Craig Wright Tells CFTC He is Satoshi Nakamoto (And Attacks Ethereum)

After the Bitcoin (BTC) whitepaper was published by the pseudonymous Nakamoto in late 2008, there has been great speculation about who the author really is. Wright was selected as a possible candidate in an article published by Andy Greenberg and Gwern Branwen on Dec 8, 2015, for Wired. On the same day, Sam Biddle and Andy Crush claimed the same in a separate article published on Gizmodo. Only three days later, Greenberg wrote a follow-up piece in which he stated that Wright may be a hoaxer.

So Dr. Craig Wright is willing to testify under oath that he is Satoshi Nakamoto and the founder of Bitcoin. pic.twitter.com/WsqHhXnQzl

— Ran Neuner (@cryptomanran) February 17, 2019

Wright’s Early Claims

On May 2, 2016, Wright publicly claimed that he was Nakamoto. In his words, he stated:

Some people will believe; some people won’t. And to tell you the truth I don’t really care.

Since that time, his words have proven to be true. There has been much speculation as to whether or not Wright really is who he claims to be. All the evidence that does exist is inconclusive. Wright stated that he did not initially disclose his identity because he “just wanted to be left alone.” It was his right, he alleged, to remain anonymous if he so chose. [bctt tweet=”On May 2, 2016, Craig Wright publicly alleged that he was Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin. After years of controversy, including the Bitcoin Cash Civil War, Wright has now testified before the CFTC that he really is Nakamoto.” username=”beincrypto”]

Wright and Bitcoin SV

On Aug 16, 2018, a hard fork of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) was suggested. Theoretically, the new blockchain would integrate the original philosophy and protocol of Bitcoin (BTC). The soon-to-be forked coin was initially called Bitcoin Cash Satoshi’s Vision (SV) because Wright, claiming to be Satoshi, supported this fork as a return to the original vision of Bitcoin. The announced fork was not accepted by everyone in the BCH community. Roger Ver and others suggested Bitcoin Cash Adjustable Blocksize Cap (ABC) as a distinct hard fork to compete with SV four days later. ABC included some changes to the BCH protocol, but they were much less significant than those which SV proposed. On Nov 15, 2018, BCH hard forked. Today, ABC appears to have defeated SV. While Bitcoin SV (BSV) is listed on CoinMarketCap.com as well as various exchanges and wallets, ABC is widely considered the real BCH. At the time of writing, BCH was ranked with the sixth highest market capitalization of any cryptoasset while BSV came in at eleventh.

Wright’s Current Stance

Despite criticism and condemnation, Wright continues claiming that he Nakamoto. In the comment sent to the US CFTC, Wright states that Bitcoin marks the completion of an AusIndustry project he began. He states that the project is registered with the Australian Department of Innovation as BlackNet. Furthermore, he states that he is making this announcement because of the false information about BTC which has been spread about the currency. He singles Ethereum (ETH) out as a “derivative system” of Bitcoin. His decision to become more public, he claims, is because of misunderstandings about how blockchains function and the scams which have emerged because of it. Do you think Craig Wright is really Satoshi Nakamoto? If not, what is his endgame? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!