Bitcoin Founders Identity Reportedly Surfaces He Is Australian

The mysterious founder of bitcoin may have finally been unmasked. Although generally attributed to "Satoshi Nakamoto," that name has largely been assumed a pseudonym for the real creator of the stateless currency. Now two publications -- Gizmodo and Wired -- are pointing the finger at an Australian named Craig Steven Wright.

The two reports, which appeared within hours of each other on Dec. 8, rely on an impressive amount of leaked evidence, as well as clues Wright himself planted into social media postings.

Among the trove of leaked documents is evidence of something called The Tulip Trust, an apparent reference to the 17th century Tulip Mania that saw the price of the flowers rocket to astounding levels and then dramatically crash. According to the documents, the trust holds some $400 million in bitcoins once controlled by David Kleiman, a now deceased friend of Wright, which cannot be accessed until 2020.

Also included in the evidence is what purports to be a transcript between Wright and his attorney in which he is alleged to have said, "I did my best to try and hide the fact that I've been running bitcoin since 2009. By the end of this, I think half the world is going to bloody know."

This is not the first time the mysterious bitcoin founder was said to be revealed. In 2004, Newsweek claimed Dorian Nakamoto, a 64-year-old Japanese-American, was the bitcoin creator. That report has since been disproved. Nakamoto later announced his intentions to sue the magazine over the false accusation.

Bitcoin has been controversial since its 2009 launch by the shadowy Satoshi Nakamoto. Although first embraced by geeks for its outlaw novelty, it has since been linked to an underground economy that includes money laundering and drug dealing, while exchanges that support the currency have been plagued by allegations of fraud. Efforts to legitimize the crypto-currency as a payment system via vending machines and ATM outlets have been proved only partially successful.