Who Is Nick Szabo?

Nick Szabo is a computer scientist and cryptographer who is known for the invention of Bit Gold, one of Bitcoin’s predecessors. Additionally, Szabo had invented the concept of smart contracts, which he initially described as “highly evolved” contract law and e-commerce protocol practices between multiple parties across the internet. Smart contracts later evolved to become a pillar technology for Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency in market cap.

Szabo is one of the personalities that some analysts believe to be the real identity of Bitcoin’s pseudonymous founder, Satoshi Nakamoto. According to some papers, Szabo and Satoshi tried to reach out to a similar group of people in order to gather feedback and advice for their project, which some analysts consider as circumstantial proof that they are one and the same.

There are other arguments that state that Szabo and Satoshi have identical explanations as to why Bitcoin has to have value and that even their manner of writing is similar, according to a report from Gizmodo. Furthermore, research published by Aston University examined both of their publications too and found out that there is, indeed, parallelism in the mannerisms and phrasings that Satoshi and Szabo used in their papers. 

However, the community still remains divided as to whether Szabo truly did create Bitcoin. Even Szabo himself has outright denied this claim, calling out a journalist in an email that stated: “Thanks for letting me know. I'm afraid you got it wrong doxing me as Satoshi, but I'm used to it.”