How Many Bitcoins Does Satoshi Have?
Guest article by James Page
Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, walked away from the Bitcoin community and the public at large back in 2010. Today, the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto remains one of the biggest mysteries in cryptocurrency history. The inventor(s) behind the illustrious cryptocurrency remain(s) unknown, despite the Bitcoin community’s relentless research and speculation.
But while the identity behind Bitcoin’s creator remains a huge mystery, the crypto community has managed to answer an important question about Satoshi Nakamoto: Thanks to dedicated research, we now know that the Bitcoin founder racked up around 1 million BTC during the first year of Bitcoin mining.
But even that answer only begets more questions: What will Satoshi Nakamoto do with their fortune? Have they ever cashed out their Bitcoin? What happens if they do? In this guide, we will explore these questions and try to get closer to understanding Satoshi Nakamoto’s plans.
The Early Years of Bitcoin
Satoshi Nakamoto famously launched the Bitcoin network in January 2009 by mining the first-ever Bitcoin block — the Genesis block. In the following year, Satoshi Nakamoto and a few early Bitcoin adopters continued to mine Bitcoin blocks, receiving block rewards as per the founder’s design. At the time, the Bitcoin mining difficulty was so low that anyone with a computer equipped with a CPU could mine thousands of blocks easily.
While we don’t know for certain what type of mining rig Satoshi Nakamoto used, the expert opinion seems to agree that Satoshi Nakamoto had also been using a couple of CPU mining rigs to validate blocks and keep the network active.
As a result, Satoshi Nakamoto mined an incredible amount of Bitcoin blocks and collected an impressive hoard of Bitcoin. Of course, at the time Bitcoin was barely worth anything, but a decade later, a single unit of the world’s first cryptocurrency would be worth thousands of dollars.
So, How Many Bitcoins Does Satoshi Have?
It is thanks to Sergio Lerner, a cryptocurrency researcher and an avid fan of Satoshi Nakamoto, that we first had an idea of just how many bitcoins the Bitcoin founder owns. Mr. Lerner analyzed thousands of blocks created between January 01, 2009 and January 25, 2010 to create a map of early Bitcoin miners and identified a mining pattern that starts with the Genesis block and continues forward.
Lerner dubbed this pattern the “Patoshi Pattern” in order to avoid fanning the flames in the Bitcoin community, which remains very divided about questions regarding Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity. The Patoshi Pattern, nonetheless, provided a very real answer to the question of the Bitcoin inventor’s fortune: Lerner surmises that “Patoshi” collected around 1 million BTC during the first year of Bitcoin, all stored in wallets associated with Patoshi’s mining rigs.
Satoshi Nakamoto is thought to have mined more than 22,000 blocks during their tenure as the main protector of the Bitcoin network. At that time, block rewards (the amount of BTC awarded to each miner for successful mining) equaled 50 BTC per block. However, researchers disagree with the sentiment that the mining reward was Nakamoto’s main incentive. It appears that Bitcoin’s founder largely mined BTC in order to keep the network active and running, as mining is a central feature of Bitcoin’s security.
In fact, research has shown that Satoshi Nakamoto gradually decreased their mining rate after a certain point. It seems that Satoshi Nakamoto planned to step back once the network was up and running and new nodes have begun to join the mining effort. That seems to be what really happened, as the Patoshi pattern disappears as the network becomes more decentralized.
What Happened to Satoshi Nakamoto’s BTC?
The price of Bitcoin increased exponentially since 2009 and today, the price of a single BTC is measured in thousands of dollars. With 1 million BTC, Satoshi Nakamoto owns the largest pile of Bitcoin that lies in the blockchain. We are talking about a fortune that can put anybody in the world on the world’s richest lists. So, what did Satoshi Nakamoto do with their Bitcoin?
He did nothing, seems to be the answer as far as anyone can tell. Wallets associated with Satoshi Nakamoto and other early adopters are constantly being watched for any movement, and so far not a single BTC has been moved from a Satoshi wallet yet. Every few years, a Bitcoin wallet old enough to be associated with Satoshi Nakamoto comes alive and makes transactions; but none of these wallets belong to Satoshi Nakamoto, at least according to the “Patoshi” pattern. All the Patoshi wallets have remained dormant so far, which of course, creates another, and possibly bigger mystery: What does Satoshi Nakamoto plan to do with those bitcoins?
Bitcoin has a maximum cap of 21 million, and some 18 million BTC have already been mined. However, around 4 million BTC are considered lost, mostly due to people losing their hard drives. Some bitcoins remain dormant in wallets and don’t enter circulation. Thus, the actual circulating supply of Bitcoin is much less than 18 million.
This gives Satoshi the power to disrupt the entire Bitcoin economy with their 1 million BTC. The liquidity in the Bitcoin market could dry up if Satoshi Nakamoto ever decides to cash out their bitcoins. In fact, any disclosure of Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity could threaten to unravel the Bitcoin economy, simply by causing a sell-off panic.
Who Is Satoshi Nakamoto?
Journalists and cryptocurrency enthusiasts have tried to unmask the wizard behind the Bitcoin blockchain for years but so far, none has managed to reveal the true identity of Bitcoin’s founder.
In 2014, a journalist for Newsweek identified Bitcoin’s creator as the 64-year-old retired engineer Dorian Nakamoto. However, Dorian Nakamoto himself seemed genuinely surprised by the public interest as he claimed he hadn’t even heard about Bitcoin until then. Nakamoto denied that he was the mysterious Bitcoin creator, asking the overbearing press and fans to leave him alone. After Dorian Nakamoto disputed the claims, an old forum account that belonged to Satoshi Nakamoto came online after years of silence to leave a single message to the community: “I am not Dorian.”
In 2016, another Satoshi Nakamoto candidate came forward claiming he invented Bitcoin. Craig Wright, an Australian computer scientist and businessman, even managed to convince the former Bitcoin lead developer (Gavin Andresen) that he was Satoshi Nakamoto, but could offer little evidence to support his claims. While the Bitcoin community at large doesn’t seem to believe Wright is Satoshi, Wright remains insistent in his claims.
Final Words
At this point, there is only one way of proving someone is Satoshi Nakamoto and owns the 1 million BTC in their possession. Only the creator of Bitcoin can make transactions with BTC collected in Satoshi Nakamoto wallets, and/or sign messages to the Bitcoin blocks they have mined. Without that kind of proof, we will never know who’s really behind the pseudonym. Though perhaps, it is best that the Bitcoin creator remains in the shadows. After all, if their identity ever becomes public, the Bitcoin community could lose a lot of money — not to mention an enduring mystery that is incredibly fun to crack at.
