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It's amazing to me how everyone is drinking the koolaid here on him being a fraud. I really don't think Gavin got duped. And I'm pretty sure they had enough p

It's amazing to me how everyone is drinking the koolaid here on him being a fraud. I really don't think Gavin got duped. And I'm pretty sure they had enough private email discussions over the years that there were things they discussed/shared privately over those years that could be used as a reference point for Gavin to be sure he was talking to the same person. People are more willing to believe that Gavin was hacked or suddenly forgot how bitcoin worked. I understand the technical proofs put forth have been spurious. I wouldn't be surprised if Craig had an under-qualified underlying who didn't really understand what they were doing who was responsible for some of that. People are forgetting the human part of this equation though. His interviews with the BBC don't strike me at all as someone looking to cash in. I think he is a bit of narcissist and wants to claim some credit for inventing bitcoin, but I also see a very deep fear of being in the public eye that comes through as well. Perhaps because he has done quite a few things he's not proud of and doesn't want to have people publicizing those. But the idea that he's a scammer looking to cash in here just play doesn't out at all. What's the end game? Where's the pile of money he's after? People aren't thinking through the motivations here thoroughly enough. He's risking quite a lot by doing this with the absolute certainty that he would be found out if he was a fraud. You could say maybe he's an idiot and doesn't understand that. No one could watch that interview though and believe the man isn't intelligent though. Why talk about the negotiations with Australian tax authorities when those authorities could very easily come and say that he was lying. None of this makes any sense from the scam angle. There has to be something else going on here.

ledude 10y ago
He's actually Batman and just not telling us.
woodman 10y ago
> Why talk about the negotiations with Australian tax authorities when those authorities could very easily come and say that he was lying. Like he did with the unearned degrees, the nonexistent business partnerships, and key signing slight of hand?
vizzah 10y ago
Based on your considerations, if it were true, he wouldn't need to write such a confusing post for coming out and use fake block-9 signature.
nikcub 10y ago
> What's the end game? Where's the pile of money he's after? He made multiple tax refund claims to the Australian authorities - including one for $54 million as part of a program where 45% of each dollar invested into R&D are refunded. Another was a $3.5 million refund on sales tax. The funding source in these transactions were Bitcoin. It adds up to over $150 million invested. The tax authorities asked Wright where this money came from, he told them in an interview that he was Satoshi Nakamoto. I go through some of this in a blog post: https://www.nikcub.com/posts/craig-wright-is-not-satoshi-nakamoto/#ato https://www.nikcub.com/posts/craig-wright-is-not-satoshi-nak... His explanation didn't work, they rejected the claim and penalized him for another and were investigating him further. He fled to London. Why he continued to press on with the Nakamoto identity nobody knows - but based on character assessments from multiple people I know who have worked with him and know him well he is a person who strives for recognition and has a history of deception (see his LinkedIn profile). It was 2 years ago that he started showing up at Bitcoin conferences and left strong hints that he was Satoshi - he wanted people to come to this conclusion on their own (and some did). Watch these videos from a conference in Australia: https://vimeo.com/149035662 https://vimeo.com/149035662 https://vimeo.com/149115042 https://vimeo.com/149115042 (specifically skip to 9:30 in part 2) Also see this panel discussion, which is now well-known: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdvQTwjVmrE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdvQTwjVmrE
dzdt 10y ago
He is after the hundreds of millions of dollars of bitcoins that the real Satoshi Nakamoto controlled. When Craig Wright first came to public attention last December, there was a stash of "leaked" documents relating him to Dave Kleiman. Many items associated to the leak were shown to be backdated. One leaked item claimed to describe a 1.1 million BTC loan from Wright to Kleiman. Wright apparantly believes that Kleiman, who died in 2013, had a large stash of bitcoins and he wants to establish a claim on these. If he could be accepted as Satoshi Nakamoto, it would lend credibility to his claims on the supposed fortune.

ledude 10y ago

He's actually Batman and just not telling us.

woodman 10y ago

> Why talk about the negotiations with Australian tax authorities when those authorities could very easily come and say that he was lying. Like he did with the unearned degrees, the nonexistent business partnerships, and key signing slight of hand?

vizzah 10y ago

Based on your considerations, if it were true, he wouldn't need to write such a confusing post for coming out and use fake block-9 signature.

nikcub 10y ago

> What's the end game? Where's the pile of money he's after? He made multiple tax refund claims to the Australian authorities - including one for $54 million as part of a program where 45% of each dollar invested into R&D are refunded. Another was a $3.5 million refund on sales tax. The funding source in these transactions were Bitcoin. It adds up to over $150 million invested. The tax authorities asked Wright where this money came from, he told them in an interview that he was Satoshi Nakamoto. I go through some of this in a blog post: https://www.nikcub.com/posts/craig-wright-is-not-satoshi-nakamoto/#ato https://www.nikcub.com/posts/craig-wright-is-not-satoshi-nak... His explanation didn't work, they rejected the claim and penalized him for another and were investigating him further. He fled to London. Why he continued to press on with the Nakamoto identity nobody knows - but based on character assessments from multiple people I know who have worked with him and know him well he is a person who strives for recognition and has a history of deception (see his LinkedIn profile). It was 2 years ago that he started showing up at Bitcoin conferences and left strong hints that he was Satoshi - he wanted people to come to this conclusion on their own (and some did). Watch these videos from a conference in Australia: https://vimeo.com/149035662 https://vimeo.com/149035662 https://vimeo.com/149115042 https://vimeo.com/149115042 (specifically skip to 9:30 in part 2) Also see this panel discussion, which is now well-known: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdvQTwjVmrE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdvQTwjVmrE

dzdt 10y ago

He is after the hundreds of millions of dollars of bitcoins that the real Satoshi Nakamoto controlled. When Craig Wright first came to public attention last December, there was a stash of "leaked" documents relating him to Dave Kleiman. Many items associated to the leak were shown to be backdated. One leaked item claimed to describe a 1.1 million BTC loan from Wright to Kleiman. Wright apparantly believes that Kleiman, who died in 2013, had a large stash of bitcoins and he wants to establish a claim on these. If he could be accepted as Satoshi Nakamoto, it would lend credibility to his claims on the supposed fortune.