14 DAY TRIAL // The search for Satoshi Nakamoto, the fake name given to the mysterious person who invented Bitcoin, seems to have just concluded, and now, we may finally know who's responsible for the cryptocurrency's creation.
According to recently leaked documents, old (deleted) blog posts, and interviews, the persons responsible for creating Bitcoin are Australian businessman Craig Wright and deceased US computer expert Dave Kleiman.
What makes this "result" stand out from the other rumors that circulated about Satoshi Nakamoto's real identity is that it's the outcome of two parallel investigations carried out by reporters from Wired and Gizmodo. Other previous investigations by journalists from New Yorker, Fast Company, New York Times, and Newsweek provided different or inconclusive results.
There's quite some convincing evidence
According to evidence uncovered by the two newspapers, Wright published scientific papers regarding cryptocurrency and triple entry accounting in 2005, which proves he had the knowledge to build the cryptocurrency in the first place.
Secondly, Wright also published many articles on his personal blogs, which were deleted but remained stored in Web archives and caches. In 2009, a day after Bitcoin's launch, Wright was writing, "The Beta of Bitcoin is live tomorrow. This is decentralized… We try until it works."
Furthermore, Wright also registered an email address in the form of [email protected]. Later on, official communication from Satoshi Nakamoto would be carried out via [email protected]. The email address was recorded months before Bitcoin's release.
On top of these, Wired quotes leaked emails between Wright and his lawyer, talking about P2P distributed ledgers and a research paper called "Electronic Cash Without a Trusted Third Party."
Other emails involve exchanges between Wright and Kleiman about the creation of a so-called Tulip Trust fund worth 1.1 million Bitcoins, which later would remain one of the biggest fortunes on the Bitcoin blockchain, and many would attribute as being owned by Satoshi Nakamoto. One email read, "I have been working on a new form of electronic money. Bit cash, bit coin …"
There are also early investments from Wright in a failed Bitcoin bank, where Wright used large amounts of Bitcoin. For someone to own so much cryptocurrency in Bitcoin's early stages means they would have had to be there from the beginning.
Wright is an avid cryptographer and builder of supercomputers
Additionally, Wright was also an avid reader and subscriber to the Cypherpunks mailing lists, dating back to the '90s. Later in life, he would create two supercomputers, one named Sukuriputo Okane (Japanese for Script Money), and the other named Co1n. Co1n is today the largest supercomputer owned by a private individual.
All these clues show a genius that is an avid fan of cryptography. Couple this with numerous anti-establishment interviews he gave during his lifetime, and you have the perfect recipe for a man motivated enough to create Bitcoin.
As soon as the news story broke, The Guardian reported on a police raid on Wright's properties (house and offices) by Australian authorities. Australian police said the raids were in connection with an investigation by the Australian Taxation Office.