Investigations: Satoshi Nakamoto, Mysterious Inventor of Bitcoin, Is Probably an Australian Computer Genius Named Craig Wright
By Thought you’d escape 2015 without another intense investigation into the real-life identity of Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto? Think again. This afternoon, Wired published the results of a weeks-long investigation into Craig Steven Wright, an Australian economist and cryptographer, with compelling evidence that matches Wright to the few details known about Nakamoto.
The identity of Nakamoto, who publicized the concept of a decentralized peer-to-peer currency in a 2008 whitepaper, has never been revealed. That hasn’t stopped people from feverishly speculating. Wired’s case — based on archived blog posts, financial records, and leaked documents, with no confirmation from Wright — is the most compelling of the many candidates that have been previously named. In years-old blog posts cited by Wired, Wright discusses concepts that would later form the core of the Bitcoin whitepaper published in November 2008; another post seems to mention Bitcoin before its official launch.
Perhaps the most persuasive evidence is that Wright is likely linked to a PGP encryption key known to be used by Nakamoto as well. “[The key,] when checked against the database of the MIT server where it was stored, is associated with the email address satoshin@vistomail.com, an email address very similar to the satoshi@vistomail.com address Nakamoto used to send the whitepaper introducing bitcoin to a cryptography mailing list.”
