Inside the hunt for Bitcoin founder worth £55bn – from boffin Craig Wright to Elon Musk and ‘Jeff Bezos of the Dark Web’
BITCOIN was the world's first cryptocurrency and now is worth hundreds of billions of dollars - yet the identity of the individual behind it remains a mystery.
Now a UK court case may come one step closer to revealing who invented the coin, which first started trading back in 2008.
Australian computer scientist Craig Wright, 54, who lives in London, has unsuccessfully argued since 2016 that he created the online currency and now is at London's High Court defending his claim.
He claims to be 'Satoshi Nakamoto' - the pseudonym used by the supposed creator of Bitcoin - who published a white paper explaining the concept of cryptocurrency and the blockchain before disappearing from the internet more than a decade ago.
Bitcoin, which is worth a whopping £657billion ($830billion), was the first decentralised currency and uses digital coins that have been created or 'mined' using complicated calculations carried out by computers.
But Wright is now facing a lawsuit from the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), who believe the trial will "conclusively show that Dr Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto and will not be able to continue to threaten developers".
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Lawyers representing COPA, which is backed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, allege the Aussie's inventor claims are "a brazen lie".
They said "it would be easy" for Wright to prove he is the founder "beyond any doubt but he can't" and allege he has "forged documents" to wrongly assert his claim.
Meanwhile, Wright's lawyer says the case is "really a war" to decide who sets the rules for the Bitcoin blockchain - a ledger that tracks ownership of the online currency.
If Wright is proven to be Bitcoin's founder he will be sitting on a £36billion stash of the cryptocurrency - making him one of the world's richest people.
He is the only person to have publicly claimed he is the inventor of Bitcoin, but over the years, others have been accused.
Here, we reveal the prime suspects behind the Bitcoin empire.
Tesla billionaire Elon Musk
Controversial Musk has made his fortune through his electric car company Tesla, PayPal and Space X.
The South African is one of the richest men in the world, but fans say he could be even richer than he’s letting on.
A former Space X intern Sahil Gupta wrote a blog post in 2017, writing: “Satoshi is probably Elon.”
But Musk hit back in a tweet, denying that he was the mysterious founder and saying he had lost his only Bitcoin.
He wrote: “Not true. A friend sent me part of a BTC a few years, but I don’t know where it is.”
Previously Musk’s company Tesla has championed Bitcoin - buying $1.5billion and promising to accept the currency for cars.
Through their positive PR for the cryptocurrency in 2021, the price of one Bitcoin jumped 16 per cent to almost £34,000.
Website Medium speculated that only Elon would name himself Satoshi Nakamoto - because it is an anagram for “so a man took a s**t”.
International criminal Paul le Roux
International drug dealer and convicted murderer Paul le Roux - once dubbed the "Jeff Bezos of the dark web" - was once linked to Bitcoin.
The South African is an expert coder who started an online pharmaceutical prescription business before branching out into drug smuggling.
Le Roux cashed in on the US opioid crisis to the tune of $300million by building an online painkiller prescription business.
With his newfound wealth he soon built up a global criminal empire.
His businesses reportedly included dealing arms in Indonesia, smuggling cocaine into Australia and selling meth made in North Korea.
Timeline of Nakamoto's disappearance
THE man, the myth and the legend of Satoshi Nakamoto is sitting on a pile of crypo-currency worth £36billion.
Nakamoto is believed to be a pseudonym and the true identity of the inventor remains shrouded in mystery.
2007 - Nakamoto worked on the first ever version of the software in 2007 and all communication to and from him was conducted via email.
2008 - The mystery man first introduced the concept of cryptocurrency and the blockchain system of verification to the world in a 2008 paper.
2010 - His involvement with Bitcoin ended in 2010 and his last correspondence was that he had "moved onto other things".
And ever since, a series of characters have claimed or been accused of being Nakamoto.
2014 - Newsweek thought they had found their Satoshi Nakamoto - a computer engineer living in Temple City in Los Angeles County.
And while the Japanese-American man, named Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, firmly denied he was the shadowy force behind the infamous cryptocurrency - the plot continued to thicken.
It soon emerged that computer scientist Hal Finney, who was the recipient of the first Bitcoin transaction, lived a "few blocks" from the seemingly-oblivious Nakamoto.
However, people later believed that Finney was either a ghostwriter for the Bitcoin creator or simply used his neighbour's name as a moniker.
The other best-known Nakamoto-suspect is Australian computer scientist and businessman Craig Wright.
But unlike the other leading contenders, Wright began actually claiming he is Nakamoto in 2016.
2016 - Wright said he provided technical "proof" to the BBC, The Economist and GQ.
This consisted of a demonstration of the verification process used in the very first Bitcoin transaction.
He then posted an apology on his blog stating that he no longer had the “courage” to continue the process of proving his identity.
Wright subsequently appeared in Netflix documentary Banking on Bitcoin and once again claimed to be Nakamoto in what he said would be his final filmed interview.
However, he has continued to try and legally battle to 'prove' he is the Bitcoin founder.
And whether he is or not might finally be decided at a trial starting this week.
He was arrested in 2012 for trying to smuggle drugs into the US.
During his 2016 trial, he admitted to ordering and assisting seven murders of his employees and associates.
In Craig Wright’s court case, a document with a footnote containing le Roux’s Wikipedia page was made public - leading to speculation he was in fact the creator.
Satoshi’s code used English and Commonwealth spellings such as “colour” which le Roux would do after being raised in South Africa and Zimbabwe.
In 2020, he was jailed for 25 years.
Software geek Gavin Andresen
Some reports claimed Nakamoto handed the Bitcoin reigns over to US developer and programmer Andresen in 2010.
But some believe the tech expert had actually handed over to himself, killing off his fake identity.
Andresen founded the Bitcoin Foundation in 2012 to support the development of the currency, leaving his software development role in 2014 to focus on his pet project.
The American stepped down from Bitcoin officially in February 2016 and has not been involved in the currency since then.
In 2016, Andresen publicly stated he thought Craig Wright was the creator of Bitcoin.
He said: “I was convinced.”
University professor Vili Lehdonvirta
Finnish academic Vili was one of the first to be put forward as a possible Nakamoto in 2011.
The New Yorker named the Oxford University research fellow as the inventor of Bitcoin.
They approached the economist after Irish cryptographer Michael Clear told the magazine Vili matched Satoshi’s profile.
But Lehdonvirta told the magazine: “I would love to say that I’m Satoshi, because Bitcoin is very clever. But it’s not me.”
The professor had researched Bitcoin but said he was against the anonymous currency.
He said: “The only people who need cash in large denominations right now are criminals.”
Crypto genius Nick Szabo
Computer scientist Szabo once wrote a proposal for an online currency called “Bit Gold” in 1998 - bearing an uncanny resemblance to Bitcoin.
In 2008, the techie wrote on his blog that he wanted to turn Bit Gold into a reality.
Linguists studied Szabo’s writing and compared it to Nakamoto in 2014 and found striking similarities.
The report read: "None of the other possible authors were anywhere near as good of a match."
However, Szabo denied the claims in a tweet, writing: "Not Satoshi, but thank you."
Five risks of crypto investments
THE Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has warned people about the risks of investing in cryptocurrencies.
- Consumer protection: Some investments advertising high returns based on cryptoassets may not be subject to regulation beyond anti-money laundering requirements.
- Price volatility: Significant price volatility in cryptoassets, combined with the inherent difficulties of valuing cryptoassets reliably, places consumers at a high risk of losses.
- Product complexity: The complexity of some products and services relating to cryptoassets can make it hard for consumers to understand the risks. There is no guarantee that cryptoassets can be converted back into cash. Converting a cryptoasset back to cash depends on demand and supply existing in the market.
- Charges and fees: Consumers should consider the impact of fees and charges on their investment which may be more than those for regulated investment products.
- Marketing materials: Firms may overstate the returns of products or understate the risks involved.
Aussie businessman Craig Wright
Wright unveiled himself as the 'creator' of Bitcoin back in 2016 and provided what he referred to as technical "proof" to the BBC, the Economist and GQ.
His 'evidence' was a demonstration of the verification process used in the first Bitcoin transaction.
The Economist was not convinced, reporting that Wright refused to make the proof public and to show them other assurances. They said: "Such demonstrations can be stage-managed."
Wright has not provided the private keys - a secure code of numbers and letters in a hexadecimal string - that would unlock the 1.1million coins mined by Nakamoto.
He told a Norweigan court in 2022 that he "stomped on the hard drive" of a computer that held the "key slices" required to grant him access to Nakamoto's keys.
In 2021, the family of David Kleiman - who died in 2013 and was Wright's former business partner - sued Wright, claiming they worked on and mined Bitcoin together.
The family alleged that meant they were entitled to half of the fortune - however, a jury in Florida awarded nothing to the estate.
Wright has sued multiple online users for defamation after doubting his claim to be Nakamoto, with mixed success.
In 2022, podcaster Peter McCormack was ordered to pay £900,000 to Wright for defamation.
That same year, a Norwegian court ruled that Magnus Granath - known as Hodlonaut online - had been fair to label Wright a "fraud" and "scammer". Wright filed an appeal against the ruling.
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Wright is now facing COPA in London's High Court seeking a "negative declaration" that he is not Nakamoto.
He reportedly offered to settle the case out of court last month but the offer was rejected by COPA, who posted online: "Hard pass on that 'settlement.'"