A man enters the Inside Bitcoins conference and trade show Monday in New York.

A man enters the Inside Bitcoins conference and trade show Monday in New York.

Bitcoin’s self-proclaimed founder backtracks

  • By Ryan Nakashima Associated Press
  • Thursday, May 5, 2016 11:29am
  • Business

LOS ANGELES — The man who claimed to be the mysterious founder of bitcoin appears to be stepping back into the shadows, leaving numerous questions in his wake.

Three days after Australian entrepreneur Craig Wright came forward as “Satoshi Nakamoto,” the unknown creator of the digital currency bitcoin, he has backtracked in a dramatic fashion. He wrote in a blog post that he does not “have the courage” to publish additional proof, as he promised Wednesday, that he is the elusive creator of the Internet currency.

Wright’s initial claims drew widespread skepticism. He said on Wednesday that he would provide verifiable documentation and take additional steps to prove his identity. Instead, he scrubbed his blog clean of past entries and posted a short statement titled “I’m Sorry.”

Wright didn’t explicitly renounce his claim to have created bitcoin. He merely wrote Thursday that he thought he could “put the years of anonymity and hiding behind me.” But as this week’s events unfolded, he wrote, “I am not strong enough for this.”

“I can only say I’m sorry,” he wrote at the end of the post. “And goodbye.”

The search for Nakamoto has been a parlor game for journalists and online sleuths since he disappeared from online forums in late 2010. Wright claimed to be Nakamoto in interviews with the Economist, BBC, GQ and a few bitcoin insiders in stories published Monday. He bolstered it with technical demonstrations that two of those insiders vouched for, but failed to repeat those proofs in ways that would allow anyone else to verify them.

Skeptics reacted harshly to the public proof Wright did offer. For instance, he purported to sign a passage from Jean-Paul Sartre with one of Nakamoto’s private encryption keys. Experts argued he hadn’t done that at all, and instead had merely republished a snippet from a historical bitcoin transaction signed by the original Nakamoto.

Other posts Wright made following his revelation came under fire as well. One of his blog posts attacked a 2013 paper that described how the bitcoin system could be gamed by a group of insiders the paper called “selfish miners.” Some readers of the post said it showed a fundamental misunderstanding of the risks.

“Sadly, Craig did not get it,” said Emin Gun Sirer, a Cornell University computer science professor who co-authored the original paper. “It seemed like he failed to understand what the whole attack was about. That completely made me doubt his veracity.”

Some had argued the identity of the founder shouldn’t matter. Bitcoin’s code has been updated many times since its founding and a debate over how to cope with a looming capacity problem will be resolved by bitcoin “miners” who keep the currency system running, not by the opinion of one person — even Nakamoto, whoever that might be.

Still, the accounts associated with Nakamoto control around 1 million bitcoin worth more than $450 million and their sale could disrupt a bitcoin market worth nearly $7 billion today.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Business

Black Press Media operates Sound Publishing, the largest community news organization in Washington State with dailies and community news outlets in Alaska.
Black Press Media concludes transition of ownership

Black Press Media, which operates Sound Publishing, completed its sale Monday (March 25), following the formerly announced corporate restructuring.

Maygen Hetherington, executive director of the Historic Downtown Snohomish Association, laughs during an interview in her office on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024, in Snohomish, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Maygen Hetherington: tireless advocate for the city of Snohomish

Historic Downtown Snohomish Association receives the Opportunity Lives Here award from Economic Alliance.

FILE - Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs poses in front of photos of the 15 people who previously held the office on Nov. 22, 2021, after he was sworn in at the Capitol in Olympia, Wash. Hobbs faces several challengers as he runs for election to the office he was appointed to last fall. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
Secretary of State Steve Hobbs: ‘I wanted to serve my country’

Hobbs, a former Lake Stevens senator, is the recipient of the Henry M. Jackson Award from Economic Alliance Snohomish County.

Mark Duffy poses for a photo in his office at the Mountain Pacific Bank headquarters on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
Mark Duffy: Building a hometown bank; giving kids an opportunity

Mountain Pacific Bank’s founder is the recipient of the Fluke Award from Economic Alliance Snohomish County.

Barb Tolbert poses for a photo at Silver Scoop Ice Cream on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
Barb Tolbert: Former mayor piloted Arlington out of economic brink

Tolbert won the Elson S. Floyd Award, honoring a leader who has “created lasting opportunities” for the underserved.

Photo provided by 
Economic Alliance
Economic Alliance presented one of the Washington Rising Stem Awards to Katie Larios, a senior at Mountlake Terrace High School.
Mountlake Terrace High School senior wins state STEM award

Katie Larios was honored at an Economic Alliance gathering: “A champion for other young women of color in STEM.”

The Westwood Rainier is one of the seven ships in the Westwood line. The ships serve ports in the Pacific Northwest and Northeast Asia. (Photo provided by Swire Shipping)
Westwood Shipping Lines, an Everett mainstay, has new name

The four green-hulled Westwood vessels will keep their names, but the ships will display the Swire Shipping flag.

A Keyport ship docked at Lake Union in Seattle in June 2018. The ship spends most of the year in Alaska harvesting Golden King crab in the Bering Sea. During the summer it ties up for maintenance and repairs at Lake Union. (Keyport LLC)
In crabbers’ turbulent moment, Edmonds seafood processor ‘saved our season’

When a processing plant in Alaska closed, Edmonds-based business Keyport stepped up to solve a “no-win situation.”

Angela Harris, Executive Director of the Port of Edmonds, stands at the port’s marina on Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024, in Edmonds, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Leadership, love for the Port of Edmonds got exec the job

Shoring up an aging seawall is the first order of business for Angela Harris, the first woman to lead the Edmonds port.

The Cascade Warbirds fly over Naval Station Everett. (Sue Misao / The Herald file)
Bothell High School senior awarded $2,500 to keep on flying

Cascade Warbirds scholarship helps students 16-21 continue flight training and earn a private pilot’s certificate.

Rachel Gardner, the owner of Musicology Co., a new music boutique record store on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024 in Edmonds, Washington. Musicology Co. will open in February, selling used and new vinyl, CDs and other music-related merchandise. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
New Edmonds record shop intends to be a ‘destination for every musician’

Rachel Gardner opened Musicology Co. this month, filling a record store gap in Edmonds.

MyMyToyStore.com owner Tom Harrison at his brick and mortar storefront on Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Burst pipe permanently closes downtown Everett toy store

After a pipe flooded the store, MyMyToystore in downtown Everett closed. Owner Tom Harrison is already on to his next venture.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.