Steemit Crypto Academy [Beginners’ Level] | Season 3 Week 6 | Satoshi Nakamoto, Wei Dai and Cryptocurrency Units of Measurement. by @salma78
Introduction
Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?
This question has been mindboggling since the creation of Bitcoin in the year 2009 when it was revealed. Satoshi Nakamoto has been the name given to the founder of Bitcoin and this is because the first bitcoin block mined was traced to be in the name of Nakamoto. This name has been a legend for years because the identity isn't known and due to that, the name is presumed as a pseudonym. There is no confirmation whether Satoshi Nakamoto is a female, male, or a group, or an organization for those whole years since Bitcoin was developed. There has not been any true identity of this name Satoshi Nakomoto. Satoshi Nakamoto published Bitcoin's whitepaper in the year 2018 which he titled Peer-to-peer electronic cash system and in 2009 he revealed the Bitcoin software launched as Bitcoin currency.
Satoshi Nakomoto claimed in 2012 that he was a 37-year-old male Japanese but this was generally agreed to be a false identity of Nakamoto. The reason this claim was rejected was as a result of the proficient English Language used in the Bitcoin Whitepaper. Also, this claim was rejected because of certain words used by Nakamoto in some of the earlier meetings held with the fellow developers. This even made people agree that Satoshi Nakamoto is possible to be a British from the commonwealth. Even the first Bitcoin block when traced was found out that Satoshi Nakamoto is likely to be from England and not Japan.
Suggestions made by Other People about Satoshi Nakamoto's Identity
Several people have made suggestions regarding the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto and they include the following; Dan Kaminsky who is a famed security researcher and he suggested a theory ;
"that Satoshi Nakamoto could either be a team of people or, quite simply a genius who’d rather he be left alone."source.
Again, another person came out with his suggestion that Satoshi Nakamoto is not one person but rather a team of people and he is in the name of the person Laszlo Hanyecz. Laszlo Hanyecz was a developer and he had an interaction with Satoshi Nakamoto via email. He believes that Bitcoin's code was extraordinarily designed to be done by only one person and this was why he suggested it as stated.
Also, there was a claim by another man by the name John McAfee who claimed that Satoshi Nakomoto is a team comprising 11 people. All these suggestions made by people have also proven that Satoshi Nakamoto can not be a Japanese middle-aged man. As stated earlier on there is no proof of the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto since bitcoin's creation till date.
The two Claims/Theories of Satoshi Nakamoto's Identity
Gavin Andresen
source
Gavin Andresen was a software developer who lived in Amherst, Massachusetts, and was known to be involved in the development of Bitcoin. Gavin Andresen was engaged in the development of Bitcoin in the year 2010 and was the developer leader for Bitcoin client software which was announced after their departure by Satoshi Nakamoto. He was the chief scientist for Bitcoin Foundation's board and he had the most influence on Bitcoin direction which made people sometimes referred to as Bitcoin's "Batman." Forbes quoted Andresen as stated;
"Bitcoin is designed to bring us back to a decentralized currency of the people," and "this is like better gold than gold."source.
Gavin Andresen rejected the claim of being Satoshi Nakamoto when the question was asked to him on a weekend at the Bitcoin conference in San Jose in 2013 where he replied by saying
"he has a different coding style than Satoshi does."
Gavin Andresen states in May 2016 that the Australian programmer and Entrepreneur called Craig Wright was the Satoshi Nakamoto but later on he regretted saying that by involving himself in the " who was Satoshi Nakamoto game".
Nick Szabo
source
Nick Szabo is a scholar and also a computer engineer who began the concept of smart contracts in the year 1996. He is found to be the one that brought about the concept of a decentralized currency called Bit Gold. Nick Szabo explained the concept of his Bit Gold as a type of protocol in which expensive unforgeable bits are possible to be created online without much depending on third parties just similar to that of Bitcoin's protocol.
An author known as Dominic Frisby featured Nick Szabo to be the Satoshi Nakamoto in one of his books titled "Bitcoin: The Future of Money?". His saying was based on the consultation he made on the stylometric technique Nick Szabo uses which made him came to a conclusion that Szabo's writing style was similar to that of Satoshi's writings. Also, another clue that made Frisky feature Nick Szabo in his book was the fact that Nick Szabo had ever worked for a DigiCash before and also because both Nick Szabo and Satoshi Nakamoto referenced the economist called Carl Menger. These were the proves that made Frisky draw his conclusion that Nicko Szabo is Satoshi Nakamoto. However, Nick Szabo rejected that he isn't Satoshi Nakamoto in July 2014 through an email he sent to him. From the email, he said;
"Thanks for letting me know. I'm afraid you got it wrong doxing me as Satoshi, but I'm used to it."
Who is Wei Dai?
Wei Dai is a computer engineer who graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in Computer Science and has contributed massively to the development of cryptography and cryptocurrencies as well. He is a cryptographer and also a well-known cypherpunk community member. Wei Dai is known to have several contributions to the field of cryptography and they include the b-money system, Crypto++ system, SSH2 Vulnerability discovery, BEAST - Breaking SSL/TLS, and also VMAC algorithm.
The b-money
In 1998, Wei Dai published an essay that introduced the concept of the b-money system by outlining all details of the currency. Wei Dai's concept includes the rewarding of workers for their work done, setting requirements that would help improve the digital currency.
Crypto++
Wei Dai developed this Crypto++ which is widely used and sustained by the crypto++ ecosystem and later left the Crypto++ project in June 2015. The Crypto++ library has helped many projects including students projects, business projects, Symantec Backup projects, Microsoft office Groove, etc.
Wei Dai Relationship with Satoshi Nakamoto
During the creation of Bitcoin in 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto contacted Wei Dai and Adam Back first before any other person. Later on, in the subsequent whitepaper of Bitcoin, the b-money paper of Wei Dai was referenced in it.
The Current Price Value of Bitcoin
Bitcoin's current price is valued at $39,432.69 when I was doing this homework taking reference from coinmarketcap.com.
Calculating the USD value of one satoshi of the current value.
Taking reference from the professor's lecture about the breakdown of units for bitcoin,
1 satoshi = 0.00000001 BTC
1 BTC = $39,432.69
Therefore, 1 satoshi = 0.00000001 x $39,432.69
1 satoshi = $0.0003943269
∴ 1 satoshi = $0.000394 to 3 significant figures.
This implies that at the time of doing this homework task, the price of 1 satoshi in USD is $0.000394
The Current Price Value of Ether
Ether's current price is valued at $2,635.18 when I was doing this homework taking reference from coinmarketcap.com.
Calculating the USD value of one satoshi of the current value.
Taking reference from the professor's lecture about the breakdown of units for ether,
I would be using Gwei in calculating the value of ether although Wei is the smallest unit as we saw in the professor's lesson.
1 Gwei = 0.000000001 Ether
1 Ether = $2,635.18
Therefore, 1 Gwei = 0.000000001 x $2,635.18
1 Gwei = $0.00000263518
∴ 1 Gwei = $0.00000264 to 3 significant figures.
This implies that at the time of doing this homework task, the price of 1Gwei in USD is $0.00000264
Transferring of 0.001 Steem to a different account.
I would be transferring 0.001 STEEM to @deeni1 in this homework task.
- Step 1: First of all, I clicked on the avatar icon of my profile and then clicked on wallet.
- Step 2: I then clicked on the down-pointing arrow on my STEEM balance and then selects and clicked on Transfer
- Step 3: I then entered the username of the receiver and the amount 0.001STEEM to send.
- Step 4: Click on Next to continue the transaction.
- Step 5: Click on OK to confirm the transaction.
- The transaction was successful as seen below without any interruption.
Transferring of 0.0001 STEEM into the same account
The steps above are followed similarly;
- Step 1: First of all, I clicked on the avatar icon of my profile and then clicked on wallet.
- Step 2: I then clicked on the down-pointing arrow on my STEEM balance and then selects and clicked on Transfer
- Step 3: I then entered the username of the receiver and the amount 0.0001STEEM to send.
- Step 4: An error popped up indicating that "Use only 3 digits of precision", this means that STEEM only accepts a maximum of three decimal places on its blockchain network. This can be seen from the STEEM POWER, STEEM balance, SBD balance, and balance.
These are proofs that the Steem blockchain network accepts 0.001 as the lowest value that can be transferred within its blockchain network.
Conclusion
To conclude, I would like to briefly summarize what we've discussed so far in this article. First of all, we discussed who Satoshi Nakamoto is and also we looked at some of the theories/claims of Satoshi Nakamoto's identity. With regards to the two claims or theories, we discussed Gavin Andresen and Nick Szabo and we also looked at the reasons these two personalities were considered to be Satoshi Nakamoto. We also looked at who Wei Dai is and his relevance to the cryptocurrency ecosystem. We learned that he developed the b-money system, Crypto++ system, SSH2 Vulnerability discovery, BEAST - Breaking SSL/TLS, and also VMAC algorithm.
Furthermore, we discussed the current value of Bitcoin and also calculated the value in USD on one satoshi where we had it to be 1 satoshi = $0.000394 to 3 significant figures. Also we looked at the current value of Ether and also performed calculations for one Gwei whereby we had 1 Gwei = $0.00000264 to 3 significant figures. Finally, we discussed and looked at the steps involved in transferring 0.001 STEEM to another account and also transferring 0.0001 STEEM. We saw that transferring an amount in 4 decimal places on stem blockchain wasn't possible but rather in 3 decimal places it went through.
I would like to say thank you to prof @awesononso for such a wonderful lecture taught this week. I look forward to participating in your subsequent homework.
Thank You.
Hello @salma78,
Thank you for taking interest in this class. Your grades are as follows:
Feedback and Suggestions
Nice job on your research. Your work is clear and full of facts.
Your arrangement is also very good.
You should have talked more on the Anderson theory. Some points there were not so relevant like the fact he pointed out Wright.
Thanks again as we anticipate your participation in the next class.
Thanks so much for your kind review professor and I am looking forward to participating in your subsequent class.🤗