Newsweek magazine dropped a bombshell on Thursday by allegedly identifying Satoshi Nakamoto as a California resident in his mid-60s. Satoshi Nakamoto, it turns out, was using his real name all along.
And the guy is clearly suspicious of any publicity and just got doxed in print.
The piece, only a couple of hours old at the time of writing, is getting widely panned for violating Nakamoto’s privacy — even to the point of publishing a photo of his house and car.
It sounds as if the man, who has worked as a contractor on classified projects for the US government, felt he had reason to be paranoid even before he developed the idea for Bitcoin.
And since his creation has take off … well, no one else on the planet has his private wallet watched as closely as Nakamoto.
Here are five quotes from the piece that are either going to make you feel bad for the guy or raise red flags, depending on open to conspiracy theories you are.
"I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it. It's been turned over to other people. They are in charge of it now. I no longer have any connection."
- Satoshi Nakamoto
“What you don't know about him is that he's worked on classified stuff. His life was a complete blank for a while. You're not going to be able to get to him. He'll deny everything. He'll never admit to starting Bitcoin."
- Arthur Nakamoto, Satoshi Nakamoto’s brother
"I hope that by talking directly to them and, more importantly, listening to their questions/concerns, they will think of Bitcoin the way I do - as a just-plain-better, more efficient, less-subject-to-political-whims money. Not as an all-powerful black-market tool that will be used by anarchists to overthrow the System."
- Gavin Andresen, a developer in the very early days of Bitcoin who worked with Nakamoto, in an email to Nakamoto in 2011. Nakamoto quit communicating with him after that.
“Eric, Nakamoto's oldest son from his first marriage, says he remains torn over whether his father is the founder of Bitcoin, noting that messages from the latter appear more ‘concise’ and ‘refined than that of my father's.’”
- Leah McGrath Goodman, who reported the story
"He is very wary of government interference in general. When I was little, there was a game we used to play. He would say, 'Pretend the government agencies are coming after you.' And I would hide in the closet."
- Ilene Mitchell, Nakamoto’s daughter