Satoshi Nakamoto, is the pseudonym used by the anonymous founder or founders of Bitcoin.

In 2008, Satoshi released a whitepaper titled Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System, outlining a decentralized digital currency that prevented double-spending. The proposed trustless, decentralized approach leveraged the blockchain as a record of transactions and a verification process to prevent fraud. The whitepaper kickstarted the development of the entire crypto ecosystem, later inspiring the creation of Ethereum and thousands of other blockchain networks and technologies.

Now, while the identity of Satoshi has never been verified, the wallet associated with (him?) contains about 1 million BTC, equivalent to 5 percent of the total Bitcoin holdings. Do the quick math.

Like the elusive criminal Keyser Söze, the antagonist of The Usual Suspects, no one can verify Satoshi’s identity.

Several people have attempted to claim this notorious identity for themselves.

Crypto’s very own Keyser Söze?

None of these individuals are more notorious in Bitcoin circles than Craig Wright.

He was first investigated for these claims by Wired and Gizmodo; however, their investigations revealed it to be a hoax. Nonetheless, in June 2021, he sued Bitcoin.org in UK court, leading to the removal of the whitepaper due to a default rule judgment.

Wright has brought a lot of attention onto himself (almost all of it negative) by claiming to be Satoshi.

Let’s look at his claims and see just how well they stack up.

Crypto Leaders don’t believe Craig Wright

Currently Wright runs a company called nChain that develops commercial services on the blockchain using Bitcoin SV (Satoshi Vision) — a fork of the Bitcoin blockchain resultant from a disagreement between Bitcoiners — which according to him, is the “real” Bitcoin.

According to the legit copy of the Bitcoin whitepaper posted on his website (instead of all the versions that preceded it), Craig Wright is Satoshi Nakamoto.

Irrefutable proof, right?

Wright has been making these claims for more than half a decade but has not, to this day, provided any solid evidence that this is indeed true. Many in the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency communities are highly skeptical of his claims, and many of the defences come from his affiliates, as reported in CoinDesk.

Vitalik Buterin, the creator of Ethereum, famously called Wright a fraud to his face during a 2018 conference. Given the number of nonsensical rounding errors, mistakes and lack of knowledge about the actual protocol, Buterin does not believe Wright could possibly have created something as technically advanced and complex as Bitcoin.

Wright sued of course, but the case went nowhere.

Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano and a co-founder of Ethereum, tweeted in 2019 that Wright “lacks foundational knowledge, character, has a different communication style and Satoshi wasn’t down with the patents.”

Much like the ace attorney from The Simpsons, Lionel Hutz, Craig Wright has been quite litigious against many others in the crypto space (though many of his attempts are unsuccessful).

But if Craig Wright genuinely was Satoshi Nakamoto, why wouldn’t he simply leverage his massive stack of Bitcoin to prove it?

It would be very hard not to buy his claim if he could access Satoshi’s original wallet.

Well, Wright claims he doesn’t want to bend to pressure and disclose his financial records to prove he is Satoshi Nakamoto.

That’s like a bit of a kid saying to his teacher “I know the answer, but I don’t have to tell you or anyone else”.

 

Evidence does not support Craig Wright

There are plenty of other reasons to cast doubt on Craig Wright. For example, Wright has claimed that he is a lawyer specializing in financial law. This is in contrast to Satoshi Nakamoto, who responded to a question about financial law and Bitcoin, saying, “Saying I am not a lawyer and I can’t possibly answer that.”

You might think it is pretty impressive that Wright and computer engineering are also a financial lawyer. His biography reads more like Forrest Gump fan-fiction, though he does not come off nearly as well as a character. Oh, and his work history on LinkedIn has also changed throughout the years.

The Ever-Changing Craig Wright Bio

In 1987, he graduated from Brisbane’s Padua Catholic College and worked as a sauce cook, training with a catering company. Later, he studied at the University of Queensland while working as a chef, switching from engineering to computer sciences.

In 1996, his previous LinkedIn biography claimed he worked at a tech company managing engineers, while a profile in Computerworld claimed he began IT in K-Mart in 1985 (while in high school).

Also, according to the Cypherpunk mailing list archive, in September 1996, he developed cancer. He took out a loan to pay for medical treatment while also mentioning he served in the military and worked at a gas station. This did not stop him from obtaining more degrees than Doctor Doom, MD, Ph.D., FCRP. Listed on his website includes nine Master’s degrees and 2 PhDs.

Wright also claimed to work for the Australian Stock Exchange, maintaining its security and firewalls before launching his own company called DeMorgan. Until 2015, Wright was CEO of 15 companies but resigned from most of them within a week.

Currently, he states that he is the Chief Scientist of nChain, where he has held this position since 2015.

Other Contradictions

In addition to a sprawling epic of a life filled with business and academic success, Wright has also made questionable statements about Bitcoin. While Nakamoto regularly wrote that Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, Wright claimed he never said that.

In 2011, Wright was focused on setting up a gold-backed payment system; wouldn’t he know about the existence and use of Bitcoin if he was Nakamoto? He’s made several other mistakes regarding the technical details of Bitcoin and even bought and traded through Mt. Gox. The evidence for Craig Wright is slim, though that hasn’t stopped him from winning a few cases in a court of law here and there.

Craig Wright vs Bitcoin.org

Earlier in 2021, Craig Wright successfully sued the operator of Bitcoin.org, who goes by the pseudonym Cøbra for copyright infringement, asserting that he has the authorship of the Bitcoin white paper. Since the defendant was a no-show, the white paper can no longer be hosted on bitcoin.org in the UK.

A member of Wright’s legal team, Simon Cohen, Senior Associate at ONTER LLP, stated:

“Dr. Wright does not wish to restrict access to his White Paper. However, he does not agree that it should be used by supporters and developers of alternative assets, such as Bitcoin Core, to promote or otherwise misrepresent those assets as being Bitcoin given that they do not support or align with the vision for Bitcoin as he set out in his White Paper.”

Miami Lawsuit

Another lawsuit involving Wright was settled at the end of 2021. The family of his late business partner, David Kleiman, sued Wright. Since Wright claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, Kleiman’s estate was owed half of the 1 million or so bitcoin held in the Satoshi wallet, now worth billions, as well as some rights to the intellectual property behind the technology.

While the jury ruled in favor of Wright, he was ordered to pay $100 million in compensation due to a breach in intellectual property from another joint venture with Kleiman.

If Wright couldn’t reliably convince his peers he was Nakamoto, a lawyer representing Kleiman’s estate would have an even harder time.

Does Any of this Really Matter?

This is important because Satoshi Nakamoto holds 5% of the total Bitcoin supply. It’s worth billions. The owner of that Bitcoin wallet stands to be one of the wealthiest people on earth.

Do the math 1,000,000 times $50,000. It’s a lot of zeros. Elon Musk’s net worth is $240 billion FYI, but many people predict that BTC will climb to $100k or more in the coming years.

It’s kind of a big deal.

Just try to imagine if a person like Craig Wright had far too much influence over something like Bitcoin. I can’t see how it would be a good thing for the rest of us.