Craig Wright was first outed as the Bitcoin founder in December by Wired Magazine and Gizmodo.
Australian entrepreneur Craig Wright has submitted "solid technical proof" to three media organisations -- BBC, The Economist and GQ -- thus putting an end to the search for the real Satoshi Nakamoto, the father of cryptocurrency Bitcoin.
Wright was outed as the Bitcoin founder in December last year by Wired Magazine and Gizmodo. However, this was based on leaked emails and documents that were examined by both the publications but was not considered enough to pin him as the founder of the digital currency. At the time, he didn't comment on either report. But now, The Economist says, Wright has submitted cryptographic proof in a blog post that was only accessible to the aforementioned three publications and came with a non-disclosure clause.
The hunt for Satoshi Nakamoto has been going on for quite a few years now. In fact, it hasn't been entirely clear until now whether Nakamoto is a single person, a man or a woman behind the creation of Bitcoin or if it was a pseudonym for a group.
The cryptographic proof
Now, Wright, the Australian IT and security consultant described as the senior management executive, information security specialist on his LinkedIn page, in a meeting with BBC, used the same cryptographic keys that were created during the early days of Bitcoin's development, the media organisation has said.
"The keys are inextricably linked to blocks of bitcoins known to have been created or "mined" by Satoshi Nakamoto. These are the blocks used to send 10 bitcoins to Hal Finney in January [2009] as the first bitcoin transaction," Wright told BBC during the meeting.
Finney was one of the engineers who helped turn Wright's ideas into the Bitcoin protocol, saying that while he was the main guy behind it, there were others who helped him.
Wright may soon release more information that would allow others to cryptographically verify that he is Satoshi Nakamoto, he told BBC.
What do we know about Craig Wright?
According to The Economist, after spending years behind the pseudonym and ensuring that even the persons he worked with at Bitcoin wouldn't know his real identity, he was now outing himself "to set the record straight," he told The Economist. "I'm not seeking publicity..."
Wright says in his blogpost, reported by The Economist, that he is looking take the negative myths attached to bitcoin and the blockchain away.
According to a dna report in December when Wright's identity was first revealed, tenants at the office building where his company has been listed, call him an "an outgoing guy". In fact, he was also nicknamed "Mr Bitcoin" because he had once offered to pay for some work in the currency.
The founder of Singapore Bitcoin brokerage David Moskowitz said Wright was pleasant and interesting to talk to. "He's clearly very intelligent and fits the profile," he said. "But that doesn't necessarily mean he is Nakamoto."
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