Despite the colossal influence of cryptocurrencies on commerce, computing, and even politics, the true identity of the presumed pseudonymous Bitcoin creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, remains a mystery in 2025. Making things trickier for identity sleuths, this individual (or perhaps the name represents a group?) disappeared without a trace on this day in 2010, that’s exactly 15 years ago.
On this day 15 years ago, the pseudonymous inventor of Bitcoin ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’ posted a final public message, then disappeared. The engineer’s true identity remains the greatest mystery of the internet. pic.twitter.com/yEbQIgRZhMDecember 12, 2025
Though the last public message from the BTC founder was about technical matters, an email that appears to be from Nakamoto's account was sent to a fellow Bitcoin enthusiast, Mike Hearn, in April 2011. It began with an explanation for absence, of sorts, with the first line reading "I've moved onto other things."
Solving the ‘double-spending problem’
Benjamin Wallace, the author of The Mysterious Mr. Nakamoto: A Fifteen-year Quest to Unmask the Secret Genius behind Crypto, wrote earlier this year that the BTC creator’s defining moment was the publication of an article on November 1, 2008.
On that day, the nine-page-long Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System was shared on a little-known crypto mailing list. Its significance: it would solve the double-spending problem, which had cryptographers in knots for decades prior.
In essence, Nakamoto proposed a public ledger using blockchain that would prevent fraudulent copying and thus double-spending of any digital asset. This peer-to-peer system would be developed and refined by the BTC creator over the following months before their disappearance.
Satoshi is super-rich…
Wherever they are or however they live today, the most famous name in crypto history may also be one of the wealthiest entities in the world. Recently cited as the 11th-richest ‘person,’ Nakamoto is thought to still hold the majority of the 1.1 million BTC they mined in the currency’s first year.
Today, that crypto fortune would be worth about $99 billion. However, BTC valuations have recently slid to around $90,000 after several months of oscillation around the $110,000 to $120,000 level.
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