Australian Entrepreneur Craig Wright is Satoshi Nakamoto

For those of you aware of the history about Bitcoin, the name Satoshi Nakamoto has likely been as much of an enigma for you as for others. BBC reports that Australian entrepreneur Craig Wright is the real Satoshi Nakamoto, and Wright has gone on record saying that he simply, to paraphrase, "wants to be left alone." People have been pressuring those close to and associated with Wright, so he is apparently identifying himself as the inventor of Bitcoin to get folks to concentrate on him instead.

Mr Wright has provided technical proof to back up his claim using coins known to be owned by Bitcoin's creator.

Prominent members of the Bitcoin community and its core development team say they have confirmed his claims.

But many others in the Bitcoin world are asking for more proof.

Signed blocks

Mr Wright has revealed his identity to three media organisations - the BBC, the Economist and GQ.

At the meeting with the BBC, Mr Wright digitally signed messages using cryptographic keys created during the early days of Bitcoin's development. The keys are inextricably linked to blocks of bitcoins known to have been created or "mined" by Satoshi Nakamoto.

BBC Article - Click Here

I think that this has been a fascinating experiment related to the point of intersection between philosophy and commerce. Decentralized currency is a radical idea, and Bitcoin miners and economists have seen its high and low states of being. If he is the inventor, I think his choice was a moral one.

What do you think about this event?

Is no one aware of Bitcoin?

I remember reading his name in the news months ago. I don't get why all the focus is on him tho...

Being recognized as the creator of an accepted form of currency is significant, though if you are wondering about why Craig Wright, specifically, is being focused on then you can read the quoted section. There, it states that prominent Bitcoin community folks confirmed his data signature matched the original source of Bitcoin's ideas. As I understand it, that basically confirms his identity.

or no one cares :P

Not sure if I'm convinced.

I guess this is a case of rational ignorance where users consider the incentives of learning about Bitcoin as outweighed by the costs.

We know about BitCoins, we just don't care because they're now hard to get as we don't own factories of PC's that push to get bitcoins. :3

Can still invest in them and expect a good return as prices fluctuate with other currencies.

I think its a rip off / economical experiment, not art ...

@FireEmblem_Man:

At the moment, I am more interested in the historicity of the events surrounding Bitcoin.

Also, I wonder how someone can know about Bitcoins without being aware of its creator. I would not say that is really knowing.

@BranKetra: That's an odd claim. A mechanic can know an electric car like the back of his hand without knowing that it was invented by Robert Anderson, and knowing that Robert Anderson invented the thing doesn't mean I understand the contraption itself. Likewise, many people who know the creator of bitcoin are completely unaware of it's technical machinations and of it's strengths and weaknesses.

@mattbbpl: It is not odd if knowledge is considered holistic rather than compartmentalized.

@BranKetra: I guess I can see the viewpoint. I just don't agree that you don't "know a topic" unless you "know everything about a topic", but that's largely just a matter of semantics.

@mattbbpl: My comment was mainly a reminder about knowledge. People may claim superiority based on current awareness, but it is relative to people who understand other information that reflects their own. Hence, people may say that "we know about Bitcoin," but the historicity may not be clear to that group while others are aware of that very knowledge along with what they know.

It is an emphasis on the relevance of this thread.

Isn't this old news? Thought people already debunked that claim?

@bmanva: As I understand it, the opposite transpired with people such as Gavin Andresen who is chief scientist at the Bitcoin Foundation verifying his claim.