Amid ongoing speculation regarding the true identity of Bitcoin’s (BTC) creator, new analysis suggests that Jack Dorsey, the entrepreneur known for founding Twitter and currently serving as the CEO of Block, could potentially be Satoshi Nakamoto.
Surprising Links Between Jack Dorsey And Bitcoin’s Satoshi
During Square’s investor day last week, Dorsey was directly questioned about his possible connection to Satoshi. Jeff Cantwell, an analyst at Seaport Research, posed the pointed inquiry: “Jack, this probably is the most important question you’ll ever get asked from the sell side — are you Satoshi Nakamoto?”
In response, Dorsey remarked that the identity of Satoshi has become irrelevant, emphasizing that Bitcoin is now an open protocol managed by a community. He added, “If it was important to Satoshi, there is a simple way they can prove who they are, so we’ll wait for that day.”
This response prompted analysts from Baird to investigate potential coincidences linking Dorsey to Satoshi. They discovered several notable parallels.
For instance, the first post on the BitcoinTalk forum by Satoshi was made on November 19, which also happens to be Dorsey’s birthday and coincided with the date of Block’s investor day. Block’s CFO, Amrita Ahuja, noted, “He may or may not be Satoshi, but it is his birthday today.”
Furthermore, the Baird team identified important early Bitcoin milestones that align with the birthdays of Dorsey’s parents. They pointed out that Dorsey was involved in the “cypherpunk” mailing list as early as 1996 and possesses programming skills in C and Python, languages featured in the initial Bitcoin codebase.
Additionally, an early Bitcoin address reportedly includes a sequence, “jD2m,” which some interpret as “Jack Dorsey 2 Mint,” referencing Mint Plaza, where he lived.
Mining Patterns And IP Address
The analysts also observed a notable change in Satoshi’s mining patterns that allegedly coincided with Dorsey founding Block in February 2009. They highlighted that he visited Iraq with the State Department in April of that same year.
Reports indicate that in early 2009, Satoshi inadvertently logged into an Internet Relay Chat using an IP address linked to California during a period when Dorsey resided in the Bay Area.
An essential aspect of this speculation centers around Satoshi’s wallet containing approximately 1 million Bitcoin, which have remained untouched since their mining.
This fact aligns with Dorsey’s previous assertion that the mystery surrounding Satoshi’s identity could be resolved quite simply. Forbes estimates Dorsey’s wealth at around $4.7 billion, suggesting he has no need to access those long-dormant holdings, currently worth about $87 billion.
NewsBTC reported on Monday that Satoshi’s assets are now estimated to be valued at nearly $96 billion, positioning this mysterious figure just below US billionaire Bill Gates, who is estimated to have a net worth of about $104 billion.
The quest to unveil Satoshi’s identity has led to a variety of candidates, including the late software engineer Hal Finney, systems engineer Dorian Nakamoto, computer scientist Nick Szabo, and Hashcash inventor Adam Back.
In 2016, Australian cryptographer Craig Wright claimed to be Satoshi but failed to provide compelling evidence, leaving many skeptical of his assertions. A British High Court ruling last year further undermined Wright’s claims.
BTC is currently trading at $86,540, down more than 31% from its all-time high reached back in October and more than 8% year-to-date (YTD).
Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com
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