Satoshi Nakamoto is a legend in the Bitcoin community for obvious reasons. For those who don’t know, he’s the person (or persons) responsible for designing Bitcoin and making it a reality. But nobody actually who Satoshi Nakamoto is as he (or she, or they) went to great lengths to hide their identity. Over the years numerous people have tried to unmask the person or group behind Bitcoin, but to date they’ve all been unsuccessful.

Could it be that this time, things will be different? Reports have surfaced that a hacker called “Jeffrey” knows the real identity of Satoshi Nakamoto and is willing to expose him if someone pays a ‘ransom’ of 25 BTC (roughly $12,000) to his Bitcoin address.

“Jeffrey” has apparently managed to gain control of satoshin@gmx.com, an email address used by Nakamoto for some of his correspondence. In his communications with Wired.com, Jeffrey said that “The fool [Nakamoto] used a primary gmx under his full name and had aliases set up underneath it. He’s also alive,” in response to a question asking how he was able to determine the real identity of Satoshi Nakamoto.

“Jeffrey” hasn’t revealed how he managed to get hold of Satoshi Nakamoto’s account but has used other accounts to post a message to the P2P Foundation website and deface an old bitcoin developer page. Part of “Jeffrey’s” P2P Foundation message read, “Apparently you didn’t configure Tor properly and your IP leaked when you used your email account sometime in 2010. You are not safe. You need to get out of where you are as soon as possible before these people harm you. Thank you for inventing Bitcoin.”

So, is this a threat to Satoshi Nakamoto’s privacy?

Michael Marquardt, the head administrator of the Bitcointalk.org discussion forum, claimed was also contacted by “Jeffrey”. Apparently the hacker even sent Marquartd an excerpt from an email he sent to Satoshi Nakamoto in March of this year. Marquardt explained this means “either the email account was compromised since March or the attacker gained access to old emails when he compromised the account.” He said “Jeffrey” is most likely just a troll in it for the laughs.

If you’re wondering what all the big deal is about Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity, it’s because he’s probably the single entity in the world with enough influence to change Bitcoin and its underlying protocol. As my colleague Mike Wheatley explained earlier this year, Satoshi Nakamoto’s disappearance from public view was therefore a good thing for Bitcoin:

When Nakamoto disappeared from view, he nominated Gavin Andresen to be the new leader of the Bitcoin community. Andresen is undoubtedly a very smart and capable guy, but he’ll never command the same respect that Nakamoto did (and still has). Andresen cannot simply change the rules of Bitcoin by himself without facing strong resistance from the rest of the Bitcoin community – but had Nakamoto stayed around things might be different, as he’s the one person in the world that might possess enough influence to make changes to Bitcoin’s rules that could one day harm it.

Nakamoto’s disappearance has removed that threat, and it’s also helped to stave off any attempts to regulate Bitcoin. If he’d stuck around as leader, he’d probably be facing tremendous pressure from government authorities to alter the rules and make Bitcoin easier to regulate. But by vanishing into thin air, the only way to change the rules is if the Bitcoin community as a whole agrees to do so, and that’s almost certainly not going to happen.

Which is why it’s in the best interest of anyone who loves Bitcoin that Satoshi Nakamoto stays “disappeared”.

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