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BBC

An Australian inventor has revealed himself as the creator of Bitcoin

But Craig Wright says he doesn’t want fame or fortune – he just wants to be left alone.

AUSTRALIAN INVENTOR CRAIG Wright has admitted to being the creator of Bitcoin after years of speculation about who was behind the cryptocurrency.

The entrepreneur and academic, who six months ago was revealed as the likely founder of the digital currency, presented the BBC and other media outlets with proof he was ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’, who instigated the first Bitcoin transaction in early 2009.

During a meeting with the British broadcaster, the 45-year-old signed messages using coded keys that were intertwined with the creation of the currency.

Wright said cryptographer Hal Finney helped turn the idea into the Bitcoin protocol, however he added “I was the main part of it”.

Two magazines, Wired and Gizmodo, first outed him in December as the likely creator after receiving a ream of leaked documents linking him to the currency’s foundation.

Those articles followed several other media investigations that named a range of different figures as the founders of Bitcoin.

Wright told the BBC he would’ve preferred to keep his identity secret and he didn’t “want to be the public face of anything”.

“I want to work, I want to keep doing what I want to do. I don’t want money. I don’t want fame. I don’t want adoration. I just want to be left alone.”

Wright1 Wright during an earlier TV appearance YouTube YouTube

The father of Bitcoin

Several senior figures in the Bitcoin Foundation, the main group set up to promote the virtual currency, confirmed they believed Wright’s claims were true.

In a blog post titled ‘Satoshi’, the foundation’s chief scientist Gavin Andresen wrote that he was “convinced beyond a reasonable doubt” that the Australian was “the father of Bitcoin” following a meeting a few weeks ago.

“I am very happy to be able to say I shook his hand and thanked him for giving bitcoin to the world,” he said.

However the Economist, one of the media companies that had access to Wright, said questions remained over the Bitcoin ‘paternity test’.

Others were quick to try to debunk his claims, with several users claiming on the Reddit Bitcoin subreddit that the Australian may simply have ‘came upon’ the digital signature he was presenting as proof.

Bitcoin is a virtual currency based on computer code that operates free from government regulation with its users instead having control.

Bitcoin ATMs Associated Press Associated Press

The currency has been closely linked to shadowy deals on the so-called ‘dark web’ as the virtual money can be stored and exchanged anonymously.

Its value during its short history has fluctuated wildly, peaking at over €900 per Bitcoin in late 2013 before plunging below €150 by the start of 2015.

There are around 15 million Bitcoins in circulation, of which the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto is believed to own about 1 million – worth roughly €390 million at current exchange rates.

Wright is currently under investigation by the Australian Tax Office over his financial affairs and he told the BBC his legal team was negotiating how much he had to hand over in settlements.

- With AFP

Written by Peter Bodkin and originally published on Fora, a new business publication for Irish startups and SMEs.

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    Mute Fear Uisce
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    Jan 3rd 2019, 2:54 PM

    if you believe that you’ll believe anything

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    Mute Regina Farrell
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    Jan 3rd 2019, 4:03 PM

    @Fear Uisce: Free house’s for everyone next to Mammy

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    Mute Derek Poutch
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    Jan 3rd 2019, 4:07 PM

    @Regina Farrell: Is that Regina Farrell or Regina Doherty?

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    Mute Dave Thomas
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    Jan 3rd 2019, 4:31 PM

    @Derek Poutch: sounds like the latter.

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    Mute Fear Uisce
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    Jan 3rd 2019, 4:42 PM

    @Regina Farrell: it would be grand if that was the case

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    Mute saoirse janneau
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    Jan 3rd 2019, 5:37 PM

    @Regina Farrell: . Do you really think people in council estates pay nothing on a monthly basis. How far removed are you from reality?

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    Mute Neville Bartos
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    Jan 3rd 2019, 5:40 PM

    @saoirse janneau: can you explain what happens if someone in a council house doesn’t pay their rent?

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    Mute Dave Thomas
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    Jan 3rd 2019, 5:43 PM

    @Neville Bartos: they get evicted like everyone else. It may take a while but they will get evicted.

    12
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    Mute Regina Farrell
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    Jan 3rd 2019, 7:13 PM

    @saoirse janneau: Just to confirm for you Saoirse, if you’re on the dole = free money. You use 10% of that free money to ‘pay’ rent = free house.

    32
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    Mute prop joe
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    Jan 3rd 2019, 7:35 PM

    @Regina Farrell: social houses are under a certain size and are not costumised like a home you would buy. You should get a job for the indo. They got a nice 100 million write off and their major shareholders dont have to pay intetest on their loans. But they love to attack the poirest in society.

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    Mute Paddy McGovern
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    Jan 6th 2019, 4:24 PM

    @Regina Farrell: so after bailing out an economy destroyed by greedy builders and corrupt banks with their hard earned taxes, you want the irish tax payer to continue forking out a ridulous percentage of there wages to corrupt landlords with probably the worst tenant rights in the western world and little or no prospect of becoming property owners themselves. hmmm that seems fair you wouldnt happen to be a fine gael vote or lemme guess fianna fail.

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    Mute James Carpenter
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    Jan 3rd 2019, 3:13 PM

    As if I believe that, so why are there still so many homeless people in the streets. Its bull&£%t that what it is.

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    Mute Adrian
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    Jan 3rd 2019, 3:30 PM

    Read a piece in the indo the other day about nama and the state, made me chuckle, something about nama selling property and the state buying it back at a multiple of the price they sold it at. But i guess if you add up the profits and ignore the losses, you’re bound to make wonderful profits, and this is the irish gov and its leprechaun economics.

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    Mute Willy Mc Caul
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    Jan 3rd 2019, 3:18 PM

    Lies continue from political elite aided by media whilst numbers are massaged to allow more taxes to please EU masters..

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    Mute Dan public
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    Jan 3rd 2019, 4:06 PM

    Nama on course to make a profit, how coild you not make a profit when you already passed the losses on the loans you bought to the taxpayer. More Clowns, next is the apperance on the late late to tell us the great job they done and then in ten years or so the standard tribunal into the back handers paid to nama officials and friends and family buying assets from nama at massive discounts, then we will have the words it was the best advive we had at the time and it will never happen again ever ever we promise

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    Mute Charles Coughlan
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    Jan 3rd 2019, 3:23 PM

    Social housing stock dries up, what stock are they talking about? joke or what…

    74
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    Mute Dave Thomas
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    Jan 3rd 2019, 4:33 PM

    @Charles Coughlan: in all honesty, that wasn’t gonna take long…

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    Mute Bill Clay
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    Jan 3rd 2019, 4:05 PM

    I remember sitting around a conference table in BOI head office in 2010 telling everyone there that nama will prove nothing more than another FF quango and they are not here for the Irish Public’s interests.

    The shock and horror on the faces staring back at me…

    60
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    Mute Dave Barrett
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    Jan 3rd 2019, 5:17 PM

    Free houses for anyone who hasnt worked a day in their life.

    47
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    Mute saoirse janneau
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    Jan 3rd 2019, 5:42 PM

    @Dave Barrett: have you ever asked someone in a social housing estate if they receive their accommodation for nothing?!! Think about it for a second. Your comment is unfounded and misinformed to say the least. Every society will have a sector of their society they need to assist beyond the general population. Children are involved here. Stop for a minute and think just how jammed the criminal justice system will be if we don’t assist them as a society if their parents can’t. Can you not look outside the box for a split second! !?

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    Mute prop joe
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    Jan 3rd 2019, 7:38 PM

    @Dave Barrett: the bankers and developers who sit in the corporate boxes get free everything. Free loans they dont pay back, free houses free expenses. But you probably think that’s great coz you get a few crumbs from the table.

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    Mute James Carpenter
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    Jan 3rd 2019, 3:16 PM

    Don’t believe that. If that is the case why are there so many still homeless. Pure bull.

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    Mute Sean
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    Jan 3rd 2019, 4:35 PM

    @Roger Mee: It depends what you call a profit. In loose terms, if NAMA took over 100bn in assets and paid 20bn to do so and sold them for 30bn that is a profit. Some would argue the property values had recovered and that they should have held out for higher profit esp in relation to the Battersea project. The Northern Ireland debacle didn’t help.

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    Mute prop joe
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    Jan 3rd 2019, 7:42 PM

    @Roger Mee: 70 billion in loans 24 billion intetest. But they claim to make a profit because they wrote off 40 billion day one. I am sick of supporting these developers. Put them into liquidation and force down the price of houses. Every euro that NAMA makes, is a tax on new home buyers.

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    Mute Jack Wardell
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    Jan 3rd 2019, 4:33 PM

    in the mean time the free housing association flourishes as HAP / Social Welfare tenants minority refuse to vacate units irrespective of determination orders etc leaving genuine landlords who want / need to sell being the housing association for the government. Landlords leaving the market now in droves leaving less units for genuine honest HAP/ Soc Welfare tenants as units now being either sold to vulture funds that will sit on them or owner occupiers.

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    Mute Jonny
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    Jan 3rd 2019, 4:56 PM

    Is this a joke… Nama are too busy repossessing properties, absolutely toxic they are

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    Mute saoirse janneau
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    Jan 3rd 2019, 5:35 PM

    Outrageous! 491 social housing units a year since 2012. Shame on you NAMA. Yeah most of these 40k stock are private enterprise. We’re creating hell for future generations as they will be stuck with the fallout of a very angry cross section of society who end up in hotel rooms and before people make judgements there are children caught up in this nightmare. Children who probably will never see Santa coming to visit them down the chimney of their own home. Totally unforgivable in a society as wealthy as this one.
    Utterly disgusting given the billions they’ve gained from toxic debt.

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    Mute James Carpenter
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    Jan 3rd 2019, 3:15 PM

    As if you believe that. If so why are there so many still homeless. A load of crap

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    Mute TamuMassif2019
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    Jan 3rd 2019, 11:07 PM

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/oct/09/imf-warns-italy-not-to-breach-eu-spending-rules-in-next-budget

    How can they as Germany tells each country what their budgets are because Germany / Troika control the budgets of all the EU countries that use the Euro as their currency. As the above link shows, so we can’t spend too much as that would effect the budget due to house building?

    4
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