Call it a Freudian slip or simply a message delivered not as intended, the words were indeed uttered. The video link below appears to show Craig Wright coining the possibility that Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto may have plagiarized a thesis he wrote in 2008.

This is certainly a strange thing to say for a man who himself claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto despite not being able to definitively convince almost anyone, barring a few diehard Bitcoin SV (BSV) supporters.

Of course, there are two sides to the story and Wright’s supporters are vouching on Twitter that it was just a figure of speech. Expectedly, what followed next was the usual bitter exchange of words between the two sides.

Wright Claims Satoshi Stole His Work

Cryptocurrency trader and analyst Tone Vays took to Twitter earlier Wednesday drawing the community’s attention to Wright’s alleged on-stage goof-up.

During the Fireside Chat at the CC Forum Conference 2019, Wright said that the truth about his claims of being the real Satoshi Nakamoto will soon come out after his 2008 thesis comes out

“The University still has my thesis from 2008, they still have my proposal. [….] On that alone, you can make a decision when it comes out, and it will.”

And then things got bizarre when he said:

“[When the thesis comes out] Did Satoshi plagiarize me? Because there are sections in the [Bitcoin] whitepaper — whole paragraphs — [that can be found] in some of my work.”

When pointed out that he was referring to Satoshi in third-person, Wright seemed to fumble a little and quickly retorted saying “Either I am Satoshi or Satoshi plagiarized me — you can make the choice, I don’t really care.”

Check out the video below to decide for yourself whether it was a Freudian slip or if Wright really meant to say what he said to drive his point home. The conversation starts at around 12:00.

Tone Vays Dragged into Yet Another Controversy

Worth noting here is that Vays himself is a polarizing figure on Twitter and is often subject to harsh criticisms.

Just last week he got a lot of flak on social media after charging someone 0.3 BTC ($2,400) per hour for consultation while flaunting his reach in the community.

He was also criticized by many including Litecoin creator Charlie Lee for agreeing to share a stage with Wright.

Vays did seem to recover some of the lost ground in the community after trolling Wright in front of his face while the two were sharing a stage. Vays did so by wearing a T-shirt with the following text legibly written on it: “We Are All Satoshi — Except for Craig S. Wright.”

But then, questions were raised about his off-stage antics after someone shared an image of Vays getting a side hug from Wright.

In his defense, Vays later tweeted that he was not a willing participant in that photograph and was just “at the wrong time in the wrong place during the networking event.”

Do you think Vays is being unfairly criticized for his photograph with Wright? What’s your take on Charlie Lee’s call for a boycott of all events inviting Craig Wright? Share your thoughts in the comments below.