Over the past few days, there has been a weird press release circulating the internet. What’s weird, it has been gaining a fair bit of traction. In fact, on the weekend, the GlobalNewsWire release appeared as the leading news item for the “Bitcoin” search term on Google News.
Titled “Visionary Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto to Reveal Identity”, the release claimed that the mysterious creator of Bitcoin was going to “break his silence”.
An excerpt of the release reads:
“In addition to his real-life identity, Nakamoto will use “My Reveal” to divulge such facts as his country of origin, education, professional background, and why he has yet to move any of his 980,000 Bitcoins.”
Another part of the release implied that “Satoshi” is looking to (re-)revolutionize Bitcoin, reading that the pseudonymous figure has a “clean-slate vision” for the “rebirth” of “his” brainchild.
And deliver the Satoshi claimant did, releasing a series of blog posts over the past few days to try and convince the world of his legitimacy. Unfortunately, not many are all too convinced.
The Reveal
While weekends are normally boring times for the crypto industry, this past weekend was a different story. On Sunday, many in this budding community made their way on to the websites mentioned in the press release: Satoshi Nakamoto Renaissance Holdings and a New York-based marketing company, Ivy Mclemore.
At the time mentioned in the press release, the blog post was released to the public. And when it was the former website crashed and the latter remained online. Nice.
New Faketoshi: “I have $10 billion worth of Bitcoin”
Also new Faketoshi: “I can only afford $1/month for hosting my website” pic.twitter.com/5TxyVJgbJa
— Ric “el pony esponjoso” (@fluffypony) August 18, 2019
But eventually, everyone got their hands on the blog. And it wasn’t exactly pretty.
The first post made mention of a number of weird tidbits that went against Satoshi’s rationale and ethos, according to countless on Twitter. And the second and third, released in tandem, were apparently just as silly.
Not the Bitcoin Creator, Declares Community
For instance, the first post mentions how Satoshi was neither a “hard-core techie” nor a “cypherpunk” — a statement that many in the crypto community would laugh at today.
The author also touches on how his former pseudonym was “Shaikho”, and that the “Nakamoto” surname was a byproduct of his conversations with Bitcoin pioneer (and potential Satoshi) Hal Finney, not something that was thought of from the get-go.
And the copy also seems to sport some Britishisms, which some on Twitter suggest goes against Satoshi’s seeming American writing style.
That’s not all. Monero project maintainer Riccardo Spagni delved into a domain mentioned in the blog post from the supposed Bitcoin creator, theBCCI.net. The domain, according to “Satoshi”, was registered as a backup for Bitcoin.org.
Hey @ivymclemore, just so you're aware, Bilal Khalid is not Satoshi Nakamoto. Have fun promoting his "reveal" whilst your name gets dragged through the mud!
— Ric “el pony esponjoso” (@fluffypony) August 18, 2019
What’s odd about this, as Spagni points out, is that the website was rebranded multiple times “and purportedly sold”. And a snapshot of the original website made no mention of Bitcoin, making it unlikely that the person behind the domain is actually Satoshi.
But wait, there’s more. Ethereum security researcher Harry Denley delved even further into the blog post than Spagni, finding evidence that the new “Satoshi” is not “super privacy-minded” and that the website is all being run through a full-of-holes WordPress system.
I'll eat my hat if there's anything credible that gets released in the coming days that proves the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto and not a PR stunt by a tech consulting company.
— {harry,whg}.eth ???????? (@sniko_) August 17, 2019
Even if all this counter-evidence can be rebutted, many analysts on Twitter have suggested that the only way Satoshi would reveal himself would be by signing the Genesis Block or issuing a transaction from one of the first addresses.
As very, very early Bitcoin adopter Jeff Garzik told Bloomberg in an interview, these blog posts just seem to be the latest attempt from a “new fraud” claiming to be the creator of Bitcoin.
