandante Marcos , spokesman of

3807-905: The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN). During Lehi 's underground fight against the British in Mandatory Palestine , the organization's commander Yitzchak Shamir (later Prime Minister of Israel) adopted the nom de guerre "Michael", in honour of Ireland's Michael Collins . Pseudonym was also stylized as suedonim in a common misspelling of the original word so as to preserve the price of telegrams in World War I and II. Revolutionaries and resistance leaders, such as Lenin , Stalin , Trotsky , Golda Meir , Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque , and Josip Broz Tito , often adopted their noms de guerre as their proper names after

3888-419: The online disinhibition effect ) as opposed to being completely anonymous. In contrast, research by the blog comment hosting service Disqus found pseudonymous users contributed the "highest quantity and quality of comments", where "quality" is based on an aggregate of likes, replies, flags, spam reports, and comment deletions, and found that users trusted pseudonyms and real names equally. Researchers at

3969-512: The 15th-richest person in the world at the time. Nakamoto has never revealed personal information when discussing technical matters, but has at times commented on banking and fractional-reserve banking. Some speculated he was unlikely to be Japanese due to his native-level use of English. On his P2P Foundation profile as of 2012, Nakamoto claimed to be a 37-year-old man who lived in Japan; he cited his date of birth as 5 April 1975. Some theorize that

4050-554: The French-language phrase nom de plume (which in French literally means "pen name"). The concept of pseudonymity has a long history. In ancient literature it was common to write in the name of a famous person, not for concealment or with any intention of deceit; in the New Testament, the second letter of Peter is probably such. A more modern example is all of The Federalist Papers , which were signed by Publius,

4131-462: The Internet, nobody knows that yesterday you were a dog, and therefore should be in the doghouse today." Users of Internet communities who have been banned only to return with new identities are called sock puppets . Whitewashing is one specific form of a Sybil attack on distributed systems. The social cost of cheaply discarded pseudonyms is that experienced users lose confidence in new users, and may subject new users to abuse until they establish

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4212-509: The KKK, wrote Western books under a fictional Cherokee persona to imply legitimacy and conceal his history. A famous case in French literature was Romain Gary . Already a well-known writer, he started publishing books as Émile Ajar to test whether his new books would be well received on their own merits, without the aid of his established reputation. They were: Émile Ajar, like Romain Gary before him,

4293-817: The University of Cambridge showed that pseudonymous comments tended to be more substantive and engaged with other users in explanations, justifications, and chains of argument, and less likely to use insults, than either fully anonymous or real name comments. Proposals have been made to raise the costs of obtaining new identities, such as by charging a small fee or requiring e-mail confirmation. Academic research has proposed cryptographic methods to pseudonymize social media identities or government-issued identities, to accrue and use anonymous reputation in online forums, or to obtain one-per-person and hence less readily-discardable pseudonyms periodically at physical-world pseudonym parties . Others point out that Misplaced Pages's success

4374-623: The author's true identity being discovered, as with Elena Ferrante and Torsten Krol . Joanne Rowling published the Harry Potter series as J. K. Rowling. Rowling also published the Cormoran Strike series of detective novels including The Cuckoo's Calling under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. Winston Churchill wrote as Winston S. Churchill (from his full surname Spencer Churchill which he did not otherwise use) in an attempt to avoid confusion with an American novelist of

4455-631: The books related to people of their neighbourhood. Anne Brontë 's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848) was published under the name Acton Bell, while Charlotte Brontë used the name Currer Bell for Jane Eyre (1847) and Shirley (1849), and Emily Brontë adopted Ellis Bell as cover for Wuthering Heights (1847). Other examples from the nineteenth-century are novelist Mary Ann Evans ( George Eliot ) and French writer Amandine Aurore Lucile Dupin ( George Sand ). Pseudonyms may also be used due to cultural or organization or political prejudices. Similarly, some 20th- and 21st-century male romance novelists –

4536-404: The chart showed a steep decline to almost none between 5 a.m. and 11 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time (midnight to 6 a.m. Eastern Standard Time ). This was between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Japan Standard Time , suggesting an unusual sleep pattern for someone living in Japan. As this pattern held even on Saturdays and Sundays, it suggested that Nakamoto was consistently asleep at this time. Nakamoto's identity

4617-543: The co-authors of a work, such as Carolyn Keene , Erin Hunter , Ellery Queen , Nicolas Bourbaki , or James S. A. Corey . The term pseudonym is derived from the Greek word " ψευδώνυμον " ( pseudṓnymon ), literally "false name", from ψεῦδος ( pseûdos ) 'lie, falsehood' and ὄνομα ( ónoma ) "name". The term alias is a Latin adverb meaning "at another time, elsewhere". Sometimes people change their names in such

4698-469: The current state of Web security engineering, their true names may be revealed at any time. Pseudonymity is an important component of the reputation systems found in online auction services (such as eBay ), discussion sites (such as Slashdot ), and collaborative knowledge development sites (such as Misplaced Pages ). A pseudonymous user who has acquired a favorable reputation gains the trust of other users. When users believe that they will be rewarded by acquiring

4779-489: The date referenced the signing of Executive Order 6102 , which prohibited the ownership of gold coins in the United States, and 1975 as the year it was repealed. Author Dominic Frisby categorized the date as an "obscure but brilliant reference" and as "extremely political". Some have considered that Nakamoto might be a team of people. Dan Kaminsky , a security researcher who read bitcoin's code, said that Nakamoto

4860-420: The fact that many professional games are played on LAN . Pseudonymity has become an important phenomenon on the Internet and other computer networks. In computer networks, pseudonyms possess varying degrees of anonymity, ranging from highly linkable public pseudonyms (the link between the pseudonym and a human being is publicly known or easy to discover), potentially linkable non-public pseudonyms (the link

4941-531: The form of a teknonym , either literal or figurative. Such war names have also been used in Africa. Part of the molding of child soldiers has included giving them such names. They were also used by fighters in the People's Liberation Army of Namibia , with some fighters retaining these names as their permanent names. Individuals using a computer online may adopt or be required to use a form of pseudonym known as

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5022-416: The government's thumb". The article's seemingly biggest piece of evidence was that when Goodman asked him about bitcoin during a brief in-person interview, Nakamoto seemed to confirm his identity as its founder, saying: "I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it. It's been turned over to other people. They are in charge of it now. I no longer have any connection." The article's publication led to

5103-587: The individual's full-time name. Pseudonyms are "part-time" names, used only in certain contexts: to provide a more clear-cut separation between one's private and professional lives, to showcase or enhance a particular persona, or to hide an individual's real identity, as with writers' pen names, graffiti artists' tags, resistance fighters' or terrorists' noms de guerre , computer hackers ' handles , and other online identities for services such as social media , online gaming , and internet forums . Actors, musicians, and other performers sometimes use stage names for

5184-440: The latter as an admission by Todd of having destroyed access to the Bitcoin believed to be held by Nakamoto. In the film, Todd denied that he was Nakamoto, stating that it was "ludicrous" and "grasping at straws", and criticized Hoback by saying that it was "ironic that a director who is also known for a documentary on QAnon has resorted to QAnon style coincidence-based conspiracy thinking here too". A bust of Satoshi Nakamoto

5265-610: The network of bitcoin transactions, but later retracted their claim. In 2016, the Financial Times said that Nakamoto might have been a group of people, mentioning Hal Finney, Nick Szabo and Adam Back as potential members. In 2020, the YouTube channel Barely Sociable claimed that Adam Back, inventor of bitcoin predecessor Hashcash , is Nakamoto. Back subsequently denied this. Charles Hoskinson , founder of Cardano and co-founder of Ethereum , has also opined that Adam Back

5346-404: The papers. There are also examples of modern politicians and high-ranking bureaucrats writing under pseudonyms. Some female authors have used male pen names, in particular in the 19th century, when writing was a highly male-dominated profession. The Brontë sisters used pen names for their early work, so as not to reveal their gender (see below) and so that local residents would not suspect that

5427-401: The person or persons behind the name. Though Nakamoto's name is Japanese, and inscribed as a man living in Japan, most of the speculation has involved software and cryptography experts in the United States or Europe. Nakamoto said that the work of writing bitcoin 's code began in the second quarter of 2007. On 18 August 2008, he or a colleague registered the domain name bitcoin.org, and created

5508-432: The predecessor of identification numbers : soldiers were identified by their first names, their family names, and their noms de guerre (e. g. Jean Amarault dit Lafidélité ). These pseudonyms were usually related to the soldier's place of origin (e. g. Jean Deslandes dit Champigny , for a soldier coming from a town named Champigny ), or to a particular physical or personal trait (e. g. Antoine Bonnet dit Prettaboire , for

5589-614: The romance writer Nora Roberts writes mystery novels under the name J. D. Robb . In some cases, an author may become better known by his pen name than their real name. Some famous examples of that include Samuel Clemens, writing as Mark Twain , Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss , and Eric Arthur Blair ( George Orwell ). The British mathematician Charles Dodgson wrote fantasy novels as Lewis Carroll and mathematical treatises under his own name. Some authors, such as Harold Robbins , use several literary pseudonyms. Some pen names have been used for long periods, even decades, without

5670-478: The same name . The attempt was not wholly successful – the two are still sometimes confused by booksellers. A pen name may be used specifically to hide the identity of the author, as with exposé books about espionage or crime, or explicit erotic fiction. Erwin von Busse used a pseudonym when he published short stories about sexually charged encounters between men in Germany in 1920. Some prolific authors adopt

5751-478: The source code himself. He then gave control of the source code repository and network alert key to Gavin Andresen , and transferred several related domains to various prominent members of the bitcoin community. As of 2021, Nakamoto is estimated to own between 750,000 and 1,100,000 bitcoin. In November 2021, when bitcoin reached a value of over $ 68,000, his net worth would have been up to $ 73 billion, making him

5832-451: The spellings "grey" and "colour", led to speculation that Nakamoto, or at least one person in a consortium claiming to be him, was of Commonwealth origin. The reference to London's Times newspaper in the first bitcoin block suggested to some a particular interest in the British government. Stefan Thomas, a Swiss software engineer and active community member, graphed the timestamps of each of Nakamoto's bitcoin forum posts (more than 500);

5913-588: The struggle. George Grivas , the Greek-Cypriot EOKA militant, adopted the nom de guerre Digenis (Διγενής). In the French Foreign Legion , recruits can adopt a pseudonym to break with their past lives. Mercenaries have long used "noms de guerre", sometimes even multiple identities, depending on the country, conflict, and circumstance. Some of the most familiar noms de guerre today are the kunya used by Islamic mujahideen . These take

5994-459: The words of The Washington Post , "getting to the truth requires a walk down a bizarre labyrinth" and multiple government agencies may become involved to uncover the truth. Giving a false name to a law enforcement officer is a crime in many jurisdictions; see identity fraud . A pen name is a pseudonym (sometimes a particular form of the real name) adopted by an author (or on the author's behalf by their publishers). English usage also includes

6075-433: Was Nakamoto. Bitcoin developer Peter Todd said that Wright's blog post, which appeared to contain cryptographic proof, actually contained nothing of the sort. Bitcoin developer Jeff Garzik agreed that the evidence Wright publicly provided proves nothing, and security researcher Dan Kaminsky concluded Wright's claim was "intentional scammery". In May 2019, Wright started using English libel law to sue people who denied he

6156-436: Was awarded the prestigious Prix Goncourt by a jury unaware that they were the same person. Similarly, TV actor Ronnie Barker submitted comedy material under the name Gerald Wiley. A collective pseudonym may represent an entire publishing house, or any contributor to a long-running series, especially with juvenile literature. Examples include Watty Piper , Victor Appleton , Erin Hunter , and Kamiru M. Xhan. Another use of

6237-557: Was bitcoin's inventor and called him a fraud. In 2019, Wright registered US copyright for the bitcoin white paper and the code for bitcoin 0.1. Wright's team claimed this was "government agency recognition of Craig Wright as Satoshi Nakamoto"; the United States Copyright Office issued a press release clarifying that this was not the case (as they primarily determine whether a work is eligible for copyright, and do not investigate legal ownership, which, if disputed,

6318-495: Was classified. In a Reddit "ask-me-anything" interview, he said he had misinterpreted Goodman's question as related to his work for Citibank . In September, the P2P Foundation account posted another message saying it had been hacked, raising questions over the authenticity of the message six months earlier. In December 2013, blogger Skye Grey linked Nick Szabo to the bitcoin white paper using stylometric analysis . Szabo

6399-408: Was either a "team of people" or a "genius"; Laszlo Hanyecz, a developer who had emailed Nakamoto, had the feeling the code was too well-designed for one person; Andresen has said of Nakamoto's code: "He was a brilliant coder, but it was quirky." The use of British English in both source code comments and forum postings, such as the expression " bloody hard", terms such as " flat " and " maths ", and

6480-568: Was installed in Budapest , Hungary in 2021. Pseudonym Pseudonyms include stage names , user names , ring names , pen names , aliases, superhero or villain identities and code names, gamer identifications, and regnal names of emperors, popes, and other monarchs. In some cases, it may also include nicknames . Historically, they have sometimes taken the form of anagrams , Graecisms, and Latinisations . Pseudonyms should not be confused with new names that replace old ones and become

6561-562: Was published in The Age newspaper that claimed that Mochizuki denied these speculations, but without attributing a source for the denial. A 2013 article in Vice listed Gavin Andresen , Jed McCaleb , or a government agency as possible candidates to be Nakamoto. In 2013, two Israeli mathematicians, Dorit Ron and Adi Shamir , published a paper claiming a link between Nakamoto and Ross Ulbricht . The two based their suspicion on an analysis of

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