ADAM Back is a world renowned in the crypto sphere.

But what is the story behind the CEO of Blockstream and could he really be Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto?

Who is Adam Back?

Adam Back was born in July 1970 in London, England and is a cryptographer (helps develop complex security systems using algorithms to encrypt sensitive data and protect it from hackers, misuse, and cybercrime) and cypherpunk (uses encryption when accessing a computer network in order to ensure privacy, especially from government authorities).

Back holds a PhD in distributed systems and computer science from the University of Exeter and was an early pioneer of the digital currency movement.

In 1997 Back developed Hashcash – which was initially used to address email spamming and DDoS attacks.

Back wanted HashCash to stop mass spamming.

HashCash required a small ‘computational expense’ to be able to send an email. This ‘expense’ had to be used to calculate a certain hash, complying with the algorithm rules.

HashCash made sending messages slower and had a direct impact on the cost of electric bills. Sending an email could cost a few pennies, but sending thousands made the practice financially prohibitive so it deterred spammers from carrying out their malicious practices.

12 years later HashCash inspired Satoshi Nakamoto to create Bitcoin and the
technology was used for the foundation of Bitcoin’s mining capabilities as well as for transaction verification purposes.

Back’s name is even on Bitcoin’s white paper.

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Later in June 1997, Back along with Ross Anderson, presented ‘Eternity-USENET’ – a censorship-resistant information publishing service.

Back was looking for a way to allow the publication of information anonymously on a infrastructure resistant to censorship by governments or third parties.

In June 1998, Back, presented ‘Non-transferable signatures using PGP’.

His work – presented with Ian Brown – explained how a system would be able to perform non-transferable signatures (agreements that can’t be later disavowed).

In 2000, Back presented ‘Freedom 2.0 Mail system’ where he designed a new email system focused on privacy.

In 2001 Back created a bookstore named Credlib.

In June 2002, Back presented ‘Onion’ – a system designed to create anonymous connection tunnels (designed to protect the anonymity of different users).

The objective was to make the IP addresses of its users anonymous, while they were surfing the Internet.

In September 2003, Back created website Cypherspace which quickly became a benchmark for the crypto community.

It posted a number of developments around new cryptographic systems aimed at privacy and anonymity.

In 2014, Back co-founded a blockchain technology company called Blockstream who provide both open source (software for which the original source code is made freely available) and enterprise Bitcoin solutions (a private blockchain that can be used to streamline business processes at scale).

In 2016, Back became CEO after previously being president and COO.

His company was able to secure $90 million in funding from venture capital firms including Digital Currency Group and Khosla Ventures.

Could Adam Back be Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto?

There are rumours that Adam Back is Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto as his profile as a veteran cypherpunk with a PhD in computer science fits the description of the anonymous founder.

In May 2020, YouTube channel Barely Sociable (who had 400,000 subscribers at the time) published a 40-minute video titled “Unmasking Satoshi Nakamoto”.

Evidence included comments Back made in 1998 resembling what we now know as Bitcoin and Nakamoto’s British idioms and spelling, along with his vast technical knowledge of blockchain technology and vocal presence on Bitcoin forums.

Back was also one of the first two people to receive an email from Nakamoto.

Back, however, strongly denies being Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto and said the true identity of Bitcoin’s creator is better kept hidden from the public.

Back said: “If you read about a technology, you try to figure out who is the CEO of a company, and people want to ask questions.

“Because Bitcoin is more like digital gold, you wouldn’t want gold to have a founder.

“For Bitcoin to keep a commodity-like perception, I think it’s a very good thing that Satoshi stays out of the public eye.”

What are Adam Back’s opinions on cryptocurrency and Bitcoin?

Back believes excessive money printing and volatile real-estate investments will take Bitcoin to $300,000.

Back believes large investors will remain skeptical, while retail investors will continue to be the backbone for Bitcoins’ growth.

He believes people across the globe will continue to realize that Bitcoin helps protect against inflation as governments keep printing money.

Back also believes another reason for Bitcoin adoption could be the post-pandemic environment.

He claims investing in real estate is getting less appealing, while putting money into bonds may not bring as much money compared to Bitcoin.