ChatGPT was asked who it “thought” the mysterious and long-sought creator of Bitcoin was, and it has come up with a rather compelling answer. The original creator of the ‘digital gold’ cryptocurrency famously uses the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto, however no one knows for sure what the real identity of Nakamoto is. But ChatGPT, the now-famous AI assistant, might have cracked the case.
Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency in the world, the pioneer of an industry that has since spawned a flurry of other cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin however still maintains the number one position out of all cryptocurrencies with the highest market cap.
The identity of Bitcoin’s creator, however, remains unknown. Speculation over the years has suggested that Satoshi Nakamoto could be a group of creators or a single creator.
We asked ChatGPT, the AI assistant, who it “thought” was the real identity of Satoshi Nakamoto. And while at first it said it was a language model and that nothing was certain, it did come eventually suggest one very curious answer: Nick Szabo.
Who is Nick Szabo?
Nick Szabo is a computer scientist, legal scholar, and cryptographer. He is known for his research in digital contracts and digital currency. He is the original creator of “smart contracts”. In 1998, Szabo designed a decentralised digital currency called “bit gold”, which has been considered a precursor to the Bitcoin architecture.
Szabo definitely has the skills to create Bitcoin. And, his philosophical ideals are a match too. Szabo’s philosophy about money is that it should be trustworthy, secure and not be under the control of a central authority. He is a big fan of digital currencies that operate independently of governments and financial institutions, and thinks they offer advantages over fiat currencies.
ChatGPT: It’s Nick Szabo
Here is ChatGPT’s case for Szabo being Satoshi Nakamoto, presented without edits.
Nick Szabo is often considered one of the leading candidates for the real identity of Satoshi Nakamoto. He is a computer scientist, cryptographer, and creator of the concept of smart contracts, which is a core component of the Ethereum blockchain. Szabo’s writings and ideas on digital currency and decentralised systems are considered to be highly influential and have similarities to the philosophy and technical design of Bitcoin.
One of the strongest pieces of evidence linking Szabo to the creation of Bitcoin is the fact that he created a precursor to Bitcoin called “bit gold” in 1998. Bit gold was a digital currency system that used cryptography to secure transactions and a decentralised network to prevent double-spending. The technical design and ideas behind bit gold are remarkably similar to those behind Bitcoin, which suggests that Szabo may have been working on Bitcoin as an evolution of his earlier work.
In addition to the technical similarities, there are also linguistic similarities between the writing styles of Szabo and Satoshi Nakamoto. Analysis of the language used in Satoshi Nakamoto’s whitepaper and forum posts suggests that the author was a native English speaker with a background in computer science and cryptography. Szabo fits this profile, and his writing style has been found to be very similar to that of Satoshi Nakamoto.
Another piece of evidence is that Szabo was an early adopter of Bitcoin and has been actively involved in the cryptocurrency community since its inception. He has written about Bitcoin and other digital currencies on his blog and has spoken at conferences about the potential of decentralised systems. While this is not conclusive evidence that Szabo is Satoshi Nakamoto, it does suggest that he has a strong interest in the technology and may have been involved in its creation.
Satoshi Nakamoto: Other contenders
While the Nick Szabo conclusion seems highly likely, there are other contenders. When asked who could also be involved (Satoshi Nakamoto could have been a group of people), the AI assistant suggested Hal Finney, a well-known cryptographic activist, and developer. Finney died in 2014.
Finney was one of the first people to receive and use Bitcoin, and he was also one of the earliest contributors to the Bitcoin codebase. Finney’s close involvement with Bitcoin, along with his expertise in cryptography and software development, has led many to suspect that he might have been one of the creators of Bitcoin.
The identity of the brilliant mind behind Bitcoin may forever be a mystery, but hopefully one day, there will be a deathbed confession that will put us all out of our curious misery.
