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Nick Szabo
Nick Szabo is a computer scientist, legal scholar[1] and cryptographer known for his research in digital contracts and digital
Nicholas Szabo
currency. He graduated from the University of Washington in 1989 with a degree in computer science.[2] He holds an honorary
professorship at the Universidad Francisco Marroquín.[3] Residence United States
Nationality United States
The phrase and concept of "smart contracts" was developed by Szabo with the goal of bringing what he calls the "highly evolved"
Alma mater University of
practices of contract law and practice to the design of electronic commerce protocols between strangers on the Internet.[4][5] Smart
contracts are a major feature of cryptocurrency[6] and the programming language E.[7]
Washington Computer
Science &
Szabo influentially[8] argued that a minimum granularity of micropayments is set by mental transaction costs.[9][10] Engineering
George Washington
University Law School
Website unenumerated
Contents .blogspot.com (https://
Bit gold unenumerated.blogsp
Bitcoin speculation ot.com)
References Scientific career
External links Fields Computer science
Law
Digital currency
Bit gold
In 1998, Szabo designed a mechanism for a decentralized digital currency he called "bit gold".[11][12] Bit gold was never implemented, but has been called "a direct precursor to
the Bitcoin architecture."[13]

In Szabo’s bit gold structure, a participant would dedicate computer power to solving cryptographic puzzles. In a bit gold network, solved puzzles would be sent to the
Byzantine fault-tolerant public registry and assigned to the public key of the solver. Each solution would become part of the next challenge, creating a growing chain of new
property. This aspect of the system provided a way for the network to verify and time-stamp new coins, because unless a majority of the parties agreed to accept new solutions,
they couldn’t start on the next puzzle.[14][15]

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When attempting to design transactions with a digital coin, you run into the "double-spending problem." Once data have been created, reproducing them is a simple matter of
copying and pasting. Most digital currencies solve the problem by relinquishing some control to a central authority, which keeps track of each account’s balance. This was an
unacceptable solution for Szabo. "I was trying to mimic as closely as possible in cyberspace the security and trust characteristics of gold, and chief among those is that it
doesn’t depend on a trusted central authority," he said.[11]

Bitcoin speculation
In 2008, a mysterious figure who wrote under the name Satoshi Nakamoto released a proposal for bitcoin. Nakamoto’s true identity remained a secret, which led to
speculation about a long list of people suspected to be Nakamoto. Although Szabo has repeatedly denied it, people have speculated that he is Nakamoto.[16]

Research by financial author Dominic Frisby provided circumstantial evidence but, as he admits, no proof that Satoshi is Szabo.[17] Speaking on RT's Keiser Report, he said
"I've concluded there is only one person in the whole world that has the sheer breadth but also the specificity of knowledge and it is this chap...".[18] In a July 2014 email to
Frisby, Szabo said "Thanks for letting me know. I'm afraid you got it wrong doxing me as Satoshi, but I'm used to it."[19]

Nathaniel Popper wrote in The New York Times that "the most convincing evidence pointed to a reclusive American man of Hungarian descent named Nick Szabo." In 2008,
prior to the release of bitcoin, Szabo wrote a comment on his blog about the intent of creating a live version of his hypothetical currency.[2]

References
1. Ridley, Matt (4 December 2017). "The Bitcoin revolution is only just beginning" 6. Swanson, Tim (22 January 2014). "Smart Property, Colored Coins and
(https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-bitcoin-revolution-is-only-justbeginning-k9 Mastercoin" (http://www.coindesk.com/smart-property-colored-coins-
zj8cxnx). The Times. Retrieved 23 December 2017. "the legal scholar and mastercoin/). CoinDesk. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
computer scientist Nick Szabo" 7. "Smart Contracts" (http://www.erights.org/smart-contracts/). Retrieved 8 January
2. Popper, Nathaniel (15 May 2015). "Decoding the Enigma of Satoshi Nakamoto 2017.
and the Birth of Bitcoin" (https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/17/business/decoding 8. Anderson, Chris. Free: The Future of a Radical Price. ISBN 1401394515.
-the-enigma-of-satoshi-nakamoto-and-the-birth-of-bitcoin.html). The New York
9. Szabo, Nick. "Micropayments and Mental Transaction Costs".
Times. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
CiteSeerX 10.1.1.23.9779 (https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=1
3. https://noticias.ufm.edu/index.php? 0.1.1.23.9779)  .
title=Graduaci%C3%B3n_UFM_y_doctorado_a_Nick_Szabo
10. Szabo, Nick. "The Mental Accounting Barrier to Micropayments" (https://archive.i
4. Morris, David Z. (21 January 2014). "Bitcoin is not just digital currency. It's s/fzL0I). Archived from the original (http://szabo.best.vwh.net/micropayments.htm
Napster for finance" (http://fortune.com/2014/01/21/bitcoin-is-not-just-digital-curre l) on 12 January 2013. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
ncy-its-napster-for-finance/). Fortune. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
11. Peck, Morgan (30 May 2012). "Bitcoin: The Cryptoanarchists' Answer to Cash" (h
5. Szabo, Nick (September 1997). "Formalizing and Securing Relationships on ttp://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/software/bitcoin-the-cryptoanarchists-answer-t
Public Networks" (http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/548). First o-cash). IEEE Spectrum. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
Monday. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
12. Szabo, Nick (December 2005). "Bit gold" (https://unenumerated.blogspot.com/20
05/12/bit-gold.html). Retrieved 8 January 2017.

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13. O’Leary, Martin (8 May 2015). "The Mysterious Disappearance of Satoshi
Nakamoto, Founder & Creator of Bitcoin" (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/martin-
oaleary/the-mysterious-disappeara_2_b_7217206.html). The Huffington Post.
Retrieved 8 January 2017.
14. Tschorsch, Florian; Scheuermann, Björn (15 May 2015). "Bitcoin and Beyond: A
Technical Survey of Decentralized Digital Currencies" (http://eprint.iacr.org/2015/
464.pdf) (PDF). Retrieved 8 January 2017.
15. Szabo, Nick (1998). "Secure Property Titles with Owner Authority" (http://nakamo
toinstitute.org/secure-property-titles/). Retrieved 8 January 2017.
16. "Who Is The Real Satoshi Nakamoto? One Researcher May Have Found The
Answer" (https://techcrunch.com/2013/12/05/who-is-the-real-satoshi-nakamoto-o
ne-researcher-may-have-found-the-answer/). TechCrunch. 5 December 2013.
Retrieved 8 January 2017.
17. Frisby, Dominic (2014) "Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?" In Bitcoin: The Future of
Money?, p. 85-149. Unbound. ISBN 1783520779
18. "Episode 676" (http://rt.com/shows/keiser-report/202535-episode-max-keiser-67
6/). RT. 6 November 2014. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
19. Frisby, Dominic (2014), p. 147

External links
Official website (http://unenumerated.blogspot.com/)
Nick Szabo's Essays, Papers, and Concise Tutorials (https://archive.is/H8UGk) at Archive.is (archived 16 July 2015)

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