The identity of bitcoin’s creator remains an unsolved mystery. “You are digging, the question is how deep are you?” was the cryptic response from the address [email protected], a reference to a William Gibson novel that came from an IP address controlled by Vistomail, which Satoshi Nakamoto also used.
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Investigations by Wired magazine and Gizmodo point to 45-year-old Australian entrepreneur Craig Steven Wright as real creator of the world’s most popular cryptocurrency.
– A transcript of Wright meeting his lawyers, in which he says “I did my best to try and hide the fact that I’ve been running bitcoin since 2009”.
Asher Tan of CoinJar, Australia’s largest bitcoin exchange, and is skeptical of Wired’s claim, pointing out the bitcoin community relies on mathematical proof trumping speculation and should be looking for solid technical proof.
Based on Wright’s LinkedIn profile, he is involved in a number of Australian tech enterprises including holding the role of CEO at DeMorgan, a “pre-IPO Australian-listed company focused on alternative currency” that controls companies such as C01N, an electronic wallet and transaction processor based on the bitcoin blockchain.
George Frey/Getty Images Gizmodo and Wired both believe they’ve found the creators of Bitcoin. The anonymous tipster also provided Gizmodo several email files that were from an Outlook account that allegedly belonged to White.
Dave Kleiman via YouTube Craig Steven Wright, is an Australian businessman based in Sydney, and Dave Kleiman (pictured), was an American computer forensics expert who died in 2013. “But I believe in what we are trying to do”.
Tsvetnenko said Wright was not only adamant that the cybercurrency’s protocol “should be adopted and built up” but he also made a little joke about Bitcoin.
On top of those sources, there is a mountain of evidence that suggest Dr Wright is behind bitcoin, starting with a now deleted blog post from 2008 that he published. You can read full Gizmodo report here.
More than a dozen Australian Federal Police (AFP) officers and taxation officials entered Wright’s house on Sydney’s North Shore.
However the police force said in a statement that the move was not linked to “media reporting… about bitcoins”.
That being said, the timing of these events does seem awfully close…
Previously, Newsweek claimed the founder was a Californian man Satoshi Nakamoto who then told the Associated Press that he had nothing to do with bitcoin. That man, coincidentally named Satoshi Nakamoto, claimed to have no knowledge of the cryptocurrency and has maintained that stance ever since.
“Newsweek published this story because we felt it is an important one”.
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Earlier this year there was said to be around US$7bn-worth of the virtual currency in circulation, a total that is rising rapidly.
