Glossary
Satoshi Nakamoto
The pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin — authored the 2008 whitepaper, deployed the genesis block in January 2009, communicated until 2010, then vanished. Identity unknown.
Satoshi Nakamoto is the pseudonym used by the author of the October 2008 paper "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System" and the developer who launched the Bitcoin network's genesis block on January 3, 2009. Satoshi remained active on Bitcointalk and via email through late 2010, then handed off project leadership and disappeared.
The identity has never been credibly confirmed. The wallets associated with Satoshi — holding an estimated ~1 million BTC mined in 2009–2010 — have remained untouched. Various claimants (Craig Wright most notably) have failed to provide cryptographic proof of control over Satoshi's keys.