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Another candidate for Satoshi Nakamoto: Who is Nick Szabo?
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Author: Robert D. Knight, CoinTelegraph; Compiler: Baishui, Golden Finance
A new HBO documentary aired on October 8th hinted that it had discovered the real Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous inventor of Bitcoin.
While this may be a marketing trick, the announcement has once again sparked speculation about who might be the inventor of Bitcoin.
Some people believe that Nick Szabo, an American cryptographer, legal scholar, and computer scientist who has made great contributions to the blockchain field since the early 1990s, may be the real Satoshi Nakamoto.
That is, Szabo contributed to blockchain before Bitcoin came into being.
Szabo graduated from the University of Washington in 1989 with a degree in computer science. He also holds a Juris Doctor from the George Washington University Law School.
In 1994, Szabo introduced the term "smart contract" to bring legal protections to the digital realm through code. Smart contracts later became the basis for the broader blockchain industry.
In 1998, Szabo proposed a new form of money called "Bit Gold". Szabo's Bit Gold was different from other currencies because it was completely digital, did not require any intermediaries, and solved the double-spending problem through proof of work.
Szabo's Bit Gold network used a proof of work cryptographic solution chain, but relied on a quorum of addresses rather than a quorum of computing power to reach consensus. This allegedly made Bit Gold vulnerable to Sybil attacks.
Szabo went on to describe the rationale for his theoretical currency this way: "I came up with the idea for Bit Gold a long time ago. In short, the problem is that our money currently relies on trust in a third party for its value. As many episodes of inflation and hyperinflation in the 20th century have shown, this is not a desirable state of affairs."
If you know anything about Bitcoin and this all sounds familiar, you're not the only one who has spotted the similarities. Bit Gold is widely considered to be one of Bitcoin's main predecessors.
In October 2008, 10 years after Szabo first proposed "Bit Gold", Satoshi Nakamoto released the Bitcoin whitepaper.
Speculation about the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto is almost as old as Bitcoin itself, but over the years, a number of contenders have emerged, with Szabo being the most popular.
HBO Documentary
The inventor of Bitcoin may remain a mystery for now, but prediction market Polymarket is fueling speculation thanks to a new HBO documentary that claims to finally reveal the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto.
Source: Polymarket
Len Sassaman was the early top contender, but Szabo has taken a commanding lead. His odds are in the double digits, while the other contenders are in the single digits.
There are several reasons why Nick Szabo could be Satoshi Nakamoto, some of which we have already mentioned.
The first is the invention of Bitcoin Gold, a cryptocurrency that Nick Szabo proposed but never realized, but which has many conceptual similarities to Bitcoin. While the concept of Bitcoin Gold is somewhat crude compared to Bitcoin, considering that Szabo had a decade to iron out those rough edges, wouldn’t it have been possible for him to do so?
The second is Szabo’s broader contributions to blockchain and cryptocurrency, which prove his ability and worth. There is no doubt that Szabo has the technical ability to at least be a competitor to Satoshi Nakamoto.
In his book Bitcoin: The Future of Money?, author Dominic Frisby argues that Szabo and Nakamoto have very similar writing styles. Furthermore, both quote economist Carl Menger.
Szabo is known to be very privacy-conscious, and Nakamoto is said to have similar tendencies.
Finally, Szabo has denied at every turn that he is Satoshi, in stark contrast to those who claim to be. If history has taught us only one thing about Satoshi Nakamoto, it is that those who claim to be Satoshi are almost certainly not.
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