This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/03/business/dealbook/bitcoin-craig-wright-satoshi-nakamoto.html

The article has changed 6 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 1 Version 2
Australian Entrepreneur Says He Created Bitcoin Australian Entrepreneur Says He Created Bitcoin, but Doubts Persist
(about 2 hours later)
An Australian entrepreneur claimed on Monday to be the creator of the online currency Bitcoin. It is another mystery about the mysterious founder of Bitcoin.
Craig Steven Wright, a computer entrepreneur, told the BBC, The Economist and GQ magazine that he was the currency’s creator. He said he had been forced to come forward because so many people were pursuing him. An Australian entrepreneur claimed on Monday to be the creator of the online currency Bitcoin. But almost immediately, digital currency developers expressed doubt about the claim.
“I didn’t take the decision lightly to make my identity public, and I want to be clear that I’m doing this because I care so passionately about my work and also to dispel any negative myths and fears about Bitcoin and the blockchain,” Mr. Wright said in a news release. Craig Steven Wright, a computer entrepreneur, told the BBC, The Economist and GQ magazine that he was the currency’s founder. He said he had been forced to come forward because so many people were pursuing him.
The BBC said Mr. Wright had provided digitally signed messages using cryptographic keys inextricably linked to Bitcoins generated by Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym previously linked to the currency’s creator. Mr. Wright said he had received help creating the currency from Hal Finney, a renowned cryptographer. “I didn’t take the decision lightly to make my identity public,” Mr. Wright said in a news release, “and I want to be clear that I’m doing this because I care so passionately about my work, and also to dispel any negative myths and fears about Bitcoin.”
Speculation about the identity of Bitcoin’s creator has been rife since the currency surfaced in 2009. In December 2015, Wired magazine and the technology website Gizmodo identified Mr. Wright as the man behind Satoshi Nakamoto. The latest twist in Bitcoin’s origins story comes as the virtual currency faces an existential crisis over its evolution. Bitcoin’s longtime backers have been split recently over how to grow the Bitcoin network. In the meantime, the growth of the system has stalled.
At the same time, the Australian Federal Police raided Mr. Wright’s home in suburban Sydney in connection with a tax investigation. Mr. Wright told the BBC that he was cooperating with the Australian Tax Office. The Australian tax authorities have said they determined that Mr. Wright is not Mr. Sakamoto. Founded as a digital competitor to existing currencies, Bitcoin has moved more into the mainstream of late. Financial institutions are putting resources into researching how they can use the blockchain, the currency’s communal digital ledger, to make transactions faster and cheaper. Competition, too, has risen, with a host of new virtual currencies, like Ethereum.
However, Gavin Andresen, who succeeded Satoshi Nakamoto as a lead Bitcoin developer, wrote Monday on his blog that he believed Mr. Wright’s claim. While some see an opportunity to expand Bitcoin into the commercial realm, many purists want it to maintain its outsider status. And the mystery surrounding Bitcoin’s founder, a developer who went by the name Satoshi Nakamoto, has been central to the virtual currency’s cachet since it surfaced in 2009.
Satoshi, as the creator became known, communicated only by electronic message, never revealed his or her true identity and cut off all communication in 2011. That led to frequent speculation about Satoshi’s identity — speculation that proved wrong. In perhaps the most notable example, Newsweek claimed in 2014 that the founder was Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, a physicist living in California. He denied being the Bitcoin founder.
To back up the latest claims, the BBC said Mr. Wright had provided digitally signed messages using cryptographic keys inextricably linked to Bitcoin generated by Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym previously linked to the currency’s creator. Mr. Wright also posted evidence on his blog, where he wrote, “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.”
Mr. Wright was first identified as Satoshi Nakamoto in December 2015 by Wired magazine and the technology website Gizmodo.
Soon after those articles were published, the Australian Federal Police raided Mr. Wright’s home in a suburb of Sydney in connection with a tax investigation. The Australian tax authorities said at the time that they had determined that Mr. Wright was not Satoshi Nakamoto.
Gavin Andresen, who succeeded Satoshi Nakamoto as the lead Bitcoin developer, wrote on Monday on his blog that he believed Mr. Wright’s claim.
“After spending time with him, I am convinced beyond a reasonable doubt: Craig Wright is Satoshi,” Mr. Andresen wrote. “During our meeting, I saw the brilliant, opinionated, focused, generous — and privacy-seeking — person that matches the Satoshi I worked with six years ago.“After spending time with him, I am convinced beyond a reasonable doubt: Craig Wright is Satoshi,” Mr. Andresen wrote. “During our meeting, I saw the brilliant, opinionated, focused, generous — and privacy-seeking — person that matches the Satoshi I worked with six years ago.
Bitcoin was for a time associated with the online drug bazaar Silk Road, but interest has grown in its potential as a payment method for legitimate purposes. Financial institutions are putting resources into researching how they can use the blockchain, the currency’s digital communal ledger, to make transactions faster and cheaper. But the Bitcoin community was not in consensus. Another one of the leading developers working on Bitcoin’s basic software, Gregory Maxwell, said that the evidence presented by Mr. Wright was not enough to convince him.
Even as the currency has attracted mainstream interest, the Bitcoin community has been riven. Competing virtual currencies, like Ethereum, have been developed, offering alternative systems that can also allow money and assets to be exchanged faster than through traditional methods. “It demonstrates no connection between this person and Bitcoin’s creation,” Mr. Maxwell wrote in an email to The New York Times.
Michael Marquardt, a programmer who is in charge of Bitcoin discussion boards, wrote on Reddit under the screen name “theymos” that Mr. Wright’s new writings suggested an effort to deceive the public.
Mr. Maxwell and Mr. Marquardt stand in opposition to Mr. Andresen in the division over the best way to grow the Bitcoin network.
Mr. Wright, in interviews, has placed himself on Mr. Andresen’s side. The divisions are already coloring the debate within the Bitcoin community over whether Mr. Wright is in fact Satoshi Nakamoto.
The main Reddit page dedicated to Bitcoin was full of conversation on Monday about the legitimacy of Mr. Wright’s claims.