Craig Wright is an Australian computer scientist associated with Bitcoin SV. Here's a glimpse of the story.

Craig Wright profile

Craig Steven Wright is an Australian computer scientist who gained popularity and fame in the cryptocurrency world after claiming to be Satoshi Nakamoto , the creator of Bitcoin.

Nicknamed “Faketoshi” by some members of the industry, Craig Wright is responsible for the emergence of Bitcoin SV (BSV), a hard fork of BCH, after leading a new faction within the Bitcoin Cash community to controversially split from the original project due to technical differences.

What is Bitcoin SV?

The Bitcoin SV software is intended to increase the block size limit of the Bitcoin Cash blockchain to 128 MB, which is also supported by billionaire entrepreneur Calvin Ayre. On March 16, 2021, the BSV block size was reported to be 638 MB.

Craig Wright's Current Condition

Currently, Wright works as chief scientist at nChain Inc., a company that provides enterprise blockchain solutions powered by the Bitcoin SV blockchain.

According to his own website, Wright is claimed to be one of the early minds behind what we now know as blockchain technology, as well as the world's first online casino.

Craig Wright's LinkedIn Profile

Wright has worked in the IT and security fields, describing himself on LinkedIn as a senior management level information security executive specialist.

He has also been chief scientist at blockchain developer nChain, CEO of technology company Hotwire PE, and director of many other companies.

Claim To Be The Inventor Of Bitcoin

According to Wright, he was directly involved in the creation of Bitcoin, with the help of his now deceased friend, computer forensics professional Dave Kleiman.

In July 2015, Wright relinquished ownership of the office and left his position as director of several companies. Shortly after, in December 2015, the publications WIRED and Gizmodo reported that Wright may have been the inventor of Bitcoin.

In 2015, Wright presented a collection of documents and blogs that had been removed from the internet, as evidence to support his claims.

Support from Gavin Andersen

Wright's announcement was later supported by former Bitcoin lead developer Gavin Andresen, who believed that Wright was the real Satoshi after meeting him at a London hotel in 2016.

Wright is said to have legally signed the message to Andresen with his initials and the private key of one of the first Bitcoin blocks claimed by Nakamoto.

Wright also signed messages using Bitcoin's first and ninth blocks according to Bitcoin Foundation director Jon Matoni.

Allegedly Leaked Interview Transcript

The evidence includes a leaked and unverified interview transcript from the Australian Tax Office regarding his tax dealings in 2014, documents revealing his involvement with Bitcoin projects , and emails sent from addresses associated with Bitcoin-supporting Nakamoto as well as one sent to a lawyer Wright, Clayton Utz, signed as "Craig (probably)".

The transcript quotes Wright as saying: "I did my best to hide the fact that I had been running Bitcoin since 2009."

Findings from Several Media

Gizmodo and WIRED also stated that Wright's PGP key was created in 2009 and could be traced back to Satoshi Nakamoto's email address.

This claim was supported by a 2016 BBC and The Economist investigation, which reported that Wright had signed messages using cryptographic keys created during Bitcoin's early development.

Testimonials from the Crypto Community

However, in general, most prominent figures in the crypto community such as Litecoin creator Charlie Lee and Lightning Network co-creator Joseph Poon do not recognize Wright's proofs as valid and have spoken out about the illogicality of his comments. In fact, Vitalik Buterin went as far as calling him a "fraud."

Wright's claim was also questioned by security researcher Dan Kaminsky who said that Wright's private key was invalid, as it only extracted data using old signatures from Bitcoin transactions carried out in 2009 by Satoshi.

Backdated Keys

Jordan Pearson and Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai of Vice Media also reported that Wright's PGP keys from 2009 were indicated to be backdated and could be twisted to point to anyone's email address.

In Andrew O'Hagan's book, The Secret Life: Three True Stories, published in June 2016, Wright said he provided an invalid private key rather than Satoshi Nakamoto's original PGP private key due to legal obligations agreed to in a Seychelles trust fund signed by David Kleiman who died in 2013.

The WIRED report stated that this trust fund was held through Wright's company, Tulip Trading, which allegedly controlled 1.1 million Bitcoins held by Nakamoto.

The Impact of the Craig Wright Story

While the mystery of Nakamoto continues, Wright has maintained his claims by using Britain's libel laws to sue those who call him a fraudster, including Vitalik Buterin, the founder of the cryptocurrency Ethereum.

This maneuver by Craig Wright has created a negative industry backlash against him and Bitcoin SV, with some in the industry delisting BSV in 2019 after Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao blamed it as the reason the exchange delisted BSV from its platform.

Also Read

Who is Satoshi Nakamoto Really?

What is Encryption?

What is a Custodian? Read the explanation

How Does Blockchain Work?

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