The mystery of who invented the cryptocurrency Bitcoin may have been solved.
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Various media sources have revealed the identity of the programmer who launched the notorious online virtual currency as Australian Dr Craig Wright.
However, although some evidence points to Wright as the face behind the credited creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, he has yet to confirm this is the case or that he has not seeded the investigation with hoax information.
Within hours of Wright’s identity being linked with Bitcoin, Australian police raided his rented home in Sydney and removed banks of computer equipment.
Wright’s landlord claimed extra power sources had been laid to the house to boost the electricity supply as Wright had so much technology in his home.
Police raid on home ‘coincidental’
Australian police claimed the raid was coincidental to the Bitcoin claims and related to a tax investigation.
Police have not revealed if any arrests were made but told reporters at the scene that they were clearing the house.
Personal information about Dr Wright is scant.
His social media sites disappeared soon after the Bitcoin allegations were published by online tech magazine Wired
The magazine claims to have seen online documents linking Wright with the founding of Bitcoin going back to 2008.
Wired’s allegations were supported by a separate investigation by another online magazine, Gizmodo, which suggested Wright and his friend and co-collaborator David Kleiman were involved in creating the virtual currency.
Kleiman has since died.
Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?
Among the claims made by the web sites include a suggestion that Wright has a private store of more than 1 million Bitcoin that he ‘mined’ near the time the virtual currency went public.
Bitcoin was first introduced to the world in 2009.
Investors mine Bitcoin for storage in an encrypted electronic wallet by solving complicated computer coding problems.
Dr Wright, 44, is said to be an expert in cryptography and online currencies.
His LinkedIn profile notes Wright is behind two companies involved in online currency security apparently owns a super computer called Tulip Trading, which is ranked the 13th fastest in the world.
The revelations come as Wright was packing up his home in Sydney to leave for London by the end of the year.
Others have been linked to the Nakamoto pseudonym in the past, but none were identified as the mystery Bitcoin founder.
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