14 DAY TRIAL // On Thursday, Newsweek published an article exposing the real identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin. The publication tracked down a 64-year-old Japanese-American living near Los Angeles. His name, Satoshi Nakamoto.
However, the Satoshi Nakamoto found by Newsweek changed his name to Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto 40 years ago. He currently signs his name with Dorian S. Nakamoto.
Many have lashed out on the reporter who wrote the story for exposing a man based on circumstantial evidence.
As expected, since Newsweek’s Leah McGrath Goodman published a photo of Nakamoto and a picture of his house, an army of reporters chased the man around LA yesterday. He agreed to talk to Associated Press reporters, but as he exited his home, he did tell LA Times’ Andrea Chang that he was not the creator of Bitcoin.
Dorian Nakamoto has told the Associated Press that he had never heard of the virtual currency until Newsweek reached out to his family members a few weeks ago.
The man admitted to having worked for the military at some point and admitted that his birth name was Satoshi Nakamoto, but he insisted that he didn’t create Bitcoin.
Newsweek is sticking by its story. The report appoints Dorian as the “face behind Bitcoin,” largely based on the following quote: “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.”
However, Dorian has told AP that his English is not very good. He claims to have referred to the fact that he’s no longer involved in engineering, not Bitcoin. Furthermore, in his interview with AP, the man often referred to Bitcoin as “bitcom.” He also led reporters to believe that he thought Bitcoin was a single company.
Gavin Andersen, a lead developer at The Bitcoin Project, has shared insight about the creator of Bitcoin with Newsweek. After the report was published he said he regretted speaking with the publication.
I'm disappointed Newsweek decided to dox the Nakamoto family, and regret talking to Leah.
— Gavin Andresen (@gavinandresen) March 6, 2014 The “real” creator of Bitcoin has an account on the P2P Foundation’s Ning page. After the story about Dorian being the man behind the virtual currency was published, the posted the following message: “I am not Dorian Nakamoto.”
Josef Davies-Coates, the creator of P2P Foundation’s Ning has confirmed for TechCrunch that the email associated with the account that posted the message is the one mentioned in the original Bitcoin paper.