Mysterious creator of bitcoin could be nominated for Nobel prize in economics

Although no one knows exactly who Satoshi Nakamoto is, a UCLA finance professor promised to get the pseudonymous bitcoin creator nominated for the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences - or the Nobel prize in economics.

Bhagwan Chowdhry announced in his article for the Huffington Post that he’s been invited by the prize committee to submit a nomination, and that he was going to make Nakamoto his pick.

Chowdhry has noted he’d be happy to accept the prize on behalf of the mysterious Nakamoto, while noting that Nakamoto can be contacted (and sent any prize money) via his bitcoin wallet address.

Nakamoto might be a strange choice compared to such winners as Robert Shiller, a Yale professor known for his work on housing prices, or Angus Deaton of Princeton University, who has contributed to the global development with his research of consumption patterns.

Compared to traditional payment networks like Visa and MasterCard, bitcoin is still much smaller in terms of transaction volume. But Chowdhry thinks the cryptocurrency and the potential it unlocked is "revolutionary."

Not only are bitcoin transactions faster and more secure than those made with fiat currencies, but the technology behind it, called the blockchain, could shift the way financial contracts are dealt with and information is kept.

Some studies, by the way, consider that blockchain could be used in banks and markets as early as next year, since this technology would create more transparent and efficient systems to track and log financial transactions, or could improve upon existing systems used by banks.

Traditionally, the Nobel prize nomination process is secret - the foundation requires that nominees’ names must not be disclosed for 50 years. But as Nakamoto hadn’t been formally nominated yet, Chowdhry possibly didn’t break any rules by announcing his intentions.