Australian techie Wright claims he created bitcoin

Sydney/Singapore, May 2

Australian tech entrepreneur Craig Wright told the BBC that he was the creator of controversial digital currency bitcoin, but some scepticism remained about the identity of a person who until now has gone by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto.

The BBC reported on Monday that Wright gave some technical proof demonstrating that he had access to blocks of bitcoins known to have been created by bitcoin’s creator.

Unmasking Nakamoto could be significant for the future of bitcoin, a computer-generated, digital alternative to other currencies that has attracted the interest of banks, speculators, criminals and regulators.

Researchers believe Nakamoto may be holding up to one million bitcoins, which is worth about $440 million, and the price of the cryptocurrency could plunge if that was to be unloaded.

Wright declined requests from The Economist to provide further proof that he was Nakamoto.

“Our conclusion is that Mr Wright could well be Mr Nakamoto, but that important questions remain,” The Economist said.

“Indeed, it may never be possible to establish beyond reasonable doubt who really created bitcoin.”

The BBC said prominent members of the bitcoin community had confirmed Wright’s claim. “I was the main part of it, but other people helped me,” the BBC quoted Wright as saying.

Hopes that bitcoin would become broadly used helped buoy its price to more than $1,000 in December 2013, when its market capitalisation was $13 billion.

But the market cap has retreated since then, to about $7 billion currently. Bitcoin fell more than 3% after news of Wright’s claims, from $454.89 to below $440, before recovering slightly. Reuters