I’ve been asked the question a lot: Is Craig Wright really the Bitcoin creator, known by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto?
TL;DR: Who cares?
We should first question the relevance of knowing the real identity of Satoshi Nakamoto.
Those who care most about Satoshi’s true identity will probably be the tax authorities, since Satoshi sits on around half a billion dollars’ worth of Bitcoin.
The second group might be those involved in the heated Bitcoin block size debate. There has been a lot of “What would Satoshi do?” statements thrown around and I suppose having such a figure unmasked will add some gravitas. (Mr Wright, as I understand it, is for a gradual block size increase).
All of these things are more-or-less irrelevant, I believe.
Satoshi isn’t Bitcoin’s decider. Nobody is.
The beauty and strength of Bitcoin is the lack, not the presence, of a central bank(er). Being open-source and decentralised are features, not flaws. Because of it, there is no sole central figure who decides on the future of the system. The future of Bitcoin won’t be decided by Satoshi, whether that person is Mr Wright or not.
A point that I should raise is that I believe great claims require great proof. The correspondence and proof that I reviewed wasn’t conclusive beyond all doubt to me that he is in fact Satoshi. More can be done to prove it, and I know publications like the Economist have called on him to do so. Otherwise it might have very well been a cheap publicity stunt.
Lastly, even if Mr Wright turns out to be Satoshi, I’m surely very impressed by his contributions to Bitcoin thus far. I’m also excited by his potential contributions to Bitcoin in future. The thing that makes me most excited about Bitcoin, however, is that anyone can contribute, so I’m looking forward to everyone’s contributions.
In short: I don’t really care beyond my own simple curiosity if we’ve really found the true Satoshi. The fact that Bitcoin has grown, evolved and improved like it has over the years without Satoshi’s involvement is testament to me that it can and will continue to be one of the most important modern technologies of our era.
