Winning a Nobel Prize is no small feat. It's not uncommon for recipients to spend most of their working lives striving for the achievement. Naturally, most revel in the recognition that such an award affords although that almost certainly won't be the case if one nominee for the 2016 Nobel Prize in Economics is named the winner.
UCLA Professor of Finance Bhagwan Chowdhry recently penned a guest article for the Huffington Post. In it, Chowdhry said the committee invited him to nominate someone for the upcoming finance award. A few names immediately came to mind for their influential work in the 1970s and '80s, he said, including Paul Romer, Doug Diamond and Steve Ross.
Chowdhry said he then started thinking of people whose ideas have had a disruptive influence in the 21st century. Ultimately, he arrived at Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin. The only problem, however, is that Satoshi Nakamoto is believed to be a pseudonym and nobody really knows the identity of the person behind the popular cryptocurrency.
Chowdhry insists that his nomination is no joke and that he truly believes the invention of the digital currency is nothing short of revolutionary. It holds many advantages over traditional currency, he added, including its security and ease of transfer, all while bypassing governments and banking institutions which eliminates delays and transaction fees.
In the event Nakamoto does win, the committee would be presented with the unique task of trying to notify him / her of the award. Would a Nobel Prize be enough to lure the creator out of hiding? Probably not. That's why Chowdhry has volunteered to accept the award on his behalf.
Image courtesy Tim Arbaev, Getty