Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency, without a central bank or single administrator, that can be sent from user to user on the peer-to-peer bitcoin network without the need for intermediaries. Transactions are verified by network nodes through cryptography and recorded in a public distributed ledger called a blockchain.
Bitcoin is unique in that there are a finite number of them: 21 million.
Satoshi Nakamoto is the name used by the unknown person or people who designed bitcoin and created its original reference implementation. As part of the implementation, they also devised the first blockchain database.
In the process they were the first to solve the double-spending problem for digital currency using a peer-to-peer network. They were active in the development of bitcoin up until December 2010.
Nakamoto was active in the development of bitcoin up until December 2010. Around this time, he handed over control of the source code repository and network alert key to Gavin Andresen, transferred several related domains to various prominent members of the bitcoin community, and stopped his involvement in the project.
There has been much speculation as to the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto with suspects including Wei Dai, Hal Finney and Nick Szabo.
On May 22, 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz made history by becoming the first person to conduct a real world transaction using only Bitcoin. Hanyecz bought two pizzas for 10,000 BTC.
Today, 10,000 BTC is worth over $100 million USD.
The identity of Satoshi Nakamoto is still unknown. There are many theories about who he is – or who they are – but no one knows for sure.
What we do know is that Nakamoto created a revolutionary technology that has changed the way we think about money.