Satoshi Nakamoto’s Birthday

Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto registered his birthday as April 5th, 1975 on his P2P Foundation profile.

It is hard to be sure if this is his actual birthday or one he made up, though given his clear preference for privacy, it seems unlikely this is actual his birth date or birth year.

Important Events In Satoshi’s Lifetime

Below I have put together a list of important events that may have shaped Satoshi’s life and influenced him to create bitcoin.

I have tried to spread it out over different ages of his life.

Of course, if Satoshi was being dishonest about his birthday, we may be missing some important events (if he’s older than he says) or adding events he missed (if he is younger than he says).

Important Events and Facts About the Year Satoshi was Born (1975)

• Vietnam war ends on April 30
• Cost of a gallon of milk: $1.84
• Stephen Wozniak and Steve Jobs begin designing the Apple 1 prototype, which would become the first mass-market home computer.

War correspondents stay in Saigon following US withdrawal from Vietnam. Courtesy New York Times.

Important Events and Facts About the Year Satoshi was Ten (1985)

• David Chaum, the ‘Father of Cryptocurrencies’ publishes Security Without Identification: Transaction Systems to Make Big Brother Obsolete. This work was hugely influential in applied cryptography and (directly or indirectly) the creation of bitcoin.
  Mikhail Gorbachev becomes leader of the Soviet Union on March 11. He was the 8th and final leader and oversaw the dissolution of the communist Soviet Union into the more democratic Russian Federation.
• The United States becomes a debtor nation
• Cost of a gallon of milk: $2.20

David Chaum's seminal work on pseudonymous transaction systems.

Important Events and Facts About the Year Satoshi was Twenty (1995)

• The Mexican Peso crisis sends the Mexican economy reeling. US Congressional leaders, at the behest of Bill Clinton, agree to contribute $20B to a $50B bailout package to the Mexican government following their currency devaluation to prevent rising interest rates.
• Cost of a gallon of milk: $2.50

Courtesy New York Times.

Important Events and Facts About the Year Satoshi was Thirty (2005)

• Home equity extraction (the process by which homeowners borrow money against their home) **reaches a record high of 11.5%. This would later be seen as a key indicator for the coming financial crisis that motivated satoshi to create bitcoin.
• Hurricane Katrina inflicts massive damage on New Orleans, leaving over 1,000 dead and millions homeless. The world is shocked to see how incompetent and ill-prepared local, state, and Federal government was for such an event.
• Cost of a gallon of milk: $3.20

Courtesy New York Times.

Conclusion

Again, its difficult to know Satoshi’s actual birthday, but if his stated date is to be believed, then these events are just some of the many important he would have witnessed and that almost certainly played a role in his creation of bitcoin.