Could Jack Dorsey Be Hidden Bitcoin Creator Satoshi?

Could Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey be the real Satoshi Nakamoto? As you will read below, it may seem quite possible. However, there is still no definite answer to that. The true identity of the person or a group who created Bitcoin under alias Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009 remains one of the biggest enigmas in the tech space. Over the years, several candidates have been named (some of them named themselves to be Nakamoto), starting from seasoned cryptographers such as Hal Finney or Nick Szabo and ending with Australian computer scientist Craig Wright, who proclaimed himself to be Satoshi Nakamoto who created the very first crypto for peer-to-peer transactions.

Now, there is a new theory suggested by the founder of DeBanked Sean Murray. His theory seems to be quite compelling as he proposed that it was Jack Dorsey (a co-founder of Twitter and its former CEO) who created Bitcoin. Now Dorsey has stepped away from Twitter and is busy with other projects – Block (formerly Square) and some others which are connected to Bitcoin.

Murray has erected his argument in favor of Dorsey based on circumstantial evidence based on Dorsey’s background, his interests and hobbies, and online activities – Murray linked all those to the known actions of Satoshi. Murray published a longread on X in which he shared all his findings. In his view, those make Dorsey a most likely Satoshi candidate.

Dorsey’s cypherpunk youth and his cryptographic expertise

Jack Dorsey took his first steps into technology long before he co-founded Twitter. As early as 1996, he was among 1,300 confirmed cypherpunks being a member of a movement dedicated to cryptographic privacy and digital financial independence. According to Murray’s tweet, Dorsey’s e-mail at the University of Missouri-Rolla (UMR) which he attended between 1995 and 1997 before he transferred to New York University, puts him on the list of early enthusiasts in cryptography. Funny, UMR students back then were referred to as “miners”, which is the first subtle connection to the proof-of-work consensus algorithm used for mining Bitcoin.

Another factor spotted by Murray which may link Dorsey to being the Bitcoin creator is the fact that Jack Dorsey majored in Computer Science and Mathematics and was interested in cryptography. The Twitter co-founder has perfect skills in programming in several languages, including Python, C, Java, PHP, and others. Several of the languages Dorsey is skilled in were used for creating the Bitcoin code. Besides, Dorsey has had experience creating software for submitting and reviewing academic research papers for Mira Digital Publishing, which may have later come in useful when Dorsey (potentially) created the Bitcoin whitepaper.

Digital traces leading from Dorsey to Bitcoin

Murray also spotted several thin but notable traces which connect Jack Dorsey’s online activity with fundamental moments in Bitcoin’s history. In 2001, Dorsey authored a manifesto telling about “making a mark without leaving a trace” – which seems in line with Satoshi Nakamoto’s anonymity which he chose when creating the revolutionary way to make peer-to-peer payments.

Another important trace which may prove that Dorsey was the mysterious Bitcoin creator was that in 2003, he wrote blog posts about how much he was fascinated with cryptography and his love to hacking sessions at 4 a.m. under pseudonyms. At some point he was known to use a pseudonym Jak, which later may have grown into making up the Satoshi Nakamoto alias.

Curiously, Bitcoin’s early code files bear the same time stamps on them. In his early days, Dorsey also jestingly wrote online that was working on a network for drug traffickers.

Now, let’s look at the timeline of Bitcoin’s creation. On August 17, 2008, Dorsey who had also been a sailor published a tweet with a cryptic sailor’s saying: “Around the horn and home again, for that’s the sailor’s way.” Bitcoin.org was registered on the following day. Funny, but the original Bitcoin code also contained a reference to an old sailor’s saying left by Satoshi: “Never go to sea with two chronometers; take one or three.”

One of the other important coincidences mentioned by Murray in his tweet was the fact that the first ever Bitcoin transaction took place on January 11, 2009, which was the birthday of Dorsey’s mother. Nakamoto joined the BitcoinTalk forum on November 19, 2009, which was already Dorsey’s birthday.

Jack Dorsey and his growing Bitcoin support

Jack Dorsey is known to be a prominent Bitcoin advocate. In 2012, he referred to it an “amazing movement.” By the time 2014 arrived, his payments company Square (rebranded as Block in 2021) started accepting Bitcoin.

In 2022, Dorsey made an appearance in a podcast wearing a shirt with “Satoshi” written on it, which added fuel to the speculation about him being a possible Bitcoin creator. In 2024, he led the legal attack against Craig Wright, who claimed himself to be Satoshi, through the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA).

Many speculations have arisen about the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto. Many believe it was a prominent cypherpunk Len Sassaman who tragically committed suicide in 2011 – just a few months after Nakamoto left his farewell message on the BitcoinTalk forum and disappeared. None of those theories have been confirmed yet and who Satoshi was in reality remains a mystery. Trade Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies securely on Margex and take advantage of powerful trading tools.