Crypto FAQ: Who created cryptocurrency (Bitcoin)?

The first decentralized cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC), was defined and implemented by Satoshi Nakamoto (likely a pseudonym) in a 2008 white paper ("Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System" [Nakamoto 2008]), and a 2009 C++ computer program [Nakamoto 2009], respectively. While the actual identity of Satoshi has never been disclosed or verified, it is clear that the originality and quality of both the white paper and computer program are quite high. Since Satoshi has never spent the first million Bitcoins s/he mined, which are currently worth billions of USD, it has been speculated that Satoshi's work may have been produced by an elite intelligence or hacker organization rather than a gifted, altruistic, egoless individual.

Prior to the advent of Bitcoin, which is decentralized (based on a peer-to-peer network), there were several notable centralized digital currencies (a.k.a., digital money, electronic money, electronic currency). The earliest known digital currency was described by David Chaum in a research paper in 1983; Chaum later founded DigiCash, a digital currency company, in 1990.

Since the advent of Bitcoin, numerous (1500+) other cryptocurrencies—frequently called altcoins (alternative coins)—have been created. For a comprehensive list of active cryptocurrencies, see All Cryptocurrencies.