The possibility that Ross Ulbricht is actually Satoshi Nakamoto has resurfaced on the forums. Was Bitcoin secretly created for illicit activities? What are the opinions for and against this hypothesis?
Was Satoshi Nakamoto a criminal who created Bitcoin to cover up possible irregularities? Some coincidences raise doubts.
Ross William Ulbricht was born in 1984 in Texas. Little is known about his background except that he earned the equivalent of a bachelor’s degree in 2002. Following this, he attended the University of Texas at Dallas, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Physics. He then moved to Pennsylvania to study crystallography. It was also during this time that he learned about libertarian ideas and the theories of counter economics.
Who is Ross Ulbricht?
Once he graduated, Ulbricht attempted a career as a dealer and then in video games before reselling secondhand books. His activity then gave him the idea of creating a website where users could buy objects anonymously and without leaving a trace.
In 2011, under the pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts”, he put his idea into practice by founding Silk Road, an online trading platform accessible only through the Tor network, which offers relative anonymity to users and uses Bitcoin as a means of payment. pay.
Between sales of clothing and other artwork, Silk Road quickly became a hotspot for drug trafficking, hitmen, and many other illicit activities.
Thus, the platform has earned bad reputation, especially on the Internet, and has alerted the US authorities. Its creator would have been in turn a trafficker, sponsor of murders or forger, acquiring the status of a man to kill.
After a long search and a message on a forum that allowed him to find him, Ross Ulbricht was arrested by US federal authorities in 2013. Silk Road was subsequently closed and its creator sentenced to life in prison. His charges continued to multiply as he appealed his sentence several times.
Despite his imprisonment, Ulbricht became a well-known figure in the crypto community thanks to the scandal caused by the confiscation of his numerous BTC by the US government and then its liquidation.
What He Says About Satoshi Nakamoto
There is no written or filmed testimony of Ross Ulbricht speaking about Satoshi Nakamoto. Far from being interested in the identity of the latter, Ulbricht seems to focus solely on the advantages that Bitcoin brings.
In a text written by him in 2022 explaining his motivations, he explains having chosen BTC as a means of payment mainly because it guaranteed anonymity to its users. However, he highly values the project, stating that the cryptocurrency was also solid and reliable.
Is Ross Ulbricht the Creator of Bitcoin? What the Experts Say
Ross Ulbricht seems like a simple Bitcoin fan, but two experts believe he is much more than that. In 2013, two computer scientists Dorit Ron and Adi Shamir caused a stir by publishing a report claiming that Ulbricht was possibly Satoshi Nakamoto.
To justify their claims, the authors relied on blockchain although they failed to irrefutably prove that the sending wallet actually belonged to the creator of Bitcoin and retracted their statement.
Despite this, Satoshi Nakamoto’s disappearance coincides with Ross Ulbricht’s imprisonment. Nakamoto’s wallet has remained locked since 2014, when Ulbricht was imprisoned. Therefore, the two men would be the same person and Silk Road would have only been a project that served to democratize Bitcoin.
By Leonardo Perez
