Australian computer scientist Craig Steven Wright took the cryptocurrency world by surprise when he claimed to have created Bitcoin with his deceased friend. Jon Matonis, an early adopter who wrote about the digital currency for Forbes, as well as Gavin Andresen, to whom Satoshi entrusted the Bitcoin repository keys, publicly supported Wright. (Though the latter later regretted having done so)

Dr. Wright, however, never provided cryptographic proof. Yet, with his reputation and his skillset, he has gained the ears of mainstream press and some Bitcoiners.

From the very beginning, Wired concluded: “Either Wright invented bitcoin, or he’s a brilliant hoaxer who very badly wants us to believe he did.”

While the Bitcoin community generally disputes that Dr. Wright is a Bitcoin founder (if he is, he commands more than a billion in the crypto-currency), it is not disputing that Dr. Wright entered a Bitcoin chat room and opined about the digital currency he claims to have created. The chat logs, leaked to social media forums like Reddit, have been the topic of much discussion.

The community was left hanging when Dr. Wright, who apparently holds a PhD in theology, failed to publish a signed message using Satoshi Nakamoto’s encrypted keys. Had he done so, he would have proven himself to be Satoshi Nakamoto. Wright revealed in the online chat that he did not complete the verification for tax purposes.

“Tax,” he wrote in the chat. “I am not offering proof that is proof. If I can access or not is MY business and it stays that way.”

Dr. Wright, who has worked in information technology for numerous companies, also condemned segments of the crypto-currency community looking for him to return as a savior of sorts, saying that markets, not Satoshi, can provide Bitcoin with answers to technical problems.

“IF you need to do what I say as I am Satoshi and not because of the idea I am presenting, but the nature of my identity, then you are all lost!” he exclaimed. “If you cannot think for yourself, then all this was for nothing. If you judge based on an identity alone, on a perceived authority, then you are sheeple and deserve all you get.”

He adds, with the flare one might expect from Bitcoin’s libertarian-esque founder: “What we need is simple, it is competition. Not a central authority. Not a 1984 double speak committee, but open and free competition.”

For Dr. Wright, who claims he was doxxed by Wired and Gizmodo, this means developers can build on top of the base protocol. Miners should be free to decide which implementation of Bitcoin.

“If people do not like it, they can lobby miners or better, invest in hash power,” he says. “This way, changes are made based on what the market decides. Not an authority, the market. Each tries and fails and grows based on supply to a market.”

Doesn’t Want to be Satoshi; an Authority

Although he made much to do about his role in Bitcoin’s creation, Dr. Wright does not want to play Satoshi.

“I am not wanting to have people think I am and I am going to imagine that nobody ever doxx’d me and that I am just some overqualified academic for the moment… ok?” Dr. Wright says he never wanted it to be made public that he was Nakamoto.

“I had no plans to be an authority,” he says. “I will not… I will be a scammer with ideas that go to market before I become something I detest and people wanted that. They dressed me in a bloody turtle neck! I have NEVER worn a frikin turtle neck in my life. Like I was bloody [Jobs] or something. I made stupid decisions and I, as all do, have regrets.” All-in-all, Dr. Wright wants his ideas to speak for themselves.

“Please, all I ask is do not follow me, a developer or anyone based on who they are,” he urges. “Look anytime, everytime on the solution, the effects and the trade-off.” Bitcoin, he says, was designed to bypass authority.

We can all trade and we can do this as the market determines,” he wrote. “Not as a consequence of a high priesthood, but through trial and error, failure and just sheer will to try and learn and fail again.”

He concludes about the founder of Bitcoin: “Satoshi has to be a myth. If you make me, or anyone a ‘God’, an infallible authority, then what is the point?”

Dr. Wright adds: “I am not good with people. This is difficult for me now… others have pushed me to be here and to be frank it scares the shit out of me.”

Picture adapted from BTC Keychain/Flickr.