In November 2008, a paper was posted on the internet titled: Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System (PDF). The paper was published under Satoshi Nakamoto. Even though the name Satoshi Nakamoto is used by the inventor or inventors of Bitcoin, the person or persons’ true identity(s) remains a mystery to this day.

Nakamoto is rumored to be a man living in Japan in his early 40s, although this has never been verified. Speculation about Nakamoto’s true identity has been widespread and sought out by computer science and cryptography experts.

An Australian programmer by the name of Craig Stephen Wright has claimed to be Nakamoto, although he has yet to offer any proof of this claim.

Nakamoto is said to own up to around one million bitcoins, valued at over $1 billion.

In January 2009, Nakamoto released the first Bitcoin software. This established the Bitcoin network and the first units of the digital cryptocurrency known as bitcoins.

It is believed that work on Bitcoin began in 2007, and eventually a website using the domain name Bitcoin.org was created to interface and improve with the help of developers. In mid-2010, Nakamoto handed over control of the source code repository and network alert key to Gavin Andresen, a computer science expert and graduate of Princeton University. At this time, Nakamoto’s involvement in the Bitcoin project came to an end.