Half a century of mysteries: the fate of Bitcoin and its unknown architect in 2025

October 31, 2008, a document was published that launched the digital revolution. The nine-page white paper titled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” described an electronic cash system capable of functioning without a central authority. The author — Satoshi Nakamoto — signed his work with a name that has never revealed a real identity. Four months later, on January 3, 2009, the first bitcoins were mined. Since then, Nakamoto remained active in the network for about two years, actively refining the protocol until disappearing in April 2011. Today, with Bitcoin surpassing $109,000, the question of its creator’s identity remains one of the greatest mysteries in technological history.

The symbolic birth date: what lies behind April 5

On the P2P Foundation platform, Nakamoto listed his birth date as April 5, 1975. If this were true, he would have turned exactly fifty in 2025. However, cryptographic analysts are unanimous: this date was chosen intentionally. It contains deep symbolism referencing two key moments in monetary history.

The first — Executive Order 6102 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on April 5, 1933, which prohibited Americans from owning gold. The second — the year 1975, when this ban was lifted. This triple symbolism (day, month, and year) reveals Nakamoto’s philosophical stance: Bitcoin was conceived as a digital analogue of gold, a store of value immune to government control.

Linguistic analysis of Nakamoto’s letters reveals British English (colour, optimise), contradicting the claimed Japanese origin. Activity patterns show rare appearances between 5 and 11 a.m. GMT, suggesting residence in the US or the UK. Coding style — use of Hungarian notation and other archaic programming conventions — indicates a programmer who began his career in the late 1980s. This suggests Nakamoto’s true age in 2025 is closer to 60 than 50.

A nine-page revolution: what exactly did Nakamoto create

Bitcoin’s white paper solved a problem that had plagued cryptographers for decades — the double-spending problem. How can one guarantee that the same digital coin isn’t spent twice? Nakamoto proposed an elegant mechanism: a distributed network of validators (miners) using proof of work to verify each transaction. The blockchain — an immutable public ledger — recorded all operations in chronological order.

In the genesis block (genesis block), Nakamoto embedded a phrase from The Times newspaper: “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.” This is not just a timestamp — it’s a political statement. Amid the financial crisis, when governments were rescuing banks, Nakamoto offered an alternative: a monetary system governed by code, not politicians.

After launching v0.1, Nakamoto continued developing the protocol, collaborating with early developers including Hal Finney. By mid-2010, his activity decreased. The last confirmed message dates to April 2011. In it, Nakamoto wrote to developer Gavin Andresen: “It’s a shame you keep talking about me as a mysterious shadow figure. The press just turns it into a pirate currency.” After handing over control of the source code to Andresen, Nakamoto completely disappeared from the network.

Untouched state: how many bitcoins does Satoshi Nakamoto really have

Blockchain analysis shows that in Bitcoin’s first year, Nakamoto mined between 750,000 and 1,100,000 coins. Using the “Patoshi pattern” — a method analyzing early block patterns developed by researcher Sergio Demian Lerner — experts tracked Nakamoto’s mining activity and observed that the creator deliberately reduced mining volumes over time, giving others a chance to join the network.

At the current Bitcoin price of around $85,000 (April 2025), Nakamoto’s wallet is valued between $63.8 billion and $93.5 billion. This would make him one of the twenty richest people on the planet if the funds had ever been spent. But they have not. Over fourteen years since his disappearance, not a single satoshi has left addresses associated with Nakamoto.

Several hypotheses exist regarding the reasons. First: Nakamoto lost access to his private keys. Second: he died. Third — the most intriguing — a philosophical gesture. By leaving bitcoins untouched, Nakamoto was gifting them to the ecosystem, symbolically renouncing personal wealth. This aligns with his ideology of decentralization and rejection of central authority.

In 2019, theories emerged suggesting some old addresses from 2010 had started moving coins. However, blockchain analysts dismissed these claims, noting inconsistencies in transaction patterns. Satoshi Nakamoto’s wallet remains a mystery that the cryptocurrency community has been pondering for over a decade and a half.

Main candidates: who could be behind the mask

Nakamoto’s identity remains unconfirmed, but a consistent list of suspects exists.

Hal Finney (1956-2014) was a cryptographer and early Bitcoin adopter, receiving the first transaction from Nakamoto. His technical competence, residence near another contender (Dorian Nakamoto), and stylistic similarities in writing all point to Finney. However, the cryptographer denied involvement until his death from ALS.

Nick Szabo created “Bit Gold” in 1998 — a conceptual precursor to Bitcoin. Linguistic analysis revealed a striking match between his writing and Nakamoto’s. Szabo’s knowledge of monetary theory and cryptography aligns perfectly with Bitcoin’s architecture. He consistently denies authorship.

Adam Back developed Hashcash, the proof-of-work system mentioned in the white paper. He was among the first with whom Nakamoto discussed the project. Some point to similarities in coding style and use of British English.

Dorian Nakamoto was mistakenly identified by Newsweek magazine in 2014 as the creator of Bitcoin. When asked, he vaguely replied that he could no longer discuss “it,” but later explained he misunderstood the question, thinking it related to his work for military contractors. Soon after, Nakamoto’s inactive P2P Foundation account posted: “I am not Dorian Nakamoto.”

Craig Wright is an Australian computer scientist who claimed involvement and even registered copyrights on the white paper. In March 2024, UK High Court judge James Mellor ruled definitively: “Dr. Wright is not the author of the Bitcoin white paper” and “not a person acting under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.” The court found forged documents presented as evidence.

In 2024, the HBO documentary “Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery” proposed Peter Todd, a former Bitcoin developer, as a possible candidate, based on chat messages and use of Canadian English. Todd called this theory “ridiculous” and a “straw man.”

Some theories suggest collective authorship — that Nakamoto was a group of programmers and cryptographers.

Why anonymity became a guarantee of success

Nakamoto’s disappearance is often interpreted as a deliberate choice. Remaining in the public eye would mean becoming a power center. Governments could arrest the creator, competitors bribe him, investors pressure him. His public statements would carry exaggerated weight, potentially causing market turmoil or network splits.

Anonymity protected Nakamoto from physical threats. The holder of a multi-billion-dollar portfolio could easily become a target for extortionists and kidnappers. Staying anonymous allowed him to live a normal life.

But most importantly, Nakamoto ensured the true decentralization of his creation. Having disappeared, he allowed Bitcoin to develop organically, governed by the community rather than an authority. In a system designed to free humanity from reliance on centralized institutions, the anonymous creator embodied a core principle: trust the code, not individuals.

From monuments to mass culture: legacy beyond technology

When Bitcoin reached an all-time high above $109,000 in January 2025, Nakamoto’s hypothetical wealth temporarily exceeded $120 billion(. His portfolio would place him among the top 10 wealthiest people on Earth — if he had ever claimed it.

In 2021, a bronze bust of Nakamoto was unveiled in Budapest, with a reflective surface so viewers see their own reflection. The motto “We are all Satoshi” became a mantra of the Bitcoin community. A similar statue was installed in Lugano, Switzerland, where cryptocurrency is integrated into municipal payments.

In March 2025, President Donald Trump signed an order establishing the Bitcoin Strategic Reserve. This event embodied a dream once considered impossible by early adopters: recognition of Bitcoin as a national currency reserve of a developed country.

Nakamoto’s phrases are quoted as commandments. “The root of the problem with fiat currency is the trust required for it to work” — a justification for the revolution. “If you don’t believe me or understand, I don’t have time to convince you” — a declaration of independence.

The cultural footprint extends into popular culture. Clothing brands feature Nakamoto’s name on shirts and hoodies. In 2022, Vans released a limited edition collection bearing his name. Satoshi Nakamoto has transformed from a faceless creator into a cultural icon of the digital revolution.

Nakamoto’s innovation — blockchain — has spawned an entire industry. From smart contract platforms )Ethereum to DeFi applications challenging traditional finance. Central banks are developing their own digital currencies, though centralized and opposed to Nakamoto’s vision.

Conclusion: a mystery that cannot be solved

Today, with over 500 million cryptocurrency users, Nakamoto’s absence has become an integral part of Bitcoin’s myth. The creator, delivering revolutionary technology to the world and disappearing, allowing it to evolve independently. Whether one person or a group, remains open. But his influence is undeniable.

Fourteen years of anonymity, untouched billions, a birth date encoding the philosophy of money — all components of a legend that continues to shape crypto culture. Satoshi Nakamoto may remain the greatest enigma of the information age, and perhaps that is exactly what he intended.