​Satoshi Nakamoto

Satoshi Nakamoto is the pseudonymous person who developed Bitcoin and released the white paper. It is unknown whether it is a single person or a group.

People as to why they would remain anonymous and not come forth. But if you refer to the ancient greek story of Prometheus and Zeus. Prometheus stole the knowledge of fire building from Zeus and gave it to the people. This enraged Zeus, and it perhaps forever destroyed the subservience of humans. In this case, Zeus is the centralized Banks, and Prometheus is Satoshi. 

When Zeus found out it was too late, humans already had the knowledge of fire. So for punishment, Zeus had Prometheus tied to a cliff where birds would come and peck at him and eat out his liver every day. Prometheus's body would heal every night, and his liver would regrow, ready for the birds to peck out again the next day. But through all the pain and torture, Prometheus never regretted giving the gift of fire to people. 

We can only imagine Satoshi being well aware that if he gave Bitcoin to the people if caught, they would face unthinkable consequences.   

​Hal Finney

Unfortunately, Harold Thomas Finney II passed away in 2014 due to complications with ALS. 

An American software developer who was credited as the lead developer on several console games, later working for PGP corporation. 

Hal was an early adopter of bitcoin and received the first bitcoin transaction from creator Satoshi Nakamoto (Jan 2009). Hal continued to program until his death, working on a software called bcflick which strengthened Bitcoin wallets.

​Nick Szabo

Nick Szabo is a computer scientist best known for developing Bitgold, a precursor of Bitcoin. Bitgold was designed in 1998 when Szabo created a way for decentralized digital currencies. With Bitgold, participants in the network would use computing power to solve complex digital puzzles, known as proof of work (a form of cryptographic proof). Bitgold ended up never being implemented, but the lessons learned from Bitgold eventually allowed Bitcoin to launch.

Szabo was a cypherpunk; a cypherpunk is any individual advocating the widespread use of cryptography and privacy-enhancing technologies.

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​Gavin Anderson

Gavin Anderson is a software developer based out of the USA. When Satoshi announced their departure, Satoshi proclaimed Gavin as the lead developer of the reference implementation (a program that implements all requirements from a corresponding specification).

As lead developer, Gavin worked to make Bitcoin a secure and stable "cash for the internet." 

After a couple of years, Gavin started backing away from his lead developer role. By 2014 he was no longer in the role of lead developer. In May of 2016, he claimed Craig Wright to be Satoshi Nakamoto but later said he regrets getting involved in the naming of "who Satoshi is" speculation. This led him to lose his access to the bitcoin core and developer rights. But even before this point, Gavin had stopped contributing to the Bitcoin Core development. Eventually, Gavin stated that he meant "we are all satoshi."

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Andreas Antonapoulos

Andreas got involved with Bitcoin in 2012; shortly after, he quit his freelance consultant job to pursue and teach about Bitcoin full-time. By 2014 Andreas became CSO for blockchain.info; also that year, he spoke in front of the Canadian Banking, trade, and commerce committee. 

The talks by Andreas were the inspiration behind BitcoinCurious.ca. 

Andreas has Computer Science and Data Communications, Networks, and Distributed Systems degrees from the University College London.

Learn more about Andreas from his website Here>

​Adam Back

Adam Back is the co-founder and CEO of Blockstream, a blockchain development company headquartered in Victory, Canada.

Adam is a cypherpunk and cryptographer who invented Hashcash back in 1997. Hashcash was a proof-of-work system used to limit email spam. 

Adam Back was of the first people to get an email from Satoshi Nakamoto, along with Nick Szabo and Hal Finney. On the other hand, Craig Wright sued Adam for stating that Wright was not Satoshi.​

​Roger Ver

Roger Ver, referred to by some as Bitcoin Jesus, was an early investor and promotor of Bitcoin. Roger hosted many Bitcoin meetups in Sunnyvale, California, and is one of the five founders of the Bitcoin Foundation. Roger Ver was the CEO of Bitcoin.com till late 2019 when he moved on to be Executive Chairman. 

Roger now focuses his time on Bitcoin Cash which he sees as the actual Bitcoin because its larger block sizes allow it to be more like cash.

Pieter Wuille

Peter Wuille is a Bitcoin Core developer and the co-founder of Blockstream, a blockchain technology company led by Adam Back, located in Victora, Canada.

He is #2 in terms of commits to Bitcoin Core. He is responsible for essential improvements to Bitcoin like BIP 66, libsecp256k1, and Segregated Witness.

Barry Silbert

Barry Silbert is a former investment banker out of New York, USA. Barry is the founder and CEO of DCG (Digital currency group), which comprises 5 Crypto-focused companies. Silbert holds a Bachelor of Arts in finance from Emory University.  Barry was the CEO of GrayScale, a digital asset management company. But he is now focused on DCG.  

​Vitalik Buterin

Vitalik Buterin is a Russian-born Canadian Programmer. He and his parents moved to Canada at six and were placed in a class for gifted children by grade 3. Vitalik attended a private high school in Toronto before attending the University of Waterloo, where he took advanced courses and was an Ian Goldberg research assistant.

In 2011 Vitalik co-founded Bitcoin Magazine. He continued writing for the website until it was shut down due to insufficient revenue.

Vitalik is now best known for his published paper on Ethereum and the development of the Ethereum network.

​Ross Ulbricht

Ross Ulbricht is an American inmate who created the infamous Silk Road website. Silk Road was an online black market on the dark net. Silkroad was in operation from 2011-2014 when Ross what arrested and faced a penalty of two life sentences without parole, plus 40 years and a $183,961,921 fine. The website used Bitcoin as a form of payment that allowed users to purchase anything they wanted, including Guns, drugs, and hitman contracts

​Mark Karpeles

Mark Karpeles is the former CEO of the infamous exchange Mt. Gox. Before Mt. Gox was a Bitcoin exchange, it started as an exchange for Magic The Gathering. Mt. Gox stands for Magic The Gathering Online Exchange. The exchange once handled over 70% of all Bitcoin transactions worldwide. Several security breaches caused the exchange to lose tens of thousands of users of Bitcoin. By Early 2014, Mt. Gox suspended all trading and closed its website and exchange service. It then filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors. Karpeles is suspected of being involved in the Silk Road marketplace and was allegedly arrested on the first of August 2015 for embezzlement.

​Charlie Shrem

Charlie Shrem, an early Bitcoin advocate and entrepreneur. Charlie was involved with the co-founding of the now obsolete BitInstant. BitInstand allowed people to use Bitcoin to make purchases at 700,000+ locations. 

Shrem was allegedly arrested in 2014 and sentenced to two years in prison for operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business that was connected to the Silkroad. 

Currently, Shrem works as the Chief Technology Officer for Mainstreet Investments LP.