One of the mysteries surrounding Bitcoin’s creation may have finally been solved. Newsweek reporter Leah McGrath Goodman thinks she has found the man known only as Satoshi Nakamoto, and his real name is – Satoshi Nakamoto.
Most people have assumed that the name attached to the anonymity-obsessed crypto-currency inventor was a pseudonym, not a great leap of logic, but it sounds like Goodman decided to go through everyone with that name she could find in case any of them were the real deal (a few have laid claim to the title, but their stories didn’t pan out).
Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto confirms his involvement, but not that he invented Bitcoin
She eventually stumbled on a man living in California, now going by Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, whose friends and colleagues describe as equal parts brilliant, reclusive, and unforgiving of mistakes, all of which jives with the experiences of people who worked with Nakamoto in the early Bitcoin days. Some people say that Dorian S. Nakamoto has worked on classified projects for the US military, and Goodman claims that the writing under both names share a number of idiosyncrasies including a mix of American and British spellings, odd use of abbreviations, and the largely abandoned double space after a period.
When Goodman went to Dorian S. Nakamoto’s home and asked him directly if he had invented Bitcoin he told her “I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it… It’s been turned over to other people. They are in charge of it now. I no longer have any connection.”
Then the police he had previously called asked Goodman to leave. It’s not a confirmation, but it’s miles away from a denial too.
Why hasn’t Nakamoto spent his Bitcoins?
The one big question that remains is, why isn’t Nakamoto rich? Or if not rich, at least comfortable. Satoshi Nakamoto could be enormously wealthy by selling his Bitcoins, not to mention get a snapped up by any number of tech firms if he puts his name out there, but Dorian S. Nakamoto is broke. His own brother described him as ‘an asshole,’ but he wouldn’t be the first brilliant, difficult employee to find a home in Silicon Valley.
It’s possible that he somehow lost his security keys, but no one that knows Dorian S. or Satoshi Nakamoto believes that would happen.
“When programmers get together, we don’t talk about who Satoshi Nakamoto is,” said Bitcoin Foundation chief scientist Gavin Andresen, summing up the reality of the situation. “We talk about how we should have invested in more Bitcoin. I mean, we’re curious about it, but honestly, we really don’t care.”
