Earlier this week that Australian entrepreneur and computer scientist Craig Wright had outed himself as Satoshi Nakamoto – aka the originator of virtual currency bitcoin – but now Wright has taken back his promise to produce final proof of his claims.
First announcing himself on Tuesday, Wright proved himself by posting what a digital signature linked to one of the first ever Bitcoin transactions, signed using a private key that only the real Satoshi Nakamoto could have access to.
However with speculation that the signature had been directly copied from a 2009-era bitcoin transaction and might not have been freshly created, his claims have been questioned many in the tech community. Wright then promised to reveal further evidence proving his claims, but has since reconsidered.
Erasing his blog yesterday leaving only a message with the headline “I’m Sorry” Wright acknowledged that while he continues to maintain he truly is Nakamoto, without the proof he was going to reveal, few people will believe him.
“I believed that I could do this,” he wrote. “I believed that I could put the years of anonymity and hiding behind me. But, as the events of this week unfolded and I prepared to publish the proof of access to the earliest keys, I broke. I do not have the courage. I cannot.”
Citing the immense public scrutiny and accusations that followed his revelation, Wright explains that he is not as up to the task as he thought he was. “When the rumors began, my qualifications and character were attacked. When those allegations were proven false, new allegations have already begun. I know now that I am not strong enough for this.”
Apologising to the two senior bitcoin figures who had helped verify his claims before he went public, Wright wrote:
“I know that this weakness will cause great damage to those that have supported me, and particularly to Jon Matonis and Gavin Andresen. I can only hope that their honour and credibility is not irreparably tainted by my actions. They were not deceived, but I know that the world will never believe that now. I can only say I’m sorry. And goodbye.”
Matonis is particular still seems to hold faith in Wright, Tweeting yesterday that “there won’t be an on-chain signing from early bitcoin blocks, but there also won’t be another Satoshi.”
Andresen, however, had already publicly questioned Wright’s evidence, saying on Tuesday: “I was as surprised by the ‘proof’ as anyone, and don’t yet know exactly what is going on.”
Both Matonis and Andresen were to help Wright verify his claims according to Rory Cellan-Jones, the BBC reporter who was one of the first publicize Wright’s revelation. As Jones describes it, Wright had asked him, Andresen and Matonis to help in the process, and had even begun it when he had a change of heart.
Asking each of them to transfer about £5 to a bitcoin address used in the first bitcoin transaction, Wright was to return the money, proving he had access to that most hallowed address. But while they did send the money on Wednesday, Wright never returned it.
Potentially making this the cheapest internet scam of all time, even if Wright had returned the money, however, many would still argue it wasn’t proof enough. Claiming to have had access to that specific bitcoin address – which corresponds to the ninth block of bitcoin to be created – multiple times, as real Nakamoto would be able to access many other private keys, including the “genesis block” itself, the accusations of fraud are hardly baseless.
Still as Wright apparently demonstrated his access to that block to the Economist’s Ludwig Siegele and Andresen among others in private, there still remain more questions than answers.
And with Wright about to slink back off into the shadows, it doesn’t look like we can expect more anytime soon.
