Digital Cash Before Bitcoin

Bitcoin wasn’t the first attempt at digital cash, but it is certainly the most successful. Previous schemes paved the way for Satoshi’s invention:

DigiCash
DigiCash was a company founded by cryptographer and computer scientist David Chaum in the late 1980s. It was introduced as a privacy-oriented solution for online transactions, based on a paper authored by Chaum (explained here).

The DigiCash model was a centralized system, but it was nonetheless an interesting experiment. The company later went
bankrupt, which Chaum believes was due to its introduction before e-commerce had truly taken off.

B-money
B-money was initially described in a proposal by computer engineer Wei Dai, published in the 1990s. It was cited in the Bitcoin white
paper, and it’s not hard to see why. B-money proposed a Proof of Work system (used in Bitcoin mining) and the use of a distributed database where users sign transactions. A second version of b-money also described an idea
similar to staking, which is used in other cryptocurrencies today.
Ultimately, b-money never took off, as it didn’t make it past the
draft stage. That said, Bitcoin clearly takes inspiration from the concepts presented by Dai.

Bit Gold
Such is the resemblance between Bit Gold and Bitcoin that some believe that its creator, computer scientist Nick Szabo, is Satoshi
Nakamoto. At its core, Bit Gold consists of a ledger that records strings of data originating from a Proof of Work operation. Like b-money, it was never further developed. Bit Gold’s similarities to Bitcoin have, however, cemented its place as the “precursor to
Bitcoin.”

Satoshi Nakamoto is the pseudonymous author that published the Bitcoin whitepaper in 2008. The paper is entitled Bitcoin:
a peer-to-peer electronic cash system (available on bitcoin.org). Satoshi didn’t invent blockchain, but he was the first to create a
decentralized currency based on blockchain technology.

Bitcoin was officially launched in 2009. But long before that, the mysterious name was already being used in email communications
and forum posts.

In 2011, however, all of their communications to the rest of the world dried up, and Satoshi disappeared. Since then, the mystery around the creation of Bitcoin has been one of hot debate and accusations.

But who is Satoshi Nakamoto? Who is this person or group of people that gave us one of the most, if not the most, groundbreaking
technologies of the 21st century? Let’s explore that now.

Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?
Before answering this question, we first have to ask ourselves “is this a single person or a group of people?”.
Unfortunately, we have very little evidence to prove they’re either. While the prevailing sentiment is that Satoshi is an individual, some believe Satoshi is a group, like a team of computer scientists, cryptography experts and cypherpunks.

Before Satoshi cut off all communications in April 2011, they claimed to be male, Japanese, and born on April 5, 1975. However, people have observed that Satoshi’s command of English was so high that they’re likely to be from a native-English speaking country. Also, their communications mostly occurred during European working hours, so it’s speculated they didn’t reside in Japan.

With Satoshi Nakamoto no longer on speaking terms with the rest of the world, speculation has run wild regarding their true identity.

Plenty of people and groups have been labeled as the true Satoshi Nakamoto, but only a handful of candidates have proven notable.

How much is Satoshi Nakamoto worth?
Regardless of who the real Satoshi Nakamoto is, they are certainly very wealthy. Forensic technologists have tracked down where
Satoshi has stored his bitcoins, putting his net worth in the spotlight.

Since early 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto has not spent a single satoshi. The estimates of how much BTC Satoshi owns varies, but most people agree it’s around 1 million bitcoins (worth around $59 billion at ATH). That would make Satoshi one of the wealthiest billionaires on the planet