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Craig Wright identifies himself as Bitcoin founder

Wright said his admission is an effort to end speculation about the identity of the originator of the currency.

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Yesterday, Australian entrepreneur Craig Wright claimed he was Satoshi Nakamoto, using coins known to belong to Bitcoin’s owner as proof.

Even though, Wright had already expressed his plan of releasing information that would allow others to cryptographically verify his claim, still a lot of people remain doubtful and have even called on Wright to go further in proving that he really is Satoshi Nakamoto.

People who use Bitcoins do not have to use traditional banks, credit cards or other financial services when they use the electronic currency.

Mr Wright has spoken to the BBC, The Economist and GQ magazine. These keys had to be created by Nakamoto, the pseudonym used at the time by the currency’s creator, the broadcaster said.

“These are the blocks used to send 10 bitcoins to Hal Finney in January [2009] as the first bitcoin transaction”, Wright stated to the BBC.

Gavin Andresen, another of bitcoin’s core developers who worked closely with Nakamoto in bitcoin’s early days, said on Monday he believes Wright is the cryptocurrency’s inventor.

Wright’s name first surfaced in December 2015, when Wired and Gizmodo both published stories that identified Wright as the probable creator.

“Satoshi is dead”, he said.

As to why he is now spilling the beans, Wright said in a statement “I care so passionately about my work, and also to dispel negative myths and fears about bitcoin”. Bitcoin became very popular in the recent years but no one knew who started the encrypted currency. “I don’t want money, I don’t want fame, I don’t want adoration”.

A former next door neighbour told AAP on Tuesday that Mr Wright, his wife and two children had moved out of the house before the raid in December and said he believed the family had since relocated to London. Wright revealed that he had been pushed to come forward because so many people were pursuing him.

His then social-media profile suggested a man with an enthusiasm for virtual currency and computing. “I don’t want any of them to be impacted by this”. “I just want to be left alone”. There are now about 15.5 million bitcoins in circulation.

Wright presented digital signature files as “proof” that he is Satoshi Nakamoto – but, according to Reddit user JoukeH, the signature is from much later Bitcoin transactions and is not of the Satre text.

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There is now no publicly available cryptographic proof that anyone in particular is Bitcoin’s creator.

Creator of Bitcoin digital cash reveals identity