It\u2019s almost exactly 10 years since Satoshi Nakamoto made his last regular appearance online\u2014on April 23, 2011. After that, there was only one more message, of just five words, a few years later. To commemorate the occasion, in this week\u2019s CoinGeek Conversations, Charles Miller is joined by the man behind the pseudonym, Dr. Craig S. Wright.<\/p>\n
Between managing a full-time job at the Sydney accountancy firm BDO, finishing multiple degrees and traveling from the city to his farm. Craig found the time to write emails and post as Satoshi Nakamoto on the Cryptography Mailing List where he linked to the Bitcoin White Paper\u2014allowing the mailing list members to be first to see it.<\/p>\n
Craig had doubts about Bitcoin even after its release, he admits:\u00a0\u201cI was rather uncertain whether it would work or not, to tell you the truth, I was not confident at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first and noteworthy reaction to the White Paper came from mailing list contributor James A. Donald who said that the problem with the idea was that Bitcoin would never be able to scale\u2014a point that Craig has been busy refuting ever since.<\/p>\n
In trying to work out who was behind the Satoshi identity\u2014all the more mysterious after he \u2018disappeared\u2019 in 2011\u2014several discussions focused on the way Satoshi writes. Charles points out that \u2018Craig as Satoshi\u2019 tends to write calmly. In contrast, he quotes Craig in a 2010 post writing as himself, in which he sounds decidedly agitated. Craig explains that he has many different writing styles appropriate for different contexts.<\/p>\n
The \u201cSatoshi anoraks,\u201d as Charles calls the amateur online investigators, have made all sorts of analyses\u2014from the use of double spacing to the times of day or night that Satoshi posted.<\/p>\n
One observation was about Mike Hearn\u2019s holiday greeting to Satoshi in which he said: \u201cHappy Christmas Satoshi, assuming you celebrate it.\u201d Satoshi didn\u2019t respond to Hearn\u2019s greeting. Charles asked whether that was deliberate or just an omission: \u201cI don’t hide that I’m Christian anymore, but I used to,\u201d Craig said. \u201cI found that it was rather problematic because of the attitudes of people in Silicon Valley in particular.\u201d<\/p>\n
A conversation with Craig wouldn\u2019t be complete without a mention of books, in this case, audio books. The two exchanged some laughs as Craig describes how his wife would have to put up with the sound of his audio books being played at high speed as they were in bed at night. \u201cI live on audiobooks\u2014the wife says it sounds like a bunch of chipmunks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Join Charles Miller in this episode of CoinGeek Conversations to learn more about ‘the rise and fall of Satoshi Nakamoto’.<\/p>\n
Hear the whole of Dr. Craig Wright\u2019s interview in this week\u2019s CoinGeek Conversations podcast or catch up with other recent episodes:<\/strong><\/p>\n