Is the Satoshi Nakamoto mystery really over?

SYDNEY man Craig Wright claimed to be the person everyone has been looking for. But is he really the Satoshi Nakamoto?

AFTER eight years the legend of Satoshi Nakamoto is all but dead. Or at least on life support.

Nakamoto was the pseudonym of the person who created Bitcoin, the digital currency that anyone in the world can use to make online financial transactions quickly and anonymously. Nakamoto’s identity has been the subject of widespread speculation since 2008 when the mysterious figure published the “white paper” that outlined Bitcoin’s revolutionary technology.

Five months after Gizmodo identified Australian academic Craig Wright at the creator of the digital currency, the Sydney resident has seemingly come clean and admitted publicly to being the long sought after Satoshi Nakamoto.

On Monday he posted a lengthy admission on his personal blog as well as giving interviews with BBC, The Economist and GQ in which he provided considerable (but not publicly definitive) evidence for his claim.

He claims to be in possession of cryptographic keys created during the early days of Bitcoin’s development. The keys are definitively known to be associated with the Satoshi pseudonym and were used to send Bitcoin to Hal Finney, one of its earliest pioneers and its first identified developer after Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009.

“I have been staring at my screen for hours,” Dr Wright wrote in his blog post, “but I cannot summon the words to express the depth of my gratitude to those that have supported the bitcoin project from its inception — too many names to list.

“You have dedicated vast swathes of your time, committed your gifts, sacrificed relationships and REM sleep for years to an open source project that could have come to nothing.”

Dr Wright said that he now wanted to “dispel any negative myths and fears” about the virtual currency.

“I cannot allow the misinformation that has been spread to impact the future of Bitcoin,” he said.

Australian Craig Wright identifies himself as #Bitcoin creator, ending years of speculation https://t.co/j0oyKzVVgk https://t.co/e6pRRIpCCy

— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) May 2, 2016

‘THIS IS A SCAM’

Despite the rather sensational admission, not everyone in convinced the mystery has been put to bed.

Social media site reddit was quick to claim it had debunked his admission, spawning a number of conspiracy theories.

Gregory Maxwell, a leading developer working on Bitcoin’s basic software wrote in an email to The New York Times that Dr Wright’s evidence “demonstrates no connection between this person and Bitcoin’s creation.”

Joseph Bonneau, from Applied Crypto Group and a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University said “it would take the real Satoshi about five minutes to provide conclusive proof to the entire Bitcoin community, if the real Satoshi wanted to do that.”

“This is a scam,” security researcher Dan Kaminsky wrote in a blog post. “Not maybe. Not possibly. Wright’s done classic misdirection by generating different scams for different audiences.”

Meanwhile Vox ran the headline: “Craig Wright really wants you to think he invented Bitcoin. Don’t believe him.”

Others, however, were more receptive of Dr Wright’s mea culpa.

Jon Matonis, one of the founding directors of the Bitcoin Foundation, told the BBC he is convinced that Dr Wright is who he claims to be and is responsible for a brilliant achievement.

“According to me, the proof is conclusive and I have no doubt that Craig Steven Wright is the person behind the Bitcoin technology,” he wrote in a blog post.

Gavin Andresen, chief scientist at the Bitcoin Foundation, published his own blog in which he said: “I believe Craig Steven Wright is the person who invented Bitcoin.”

BUT DOES IT REALLY MATTER WHO INVENTED BITCOIN?

But does it really matter? Other cryptocurrency enthusiasts have declared it to be entirely beside the point.

Due to the decentralised nature of the currency its creator is unable to wield any true power over its system. Unlike other currency markets, it does not have a central bank controlled by a single party.

These days any changes to Bitcoin’s code are governed by a system of public proposals.

But in a more political sense, others believe if Dr Wright is regarded as the creator he could exert some influence over the direction of Bitcoin at a time when there is division over how its user base should help shape the future use of the currency.

There’s also the fact that the true Satoshi Nakamoto is in possession of one million Bitcoins valued at more than $580 million at today’s exchange rate.

Movement of such a large cache of Bitcoin could hugely impact the already volatile exchange rate of the currency. But its owner is unlikely to do anything that would dramatically hurt the price of the cryptocurrency.

After a media blitz on Monday, Dr Wright has sworn he will give no more interviews. None.

In the meantime, the world is left to debate the veracity of his claim. Just when it appeared to be dead, the mystery of Satoshi Nakamot’s identity still shows plenty of signs of life.

I understand that Satoshi is basically Moby Dick for Tech Reporters, but the identity of Bitcoin's absentee creator is not relevant.

— Dan Kaminsky (@dakami) May 2, 2016

I'm not playing the "Who is Satoshi" game. As I've said many times before, it doesn't matter.

— AndreasMAntonopoulos (@aantonop) May 2, 2016

The number of people 100pct sure that this guy is or isn't Satoshi is astounding. Who knows... And who cares... (But it's fun!!)

— Bill Barhydt (@billbarhydt) May 2, 2016

I'm Satoshi Nakamoto and so's my wife.

But seriously: who cares who invented #Bitcoin?

— Stephen Kinsella (@stephenkinsella) May 2, 2016

Okay, I’m Satoshi.

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) May 2, 2016

We are all Satoshi Nakamoto.

— Morgan Marquis-Boire (@headhntr) May 2, 2016