Crytpocurrencies are not valued on its software (even though paradoxically, what makes it different from other currencies is that it's only software). Otherwise the best software would have the highest market cap, which obviously isn't the case. This is true to such an extreme degree that it doesn't even matter if the cryptocurrency is used, works, or even have a single working implementation. Seriously, there are top >100M market cap coins that have never shipped a working binary.
The total number of coins in a chain is deterministic. If using a UTXO model, then it's the number of unspent outputs that are linked to your private key, if using the account model, then there is an on-chain state that holds your balance, your nonce and some space for code (which is how smart contracts work..).
In the case of ERC style tokens, the token issuing contract holds a hashtable that links public addresses to a token balance as well as an invariant for totalSupply.
In any case, anyone with access to a block explorer or a node can query for an address and see its balance using the provided APIs (in ethereum it would be web3.eth.getBalance('0xdeacafe')
Almost every coin is implemented with straightforward, non-blinded accounting ("UTXO" model) such that everyone knows how many coins are associated with each public key. For example, this one belongs to Hal Finney (the creator of Bitcoin) and you trace the balance of and movement of coins transparently:
Small correction. Although many people think that Hal Finney could have been the creator of Bitcoin, the matter is far from settled. He even denied it himself before he passed.
> "how do people know who has how many coins, for a coin which has reportedly never shipped a working binary"?
They have a MySQL type database that stores IOUs for the people who bought the ICO tokens. They promise to deliver the actual coins once they finish the software, which in many cases has never happened. Others are less egregious than this and have working binaries on a testnet--the future main network is promised to deliver the actual functionality. There are a few coins (Cardano, EOS) worth multiple billions that don't have a mainnet or a working wallet.
Cardano certainly has both a working mainnet and a working wallet, and has for a couple of years.
They are also running a testnet for their staking capability, which will promote to the main net eventually -- but claiming they're not running a live net and don't have a wallet is absolutely incorrect.
> Bitcoin is not one of the scams with no working software I was talking about.
OK, why'd you use this example as your entire response to "how do people know who has how many coins, for a coin which has reportedly never shipped a working binary"?
Can you answer the original question instead of linking an unrelated bitcoin topic?
I think it is fair to say he is "a" creator of Bitcoin given all the early work he did to make the project a success but there is no evidence that he is the inventor of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto.
As an unrelated side note it is worth reading his post from 2009 when we talks about having ALS: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/bshZiaLefDejvPKuS/dying-outs...
I have a memory of discovering this essay on hn, but I can no longer find the discussion. Maybe I remembered it wrong.
Really speculating people are some anonymous person that doesn't want to be identified is at best, rude, otherwise dangerous. Don't make assertions you can't prove, despite the man being dead.
