Satoshi Nakamoto not eligible for Nobel Prize without verified identity

Last week, the bitcoin community heard about UCLA professor Bhagwan Chowdhry, who had been invited by the Prize Committee for the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel to nominate someone for the 2016 Prize, suggesting nominating bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto for the Nobel Prize in Economics. But, as we also reported, the nomination by Chowdhry itself proved counterproductive when a comment underneath the professor’s post explained that Nobel Foundation rules forbid public disclosure of nominations for 50 years i.e. the finance professor’s announcement meant he couldn’t nominate Nakamoto.

Apart from Chowdhry’s disclosure, it seems Nakamoto wouldn’t be eligible for the Nobel Prize without a verified identity. Hans Reuterskiöld, Nobel Press Officer of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, told Inverse that the prize cannot be awarded anonymously or posthumously.

There’s always the possibility of Nakamoto revealing his identity sometime over the next year. However, given that he’s remained anonymous for this long, it’s probably a long shot.

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