
He Says He Invented Bitcoin and Is Suing Those Who Doubt Him - pseudolus
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-19/who-invented-bitcoin-a-series-of-court-cases-could-shed-light
======
bhaak
It would be so easy. If CSW signed a message with Satoshi's private key, it
would be enough to prove that he is Satoshi (or at least had access to Satoshi
in a way nobody else had).

But no, he's going the legal route for some strange reasons and it doesn't
seem he's convincing the judge.

I have no clue what he intends to do. Maybe he got so into his role that he
really believes now to be Satoshi?

~~~
tmp841
My cynical guess is that he doesn’t have the private key, but wants to use
legal methods (court cases, registering copyrights for documents, etc) as a
means of establishing himself as Satoshi.

Once established he’ll launch a court case requiring a hard fork of the
blockchain to “recover” Satoshi’s coins, because they are after all his, and
profit ... assuming he doesn’t crack the truecrypt password first.

~~~
Cthulhu_
Except he probably won't be able to create a hard fork; if my understanding of
crypto / bitcoin is correct, he needs a majority of miners to go with it, and
given that the Bitcoin is international that's going to be very difficult.

~~~
jhanschoo
You don't need a majority of miners to create a hard fork, you just need any
amount. What you need a majority for is to get the chain to adopt your version
of history without hard-forking.

------
apo
Too bad this piece doesn't link to the article containing hard evidence of
numerous frauds:

[https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/op-ed-how-many-
wrongs-m...](https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/op-ed-how-many-wrongs-make-
wright)

Imagine how easy it would be to prove his claim of being Satoshi: a signed
message using the private key from the genesis block or any of the first few
dozen blocks.

After all, he did say he would provide cryptographic proof. Instead what he
produced was technobabble designed to mislead the ill-informed.

So instead, this performance artist goes around suing people for pointing out
the obvious truth.

For the technically minded, here's one summary of one of Wright's signature
frauds:

[https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/81115/if-
someone...](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/81115/if-someone-
wanted-to-pretend-to-be-satoshi-by-posting-a-fake-signature-to-defrau)

~~~
uylbh
Addition: goes around suing people for pointing out the obvious truth.. in the
UK. Where the defendants have to prove he is not Satoshi, as opposed to the US
where he would have to prove he is.

------
jgrahamc
Nah. All the evidence points to it being me:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5692317](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5692317)
:-)

~~~
b_tterc_p
You should sue him

~~~
jgrahamc
No, that's what fake Satoshi would do. Real Satoshi wouldn't.

~~~
b_tterc_p
And how better to hide your identity than ruling yourself out as a fake?

------
edmanet
If he sends me a bitcoin from one of Satoshi's wallets I'll believe him. 10
bitcoins and I'll believe him even more.

------
CWuestefeld
Meta: when did this clickbait formulation of headlines become the norm even
for serious, reputable news?

I still find it grating, and avoid articles headlined this way.

~~~
duxup
Is there something wrong with the title?

~~~
spatulon
It's clickbait, because it's deliberately vague.

The natural human response is to to click through to find out who 'He' refers
to, even if they have no other interest in the story.

Bloomberg could just as easily have written 'Craig Wright' instead.

~~~
duxup
I'm pretty sensitive to crappy headlines but I really don't think including
the guy's name or not would make a huge difference here.

------
Talyen42
He's just a scam artist who wants media coverage to further his scams.

~~~
stOneskull
Australians don't use the word 'neat' and Satoshi did.

~~~
stOneskull
Satoshi was American

------
k-ian
Creator of anarchist cryptographic money resorts to using the law against his
enemies? hmmmmm...

------
cujic9
I'm confused why somebody would claim to possess an immense fortune (Satoshi's
blocks are currently worth ~$10B) without being able to verify and/or access
that fortune.

Congrats. Now you have a huge target on your back. Watch your step and sleep
with one eye open for the rest of your life.

But go try to borrow money, and the bank will ask, "Why don't you just... use
some of your fortune."

~~~
raverbashing
> But go try to borrow money, and the bank will ask, "Why don't you just...
> use some of your fortune."

Actually banks are much more likely to lend you money the more money you have.

The ones with no money, they're the ones who have a hard time.

~~~
cujic9
Yes, I get that. You're limited by the collateral you can put against the
loan.

But they won't accept a pinky swear that you own the collateral. They want
proof.

------
clarkmoody
If only there were a way to cryptographically prove ownership of some of the
early Bitcoins...

I'm not quite convinced that going to the courts with libel suits really
follows the cypherpunk ethos.

------
evrydayhustling
Media keeps complimenting this guy as subtext - he's considered a _super_
villain, or a _brilliant_ scam artist. Which part of his playbook is
impressive in any way?

~~~
q3k
Having the time and money to sue people.

------
ackbar03
Wasn't there some artical on hn earlier about how Paul le roux might have been
the inventor? And this Craig guy having worked with him before?I think it got
taken down, was that not legit?

~~~
stOneskull
One of the guys had a name a bit like satoshi and one of the guys had a name a
bit like nakamoto. That's all I can remember.

~~~
ackbar03
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20115607](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20115607)

I'm not sure if this is conspiracy though cause it was buried down pretty
quickly

------
knd775
Can everyone just stop giving him attention?

~~~
onemoresoop
Yes. This is very petty. I'm ignoring these threads from now on.

------
sixQuarks
From all that I've read about the founding of Bitcoin, my guess would be that
it was the guy in the wheelchair who died before bitcoin got really big. I
forget his name, but he was involved early on in crypto, he was a white guy,
not Japanese. Everything points towards the guy being dead.

~~~
trixie_
My money is on Paul Le Roux. He is a pragmatic programmer who wrote encryption
software for Windows in the 90s and in the 2000s he had a real need to move
money around outside the traditional systems. Bitcoin was scrappy windows
software as well like E4M. A lot of academics, open source activists and
hacker purists would never write their software for Windows. Le Roux's writing
style is similar, his attitude, streak for innovation, and timeline all kind
of fit for a possible Satoshi candidate. He also had a real motive to be
anonymous and release the software anonymously unlike many other candidates.

~~~
sireat
Paul Le Roux is a promising candidate except for one thing: by 2009 he was
running his crime empire branching in pretty much every direction possible.

Would he have had time to write the software and also kick back to play the
part of Satoshi?

It would be interesting to compare the coding style in E4M and original BTC
software.

PS. Fascinating series of articles on Paul Le Roux:
[https://magazine.atavist.com/the-
mastermind](https://magazine.atavist.com/the-mastermind)

~~~
trixie_
I think so. If you look at the total amount of code, his total emails and
forum posts - there really isn't much. I wouldn't put it past him as a side
project given his past. Also most of the code was done by the beginning of
2009 and he stopped posting at the end of 2010. It wasn't until 2012 he was
arrested. Given that he was already wealthy and didn't need the attention - he
had good reason to stay anonymous.

------
hackermailman
IIRC, English defamation law puts the burden of proof on the defence, who once
accused must prove they didn't defame, so many conmen throughout history have
tried to use it to their advantage such as David Irving vs Penguin Books.

------
dangerface
Im the real Satoshi, I won't prove it with a signature, check out my startup.

------
YeGoblynQueenne
>> They said he gave a private demonstration of a special digital signature
used by Satoshi Nakamoto.

Can someone explain what this "private demonstration of a special digital
signature" was, exactly?

------
JustSomeNobody
Ah yes. If you're wrong, be the loudest person in the room until everyone
gives up the fight and leaves, then declare yourself the winner.

------
pvaldes
Probably trying to trigger a vanity reaction. I'll doubt Satoshi will fall in
the trap, but I could be wrong of course.

------
nobrains
The inventor of Bitcoin doesn't need to "prove" he invented it and also he did
not want to be known.

------
duxup
So what is this guy's end game?

Is this just an ego play or does he plan to make money off this claim?

~~~
easymodex
He forked Bitcoin and is trying to convince people his fork is actually the
real Bitcoin, so yeah it's a money grab.

------
colpabar
He should team up with the guy who "invented" email.

------
modzu
hopefully this fraudster's lawsuits end with him in jail.

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mikorym
TLDR: It's Craig Wright again, move along...

------
rasengan
I met and know Satoshi, and he is not CW. This is all I will say about this.

------
botwriter
I'm no expert on crypto and usually get talked at by a mate about it.

But didn't this chap have child porn uploaded to his coin or something because
his data storage was so big?

therefore anyone who uses it is effectivly distributing child porn.

------
for_i_in_range
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20115607](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20115607)

Satoshi Nakamoto = Craig Wright (wrote white paper) + Paul Le Roux (who
created Encryption 4 Masses aka E4M, and TrueCrypt)

