Some have suggested that Satoshi Nakamoto, the man who developed the idea for Bitcoin, worked for a government agency; others have suggested that "he" was actually a group of people. One researcher posited that Nakamoto was "probably" a blogger named Nick Szabo; another report pointed to a connection between Satoshi and the Dread Pirate Roberts.
Now, Newsweek is reporting that the founder of Bitcoin is actually a 64-year-old man who has been laid off twice and lives with his mom in California. And he drives a Toyota Corolla.
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Newsweek's Leah McGrath Goodman claims to have tracked down Satoshi Nakamoto — yes, that's apparently his real name — after talking with a multiple developers who worked with Nakamoto in the early days of Bitcoin. She also dug into registration cards for U.S. citizens, consulted with forensics analysts and talked with Nakamoto's family, who expressed surprise at the revelations, but seemed to feel it fit his character.
"I could see my dad doing something brilliant and not accepting the greater effect of it," his oldest daughter, Ilene Mitchell, told Newsweek. "Any normal person would be all over it. But he's not totally a normal person."
His family describes Nakamoto as "brilliant," great with computers and math and an "asshole." He worked a number of technical jobs, but was laid off repeatedly in the 1990s and his home was foreclosed. His daughter speculates that may have impacted his view of governments and banking institutions.
Satoshi Nakamoto now lives far away from his six children in Temple City, in the Los Angeles area, with his 93-year old mother. He's estimated to have $400 million worth of Bitcoin wealth, but he hasn't tapped into it, perhaps for fear of being tracked by his transactions.
Since the report was released Thursday morning, some have already questioned the evidence that led to his being IDed. Others, including one of the sources quote in the report, have come out against it.
@gavinandresen Poor guy, the floodgates are going to open. #bitcoin is now tethered indefinitely to the man and his actions.
— bitcoinG (@GeorgiBitcoing) March 6, 2014
Reserving judgment on Newsweek’s claim to have ID’ed Bitcoin’s creator. Not enough evidence. Perhaps we’ll see more.
— Ed Felten (@EdFelten) March 6, 2014
Either way, the story is a nice coup for Newsweek as it relaunches in print this week under its new owners, IBT Media.