Image: drcraigwright.net Craig Wright claims he invented bitcoin WTF, bitcoin?
The identity of bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto continues to be one big dramatic, confusing question mark.
On Monday, The BBC and The Economist and GQ all reported that Australian businessman Craig Steven Wright made a very credible claim to be Nakamoto .
Backed by a blog post by Wright — and with the support of Bitcoin Foundation chief scientist Gavin Andresen — it looked like we might finally know the identity of one of technology’s most elusive figures.
Wright, you may recall, was previously pegged as Nakamoto in reports from Wired and Gizmodo last year. Those reports were immediately scrutinized , with Wired later reporting it felt Wright’s claim of creating bitcoin may have just been an elaborate hoax .
But this time it was supposed to be different. Not only did Wright pen his own blog post claiming to be Nakamoto, Bitcoin Foundation chief scientist Gavin Andresen — a man that used to be the bitcoin project lead — wrote that he, too, believed Wright was the elusive bitcoin creator.
Still, Andresen’s support hasn’t been enough to quell suspicions and skepticism in the bitcoin and security communities. In fact, many are more sure than ever that Wright is still perpetrating an elaborate hoax. The problem with keys
Wright’s claim that he is actually Satoshi Nakamoto all comes down to signed cryptographic keys.Wright claims to be in possession of cryptographic keys that only the real Satoshi Nakamoto would have access to.Cryptographic keys work in pairs. There is a public key and a private key. A user can sign (encrypt) an email or file with their private key and it can be validated as belonging to that person by being decrypted with the public key.For years, there has been discussion in the bitcoin community about […]
