Identifying the Source of an Anonymous Revolution

Robert Menke (Dr. Megan Squire), Department of Computing Sciences

Bitcoin is a new form of currency known as a cryptocurrency. This means that it uses principles of cryptography to validate and verify transactions rather than relying on trust in a banking authority. The creator and inventor of Bitcoin is allegedly a man named “Satoshi Nakamoto,” but nobody has been able to confirm his identity nor speak with him about the revolution he started in 2008. Numerous groups have attempted to discover his identity by analyzing text from wellknown cryptographers and using a technique known as text stylometry to see if these individuals shared common quirks in their writing compared to Satoshi’s writing. Others have used time stamps to try to confirm where in the world he might be located. These attempts have suggested possible candidates for the creator of Bitcoin, but still no one has been able to confirm the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto. The focus of our research is to take a slightly different approach to this problem, while also incorporating some of the techniques used by other groups of researchers. We will attempt to build a social network of cryptographers using email archives, compile the written work of Satoshi Nakamoto and other cryptographers, and use other text mining techniques in order to contribute to research being done in the field about this mysterious man’s identity. The idea is that a well defined social network of cryptographers will increase the efficacy of our sentiment analysis by helping us target individuals who have worked with each other on cryptocurrency projects. Once we’ve established a reliable social network, we will gather papers, emails, written reports, and code from those individuals and compare their writing style to the writing style of Satoshi Nakamoto. The goal of our research will be to produce data sets and analysis examples that can be used by anyone interested in learning about the early history of Bitcoin or its community of cryptographic software developers.