After Years Of Anonymity, The Creator Of Bitcoin Has Been Identified
The most shocking/boring twist of all.
In a twist both shocking and excessively boring, the identity of the creator of the world’s first and most succcessful cryptocurrency, Bitcoin — and the mastermind behind the software upon which the entire system is based — has finally been revealed.
After years of speculation that ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’ was a pseudonym for either a group of collaborators or a genius kid in Japan, Newsweek‘s Leah McGrath Goodman took a searingly logical step that no one had yet thought to take: tracking down the few people in the world whose names are actually Satoshi Nakamoto.
And, she claims, she found him: a highly secretive 64-year-old Japanese-American engineer with six children, a penchant for model-steam trains and a modest home in California, who may or may not own 1 million Bitcoins — to the value of USD$657 million, at time of writing — and perhaps the ability to shut down the whole operation.
The fall-out from the article, which was released overnight, has been pretty spectacular — not least among his “flabbergasted” family. Not only did the journalist reveal the identity of someone who did not want to be revealed (“I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it,” he says at one point, after calling the cops on her. “It’s been turned over to other people. They are in charge of it now. I no longer have any connection.”), but she published a photo of him and his house — a “doxing” over which Reddit is outraged.
Unsurprising, press are now chasing Nakamoto and surrounding his home, as he denies his involvement and takes press on a goose chase all over L.A.
Bitcoin’s Australian lead engineer Gavin Andresen (who never actually met Nakamoto, and cut off all ties with him in 2011 as the founder distanced himself from his currency) talked to Newsweek for the story — and is pretty pissed off about it.
I’m disappointed Newsweek decided to dox the Nakamoto family, and regret talking to Leah.
— Gavin Andresen (@gavinandresen) March 6, 2014
Leah McGrath Goodman reveals the great forensic lengths she took to arrive at his identity here and here — and you can read the story on Newsweek here.