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posted by martyb on Thursday December 10 2015, @11:21PM   Printer-friendly
from the a-bit-incoinvenient dept.

Wired and Gizmodo have named Craig Steven Wright (along with deceased American computer forensics expert Dave Kleiman) as the inventor of Bitcoin, known by the apparent pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. Hours after their stories were published, the man's home was raided by the Australian Federal Police:

The latest attempt came this week from Wired magazine. Except this time, the story based its findings on numerous recorded links between the man and the identity of Nakamoto, through leaked emails, old blog posts and public documents. And then, just hours later, a twin story from tech website Gizmodo: more emails and documents, independent research, similar findings.

Their shared conclusion: It's probably a man named Craig Steven Wright, an Australian entrepreneur and academic, working with American computer forensics expert David Kleiman until his death in 2013.

And then, another few hours later: reports from Reuters and The Guardian that Australian police have raided Wright's home and office in Sydney. The authorities told The Guardian that the execution of search warrants was "to assist the Australian Taxation Office" but the "matter is unrelated to recent media reporting regarding the digital currency bitcoin."

The Register has some more details about Wright:

[More after the break.]

Wright's known business interests relate mostly to Bitcoin: as well as operating a BTC exchange, he has a company called Cloudcroft, which holds what's probably Australia's only privately owned Top-500 supercomputer – C01N operated by Tulip Trading.

The umbrella company most associated with Wright, DeMorgan, lists security, banking and finance, maths, AI and software development as well as cryptocurrency.

Earlier this year, DeMorgan had high hopes of turning its research into government R&D tax credits, as is outlined in this press release [PDF - google cache link - original has 404'ed] – crucially, DeMorgan said its work could be worth up to AU$54m ($39m, £26m) under AusIndustry's R&D tax incentive scheme. Worth AU$54m to DeMorgan, that is.

Both articles claim that if Wright is Satoshi Nakamoto, he may be holding Bitcoins currently worth hundreds of millions of dollars.


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  • (Score: 2) by isostatic on Friday December 11 2015, @12:41PM

    by isostatic (365) on Friday December 11 2015, @12:41PM (#274941) Journal

    So lets assume the keyboard warrier put down their cheetos and emerge from their mom's basement. They organise a large protest, and they even manage to keep squabbles over the name - People's Front of Judea or Judean People's Front, or the Popular Front of Judea.

    So they organise and they protest. They Occupy Wall Street. They go on stop the war campaings. They get millions out.

    Then what?

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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 11 2015, @03:40PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 11 2015, @03:40PM (#274996)

    Then what?

    Then sometimes they get what they ask for?

    Because in some cases what they ask for is not really conflicting with what the corporations want. So the politicians can give them what they ask for and give the corporations what they ask for.

    Legalize marijuana? Doubt most corporations care. Big Tobacco might even see this as an opportunity- a new growth market. Gay marriage? Doubt most big corps care either.

    In contrast - Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership? Doubt most voters care, so why not give the corporations what they want?

    Everyone gets what they want. Win-win.

    Ask loudly enough for small government, and they just outsource to their friends, with the bonus that not all the restrictions and requirements on what the Gov can and cannot do, will apply to their friends. Good luck filing a FOIA request on a private corporation.