The name Craig Wright is widely known after identifying himself as a major part of the team that created Bitcoin, and claims that he is the real Satoshi Nakamoto. The people who claim to be Nakamoto are not just Wright, but this one figure is the most vocal in voicing his claim, and the hobby of creating controversy over time.
Who is Craig Wright?
Born in October 1970, Craig Steven Wright is a computer scientist and entrepreneur from Australia. After graduating from high school in 1987, Wright completed 18 SANS Institute programs and was the first person in the world to receive GIAC certification, which is a certification in terms of Cyber security. Criag Wright claims to have a PhD in computer science from Charles Sturt University on his Linkedln profile. But the university told Forbes that they only gave him a master's degree and not a doctorate. So far, he has written several books including The IT Regulatory and Basic Compliance Manual of How to Survive the Information Systems Audit and Assessments.
Wright is the CEO of technology company Hotwire Preemptive Intelligence Group (Hotwire PE), which plans to launch the world's first Bitcoin bank. The institution that was originally named Denariuz Bank was then faced with regulatory issues with the Australian Tax Office. Desperate, Carig Wright subsequently became the founder of the crypto currency company DeMorgan Ltd., which received AUD54 million in tax incentives through AusIndustry.
Craig Wright's Relationship With Bitcoin
In December 2015, two parallel investigations by Wired and Gizmodo revealed the possibility of Craig Wright as the inventor of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto.
On May 2, 2016, the BBC and The Economist published an article claiming that Craig had digitally signed messages using cryptographic keys from the early days of Bitcoin development. The key is closely related to the Bitcoin block which is known to have been made or mined by Satoshi Nakamoto himself.
Jon Matonis who is the founder of the Bitcoin Foundation stated that, "For cryptographic evidence, Craig signs and verifies messages using private key from block # 1 and block # 9 newly generated coins (first transaction for Fin Finney)." Shortly thereafter, posting on the drcraigwright [dot] net site linked Craig with Satoshi via cryptographic signing messages.
Nevertheless, security researcher Dan Kaminsky said that Craig Wright's claim as a Bitcoin developer is a deliberate Scam. Jeff Garzik, Dan's colleague agrees that the evidence provided by Wright is publicly incapable of proving anything. Jordan Pearson and Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai said that, "Wright is only reusing the old signatures of Bitcoin transactions made in 2009 by Satoshi."
The same thing is also said by Bitcoin developer, Peter Todd, who said that Wright's blog post that seems to contain cryptographic evidence actually contains nothing. The developer of the Bitcoin Core project also released a statement on Twitter, that there is currently no publicly available cryptographic evidence to prove a person is the inventor of Bitcoin.
Responding to these refutations, Craig Wright then decided not to present further evidence of his claim as the inventor of Bitcoin. Whereas before, in an exclusive interview with the BBC, he once promised to provide extraordinary evidence for his claim, in the form of a genuine Whitepaper actually written by Satoshi and the original private key GPG Satoshi.
Craig Wright Scandal: From Fraud to Tax Evasion
Craig Wright, who once claimed to be the inventor of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, has been sued for stealing Bitcoin for $ 5 billion from his former business partner. He was summoned to the Florida District Court early in February 2018 for the lawsuit, which alleges that Wright participated in Bitcoin mining operations along with IT consultant Dave Kleiman. They both end up milling between 550,000-1,100,000 BTC pieces. According to the plaintiff, Wright faked and backed up a number of documents after Kleiman's death.
The lawsuit filed a number of proof of Kleiman's ownership of the company, including documents that listed it as a registered agent. In another email statement quoted, Wright apparently acknowledged holding 300,000 BTC on behalf of Kleiman.
Court records show that Wright has been accused of fraud to confiscate Bitcoin and Kleiman's rights over certain intellectual property associated with Bitcoin technology.
Kleiman's family, represented by his brother, Ira Kleiman, wants to find Bitcoin now worth more than $ 10 billion. According to the lawsuit, Bitcoin's uncertain circumstances related to Wright's tax matters, which led to his house being raided by the Australian police.
For reasons that have not been entirely clear, it is undeniable that Craig and Dave have been involved in Bitcoin since its inception, and that they both accumulated enormous wealth for mining Bitcoin from 2009 to 2013.
Craig Wright is not the only Bitcoin personality that has been heavily highlighted by the media. There are some other important Bitcoin figures who steal attention for their achievements and roles for the Bitcoin network, not just claims and controversies. Follow his reviews on 10 important and influential figures in Bitcoin World.