44-year-old Australian businessman Craig Wright has claimed that he is Bitcoin creator, Satoshi Nakamoto.The claim was made in a blog post on Craig Wright’s website, in which he stated that “Satoshi is dead," before adding that this is only the beginning.In the blog post, the businessman states: “If I sign Craig Wright, it is not the same as if I sign Craig Wright, Satoshi… Since those early days, I have poured every measure of myself into research. I have been silent, but I have not been absent."Wright references a quote from Jean-Paul Sartre in his blog post, in which he originally stated: “If I sign myself Jean-Paul Sartre it is not the same thing as if I sign myself Jean-Paul Sartre, Nobel Prizewinner."
To further prove that he is the Bitcoin creator, Craig Wright also published a technical explanation of how the incredibly popular Bitcoinservice verifies a “set of cryptographic keys," along with posting lines of code.Up until now, the identity of Mr.
Nakamoto has been shrouded in secrecy and has remained a mystery, but Wright’s admission may not end speculation.
Is he the real deal?
Whilst Craig Wright has made his admission rather public, the authenticity of the claim was originally called into question by Internet users.However, The Economist reports that they, along with the BBC and GQ Magazine had access to Craig Wright before he published the blog post. In the time that they had with him, they interviewed him, reviewed documentation, and saw coins that are believed to only be owned by the creator of Bitcoin.Despite the three publications spending time with Mr. Wright, there are still questions that need to be answered. The Economist states that they do believe that Wright could indeed be the creator of Bitcoin, but we may never really know for sure.Although, Reuters believes that by unmasking the identity of the digital currency creator, it may allow the service to prosper even further.
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This is not the first time that Wright’s name has been linked to Bitcoin with speculation that Satoshi Nakamoto is his alter ego.Back in December 2015, Wright’s home in Sydney was raided by police, in which Wired Magazine named him as the owner of Bitcoin.Following the raid on his home, Wright went quiet online, which only increased speculation at the time.