Could the initital responses to the Bitcoin White Paper have come from Satoshi himself? This researcher believes so

• Researcher Gerald Votta thinks he may have unearthed Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity based on interactions between two individuals and their “eerily” similar characteristics.
• The suspect – James. A. Donald, interacted with Nakamoto via email and both have the same credentials and use of language.

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Since the creation of Bitcoin by anonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto, theories about his identity have been constantly mushrooming.

Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, Hal Finney, Nick Szabo, Elon Musk, and even Craig Wright have been known contenders. Of all these, Wright has been the most outspoken and self-proclaimed Satoshi.

Now, new evidence has surfaced that Satoshi is likely to be anonymous Canadian cryptographer James A. Donald. On Wednesday, Quantum Economics’ Director of Gamefi Research Gerald Votta published this theory following months of research.

The first of the circumstantial evidence connecting the two is the reply to the Bitcoin White Paper in 2008. Votta says his interest is piqued by the “almost instantaneous” timing of Donald’s reply. He further explains:

If you look at the timing, Donald comments like minutes after the Bitcoin White Paper is put up and asks such a specific question to Satoshi — How could you read the White Paper, analyze it, and come up with this amazing scaling question in like three minutes? It’s almost impossible.

Links between Satoshi and James Donald

Notably, this ‘speedy reply’ theory stood out in 2014 but was disputed by arguments of timestamp variation and time zone differences. Votta says he considered all this, but his evidence “speaks for itself.”

This “very suspicious” thread of events, as Votta calls them, drove him to “look further into his [Donald’s] life.” The researcher notes that Donald was well versed in computers, programming, cryptography, economics, history, and law – characteristics which Satoshi himself may have heard. But what stood out most was the use of words from both Donald and Satoshi.

About two decades ago, Donald published details of a software program he named ‘Crypto Kong’ on an e-cheque website. The program utilizes elliptic curve cryptography to sign documents electronically. In Votta’s opinion, this program “is eerily familiar to the foundational basis of Bitcoin.” Crypto Kong “is Bitcoin incarnate,” he adds.

Additionally, Donald used the email [email protected] for this website – am email which messaged Satoshi at least once, according to Votta. Even more, Donald’s digital signature present on the echeque website matches that sent to Satoshi up to the thirty-fourth character. So why would Satoshi converse with himself using two different addresses? Votta says this was a ruse to “maintain anonymity and to spark contrarian views on Bitcoin.”

Side notes

On top of that, the pair expressed excellent command of North American English, indicating they likely originated from a former British colony. Both also had peculiar use of the word “Chaumian” – Donald used it in an email in 2003, same as Satoshi in 2009.

Votta concludes with this:

“he odds of two individuals having these same credentials, a clear grasp of North American language and culture, and sharing almost the same White Paper is astronomically low.

Votta’s team says this research piece has been their most popular to date. Consequently, it has brought “incredible feedback from industry vets.”