Bitcoin creator, Craig Wright, comes out

The claim that he developed the original bitcoin software under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto has been disputed by others

Craig Steven Wright, an Australian entrepreneur, identified himself as the creator of bitcoin almost five months after he was outed in media reports as the man behind the virtual currency.

Wright said in a blog post and interviews with three media organisations that he developed the original bitcoin software under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, a claim that has been disputed by others. Wright provided technical evidence, including the original encryption keys, that have been confirmed by prominent members of the bitcoin community, the BBC reported.

Wright was named as the creator of bitcoin by both Wired and Gizmodo in December, which he said caused unwanted attention on his work and family. A white paper on the virtual currency was released under the name of Nakamoto in 2008 detailing the concept of peer-to-peer electronic cash before software was rolled out in early 2009. More than one other person has previously been identified as the original creator.
 

"Some people will believe, some people won't and to tell you the truth I don't really care," he said in a video clip posted to the BBC's verified Twitter account. "I don't want money, I don't want fame, I don't want adoration. I just want to be left alone."

Before Monday, Wright had stayed silent on the December reports, which cited e-mails, deleted blog posts and documents. He also revealed himself as bitcoin's creator to the Economist and GQ magazines, the BBC said.

The evidence Wright provided didn't completely dispel all doubts about his claim to be Nakamoto, according to the Economist. The magazine said Wright did not definitively show he had control over an original stash of bitcoin suspected to be owned by Nakamoto. He also had a potential personal interest in influencing debate within the bitcoin community, and claiming he is Nakamoto would strengthen his argument, the magazine said.

Jonathan Underwood, a technical adviser to bitcoin start-up bitbank Inc, said the proof Wright posted on his blog was a signature from an old transaction and not evidence that the Australian actually controls Nakamoto's private bitcoin keys.

"I didn't believe Craig was Satoshi when it was news last December, and I still don't believe it," said Underwood.

Yuzo Kano, who runs a bitcoin exchange in Tokyo, is also sceptical of Wright's claims.

"The key he posted on his blog is actually publicly available information," said Kano, who quit Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to open BitFlyer Inc in 2014. "This doesn't prove at all that he holds the private keys."

Bitcoin's libertarian roots, with no central issuing authority and a public ledger to verify transactions, has become more mainstream with its adoption by merchants around the world. Its underlying technology has also drawn interest from banks including Goldman Sachs and Citigroup Inc.

When Wright was first identified, he was living in a modest home on a quiet tree-lined street in the suburb of Gordon, about 13 kilometers from Sydney's central business district.

His then social-media profile suggested a man with an enthusiasm for virtual currency and computing. In addition to numerous college degrees and a stint as a chef, his now-deleted LinkedIn profile listed him as the chief executive officer of DeMorgan Ltd. which has researched bitcoin, proposed a bank for the currency, and offers wallet and exchange services.

Wired's evidence for naming Wright as the currency's creator included 2008 blog posts discussing bitcoin, along with e-mails, transcripts and accounting forms that corroborate the link. The tech magazine also cited a 2014 administrator's report into Hotwire Preemptive Intelligence Pty., which indicated the e-payment software firm was backed by A$30 million ($23 million) of bitcoin owned by its managing director Wright.

The New York Times and New Yorker magazine have both tried to find the person behind the pseudonym. In a 2014 cover story, Newsweek identified the real Satoshi Nakamoto as a California physicist, who denied the report.

THE BITCOIN ECONOMY

Bitcoin is a digital currency which enables payment in a decentralised peer-to-peer (P2P) network. It is powered and approved by the consensus of its users. There is no central authority or middleman to control it.

* Bitcoin client software is required to create a virtual wallet, a private key and public key for authenticating and securing each transaction

1. A user generates a request to transfer a bitcoin value from their account to another using a mobile device or computer
    
2. The request floats on the bitcoin network till users in the network, called miners, pick it up for processing
    
3. During the mining process, transactions are packed into data blocks and are randomly assigned with a header
    
4. Miners compete to match the block's header with a nonce, an arbitrary number used only once, to get a short alphanumeric code called hash, which must have a value below a certain difficulty target
   

 

Each hash accepted by the network is rewarded with bitcoins, which exponentially decrease as more miners join. It takes 10 min to complete a transacton and once done, is irreversible
 

The hash values are then added to the next block's header, creating a block chain which serves as the public ledger of all transactions ever made in the bitcoin network