The mystery began in October 2008 with the publication of Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. The paper, which described the technology that would power a new digital currency, was signed “Satoshi Nakamoto”.
From that moment the hunt was on to unmask this mysterious figure who communicated with collaborating software engineers only through electronic messages. Several individuals were suspects — among them an Irish student, a Finnish sociologist and a Japanese man of that name living in California. All flatly denied that they were the “real” Satoshi.
Yesterday Craig Wright, 45, an Australian computer scientist, stepped forward to claim that he was bitcoin’s enigmatic creator.
“Satoshi is dead,” he wrote in a blog post. “But this is only the beginning.”
Digital currencies have no physical form, existing only as strings of computer code. Bitcoin is the most widely traded.
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There are about 15.5 million bitcoins in circulation, worth about £4.7 billion altogether, or £303 each. Their price has fluctuated wildly since their launch, hitting a peak of £833 in November 2013. More recently the value has stabilised at about £300.
The hunt for Satoshi had become an obsession in the bitcoin world, largely because the currency’s creator is likely to be very wealthy, as he holds an estimated one million coins. When bitcoin was launched in 2008, that stash was worth next to nothing. Even by late 2009 a pizza cost 10,000 bitcoins.
In his post Mr Wright set out the evidence that he was the real Satoshi, claiming that he held a digital “key” that only the creator of the bitcoin could possess.
“I have not been idle during these many years,” he said. “Since those early days, after distancing myself from the public persona that was Satoshi, I have poured every measure of myself into research . . . I have been silent, but I have not been absent. I have been engaged with an exceptional group and look forward to sharing our remarkable work when they are ready.”
He made clear that he would seek to return to the shadows.
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This was the evidence that many Satoshi-hunters needed.
“I believe Craig Steven Wright is the person who invented bitcoin,” said Gavin Andresen, chief scientist at the Bitcoin Foundation, who claimed to have met Mr Wright in London two weeks ago. “During our meeting I saw the brilliant, opinionated, focused, generous — and privacy-seeking — person that matches the Satoshi I worked with six years ago,” he said.
Others were less sure. “There is currently no publicly available cryptographic proof that anyone in particular is bitcoin’s creator,” a tweet from the Bitcoin Core Project said.
Mr Wright said that he did not intend to sell his entire bitcoin stake at once, which — if he is indeed the creator — would risk a collapse in the price of the currency. He said that he would offload it slowly to fund further research.
His outing did not come as a complete surprise. In December the Wired and Gizmodo websites published what they said was leaked evidence that the Australian was Satoshi Nakamoto. Mr Wright said nothing at the time.