Supposed Bitcoin founder says 'goodbye' after presenting fake evidence | The Verge

Gone but not forgotten

"But in the past week, Wright has given us more reason than ever to doubt him. His early public demonstration looked like proof at first glance, but closer inspection revealed a duped signature string that seems to have been inserted as a deliberate attempt to mislead. Similar research turned up a set of backdated PGP keys after the first round of claims in December. At each stage, the evidence pointing to Wright as Satoshi has contained specific and deliberate falsifications. Now that Wright has publicly claimed to be Satoshi, it's entirely plausible that he falsified that evidence himself.

Throughout all of it, there have been a number of simple, concrete actions Wright could have taken to prove his ostensible identity: signing the genesis block, signing a message with Satoshi's PGP key, or making a transaction with one of the many bitcoin blocks linked to Satoshi. Wright has now disappeared without taking any of those steps, but generating as much attention as possible along the way. For skeptics, that behavior is exactly what you'd expect — and for those who believe him, it's harder than ever to explain."

Supposed Bitcoin founder says 'goodbye' after presenting fake evidence | The Verge