On Monday, an Australian man named Craig Wright announced to the world he was the inventor of controversial technology Bitcoin and owner of almost $600 million worth of the cryptocurrency, rumoured to be sitting idle. By Friday, he had performed an abrupt about-face and proclaimed he did not "have the courage" to prove he was Satoshi Nakamoto after all.

After a week of tantalising posts promising "proof" he could access the original block of Bitcoin, an act many believe could only be completed by the cryptocurrency's founder, Mr Wright announced on Friday morning; "I believed that I could put years of anonymity and hiding behind me," he wrote in his blog.