Australian tech entrepreneur Craig Wright, long-suspected of having created crypto-currency Bitcoin, has confirmed his identity in an interview with the BBC released on Monday, ending years of speculation.
Bitcoin is a virtual currency that is created from computer code. Unlike a real-world currency such as the US dollar or the euro, it has no central bank and is not backed by any government. Just like other currencies, Bitcoins can be exchanged for goods and services - or for other currencies - provided the other party is willing to accept them.
Wright revealed his identity to three media organisations - the BBC, the Economist and GQ. (Also read: What Is a Bitcoin? All That You Need to Know About the Cryptocurrency)
He presented proof that only the true creator of the crypto-currency could have provided, the BBC said. He digitally signed messages using encryption keys that were created in the days following Bitcoin's 2009 launch. These keys had to be created by Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym used at the time by the currency's creator, the broadcaster said.
Since the founding of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin in 2009, its inventor has been shrouded in mystery. For years, that individual lurked behind the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto and hoarded a pile of the digital currency so large it might crash the market if sold today.
The hunt for Bitcoin's secretive founder had taken a turn in December 2015 when technology magazine Wired and the website Gizmodo both published investigative pieces that sorted through a trove of leaked (and possibly hacked) emails and documents that pointed to Craig Stephen Wright, a 44-year-old Australian bitcoin entrepreneur living in a posh suburb of Sydney.
The hunt for Bitcoin's founder has become a cottage industry among some journalists. The chase has veered from a Finnish sociologist to a Japanese mathematician to a Japanese-American engineer, all of whom denied it — the latter after a car chase with reporters that ended at the offices of The Associated Press in Los Angeles in March 2014.
(With inputs from agencies)
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