Bitcoin's break into mainstream economics took a major step last month by after being ruled tax-free in Europe by The European Court of Justice, and today continues with news that its unknown creator has been nominated for a Nobel Prize.
The nomination, from UCLA professor of finance Bhagwan Chowdhry, goes to Satoshi Nakamoto – widely credited with inventing Bitcoin after publishing a paper outlining the concept in 2008 and writing the original software behind the currency.
The problem, though, is that no one is really sure who Satoshi Nakamoto is. The name could represent one individual or a group of people. The location and nationality of Nakamoto are not clear, and if the nomination went forward it would be the first time the Nobel committee awarded the prize to an unknown person.
“Beyond demonstrating the possibility of creating a reliable digital currency, Satoshi Nakamoto's Bitcoin Protocol has spawned exciting innovations in the FinTech [financial technology] space by showing how many financial contracts - not just currencies - can be digitised, securely verified and stored, and transferred instantaneously from one party to another. The implications of this are immense.”
Bitcoin is likely too new a mechanic to be seriously considered by the committee for the prize, yet Chowdhry's claim nevertheless illustrates the changing rhetoric around the cryptocurrency as it becomes an ever more mainstream alternative to Fiat currencies.
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