Avin Andresen: The core developer to whom Satoshi Nakamoto handed the keys to Bitcoin.
Andreas Antonopoulos: Author, Bitcoin advocate, and security expert.
The Bitcoin Foundation: A trade organization that once was the primary funder of core developments.
Hal Finney: Early cryptographer who helped create PGP. An early Bitcoin supporter, he received the first Bitcoin transaction.
Mike Hearn: Bitcoin developer and Google employee; he created Lighthouse and is an advocate for Bitcoin XT.
Olivier Janssens: An early adopter of Bitcoin who has become an angel investor in the space. He funded the creation of Lighthouse, a program that had been designed to crowdsource upgrades to Bitcoin’s core code but so far is mostly used to crowdfund unrelated projects.
Mark Karpelès: CEO and owner of Mt. Gox when the exchange crashed.
Wladimir van der Laan: Current lead developer of Bitcoin.
Jed McCaleb: Founder and former owner of Mt. Gox, cofounder of Ripple, and cofounder of Stellar.
Satoshi Nakamoto: The anonymous creator of Bitcoin, suspected to be one person or several people.
Dread Pirate Roberts: The leader of the infamous Silk Road underground marketplace. May be a group of people or a name passed from person to person.
Amir Taaki: Dark Wallet co-creator and lead developer of Darkmarket, later forked to Open Bazaar.
Peter Todd: Bitcoin core developer.
Ross Ulbricht: Was accused and convicted of being Dread Pirate Roberts; his case is under appeal.
Roger Ver: Angel investor and Bitcoin evangelist; CEO of Memorydealers.com, one of the first sites to accept Bitcoin, and founder of the company Blockchain.
Cody Wilson: Dark Wallet co-creator and 3D-printed gun designer.
Craig Wright: A recent addition to the search for Satoshi Nakamoto. Wired magazine recently reported he was “probably” the creator of Bitcoin (or wanted the world to think he was). In May 2016, he attempted to prove that he had created Bitcoin by signing a message using an account associated with Satoshi Nakamoto. Many were convinced at that point, including Gavin Andresen. However, much of the community remained skeptical. After promising to provide even more evidence, Wright backed out. These developments came too late to allow for a proper discussion in this book, however.
