Craig Wright’s claim to be Bitcoin founder virtual stitch-up

Craig Wright is not the creator of Bitcoin — but he does live in a world of his own creation.

Craig Wright claims to be the inventor of virtual currency Bitcoin. Picture: Kristina Uffe

Craig Wright is not the creator of Bitcoin — but he does live in a world of his own creation.

To see Wright parading around last week with the BBC, The Economist and GQ Magazine claiming he was Satoshi Naka­moto, the inventor of the crypto-currency was infuriating and hilarious in equal part.

You have to hand it to Wright as you watch him execute the golden rule of the confidence trickster: the bigger the lie, the more believable it is.

Had some of the world’s largest media outlets embarked on a cursory examination of Wright’s past they would have revealed a man with a history of disputes in business and elaborate lies.

I have been on the trail of Wright since December last year when IT magazines Wired and Gizmodo revealed he was most likely to be Nakamoto.

Since then, The Australian and other media outlets have run a series of stories pointing to Wright’s chequered and bizarre history. Wired and Gizmodo have all but disowned their original claims.

In my dealings with former business associates and former friends of Wright one word was consistently used to describe him: “fantasist”.

“He’s like one of those guys that tells people he used to be in the SAS. It’s like he believes what he comes up with,” one former colleague said of Wright.

Before his latest claims Wright’s public rap sheet included: having a restraining order placed against him for continuing to claim to work for a company that he didn’t; convicted of contempt of court for ignoring that order and continuing to poach ­clients from the company; lodging a Federal Court claim alleging he was owed $80 million for a failed deal to swap Bitcoin for gold (which he withdrew); narrowly avoided being declared bankrupt; was the subject of an ASIC complaint; lied about having a PhD from Charles Sturt University on his CV; and is the subject of a large Australian Taxation Office and AFP probe into companies associated with Wright.

While Wright’s past doesn’t mean he can’t be the inventor of Bitcoin, it obviously means his claims must be treated with some serious scepticism.

The AFP and ATO probe into Wright by its serious evasion and criminal investigations unit requires particular attention.

They are investigating the ­potential rorting of millions of dollars in GST and R&D credits paid to companies associated with Wright which the ATO aren’t sure ever existed.

During the BBC interview last week Wright sought to “prove” he was Bitcoin’s founder by leaving the electronic signature of Satoshi in a message.

Wired magazine (having been burnt once) and other Bitcoin experts were still sceptical pointing out the signature could well have been faked. They argued without the movement of some of the earliest Bitcoins there was actually no proof that Wright was Satoshi.

Wright countered this and other scepticism with a claim that he would reveal “extraordinary proof” that he was Satoshi.

But just three days later Wright’s claims were again a shambles. In a bizarre blog post entitled “I’m Sorry” Wright said: “I do not have the courage” to give the categorical proof he promised. Funny that.

By his own admission Wright has tainted the credibility of those Bitcoin experts who backed him. One could also include the BBC, The Economist and GQ in this ­category.