There’s one very obvious question many people want to ask the cryptocurrency pioneer Dr Craig Wright: are you Satoshi Nakamoto?

This Australian academic and entrepreneur shot to fame in 2015 after admitting he was Satoshi, author of a white paper which set out the rules and design of Bitcoin.

But soon after he stepped into the spotlight, critics rounded on him and rubbished his claims to be the face behind the pseudonym. Since then, he’s gone to ground and quietly worked on amassing an enviable personal fortune.

Now he’s opened up about his life in a rare and revealing interview with Metro.co.uk in which he gives details of his wealth, shares the life-changing effects of outing himself as Nakamoto and speaks out about the tragic death of his business partner for the first time.

Before I ask the inevitable question about whether Craig really is Satoshi – or whether his claims were a load of tosh – I want to know why he’s decided to talk to me.

Dr Craig Wright, who may or may not be one of the inventors of Bitcoin

‘There’s so much misunderstanding about Bitcoin – so much FUD,’ he says, using an acronym for the ‘fear, uncertainty and doubt’ which many Bitcoin investors blame for the cryptocurrency’s dramatic price plunges.



‘People can’t seem to get it right, so someone has to start setting out the truth.’

‘It annoys the crap out of me, to put it simply,’ he adds.

We catch up on the morning of Good Friday for a Skype chat. Craig’s wearing a grey sleeveless hooded top so he can head down to his own luxurious and well-appointed gym after we’re finished.

At the end of our talk, I realise that I’ve been sitting in shadow the whole time, so he’s essentially been speaking to some faceless phantom with an estuary English accent. Which seems fitting, somehow, for a discussion about the shadowy, often anonymous world of cryptocurrencies.

Craig, on the other hand, sits in bright light in what looks like a windowless room in a London house which he describes as opulent – and gigantic.

I sense he’s still smarting a bit from the mauling he got after coming out as Satoshi, but can’t tell for sure whether this is because he’s angry about continued accusations that he lied about being the father of Bitcoin or for some other reason I can’t fathom.

So I hit Craig with the one question which every journalist inevitably wants to put to him.

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‘I never confirm or deny,’ he tells me.

‘I’m getting better at this. So I’ll plead the American fifth.’

He wasn’t always so coy.

After investigations in Gizmodo and Wired named Craig Wright as the man behind Satoshi, he did little to deny the rumours and vowed to give the BBC ‘extraordinary proof’ of his identity.

However, he did not produce this proof and was pilloried by people who accused him of lying about his role in the birth of Bitcoin. He later posted a message on his website which insisted he did not deceive the world but would not be taking steps to prove that he was the man behind Satoshi.



The barracking continues to this day, with Ethereum cofounder Vitalik Buterin calling him a ‘fraud’ earlier this week.

Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum Foundation and Bitcoin Magazine, is a prominent critic of Craig Wright

The statement Craig Wright posted on his website in May 2016 ‘I believed that I could do this. I believed that I could put the years of anonymity and hiding behind me. ‘But, as the events of this week unfolded and I prepared to publish the proof of access to the earliest keys, I broke. I do not have the courage. I cannot. ‘When the rumours began, my qualifications and character were attacked. When those allegations were proven false, new allegations have already begun. I know now that I am not strong enough for this. ‘I know that this weakness will cause great damage to those that have supported me, and particularly to Jon Matonis (founding director of The Bitcoin Foundation) and Gavin Andresen (software developer who played a key role in building software which powers Bitcoin) I can only hope that their honour and credibility is not irreparably tainted by my actions. ‘They were not deceived, but I know that the world will never believe that now. I can only say I’m sorry. And goodbye.’

I try another tack and ask him how many Bitcoins he’s holding right now. Satoshi Nakamoto has a fortune of about 980,000 Bitcoins worth almost $20 billion, which would make him the 44th richest person in the world.

‘They are sort of ephemeral so you can’t hold them,’ he says evasively.

‘I have some printed as coins, but there’s only a few hundred of those.’

So I try again, mistakenly asking him if he owns millions.

‘Not millions, no,’ he replies. Even if he is Satoshi, this would be a true answer.

Bitcoins don’t generally exist in physical form and are stored using a virtual ledger called the blockchain

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The key fact to remember about Satoshi’s fortune is that it’s not quite the same as having loads of traditional cash tucked away in the bank.

If the person behind Nakamoto was seen to be selling his huge cryptocurrency stash, it would probably spook investors and cause a price crash which would render his fortune worthless.

‘Why would anyone do that, assuming I had that kind of level of Bitcoin?’ Craig asks.

‘People can speculate all they want. It’s now gone to the point where I don’t hide as much as I used to. It’s fairly public knowledge that I have money.

‘How much is another question altogether.’

His is mysterious crypto-fortune is used to fund investments in companies working on to ‘build the Bitcoin ecosystem’, he insists. Instead of withdrawing it all, he’s using and even adding to it with no intention to suddenly cash in his virtual coins.

Since being identified as Satoshi, Craig has also built up a more visible fortune through his company NChain. Before Bitcoin, he already enjoyed a successful career in information security and programming, building the architecture for one of the earliest online casinos aged just 29.

Even if he’s not Satoshi, he’s still a very rich man.

This chart starts in 2010 and shows the rapid growth of Bitcoin (Graphic: Coindesk)

‘I already have everything I need. I don’t think people understand this,’ he says.

‘I live in a 16,000 square foot home [in London] over four levels with a gym that beats many commercial gyms downstairs and a silly collection of things like Henry,’ which is not the name of a hoover but his moniker for an 11th-century suit of armour he bought at considerable expense.

‘People can’t say exactly what I have, which is the nature of Bitcoin. But I have enough to have a few sports cars and a big house without a home loan.

‘I have a mortgage in Australia, but money in my bank account at the same time.’


He admits that being outed as Satoshi was ‘surreal’, as he went from being an academic and entrepreneur who ‘no-one cared about’ to finding journalists camped on this doorstep.

‘I worry for my family,’ he admits. ‘You see things like people being kidnapped because they own Bitcoin or whatever else.’

Yet there is one person who did not benefit from the Bitcoin price explosion: Craig’s former business partner.

David Kleiman, who worked with Craig Wright during the dawn of Bitcoin (Picture: DavidKleiman.com)

Dave Kleiman, who is to be co-creator of the world’s most important cryptocurrency, died impoverished and alone at the beginning of 2013 after apparently failing to reap the benefits of his involvement in the dawn of Bitcoin.

His grisly, sad and lonely end sparked wild conspiracy theories in recent years as the price of Bitcoin soared from next to nothing to a massive $20,000 at the end of last year.

Wright is now facing a lawsuit from Kleiman’s brother, Ira, who has accused the crypto pioneer of wrongfully seizing more than $5billion worth of Bitcoin from Dave’s estate.

‘He was my friend,’ Wright says sadly, his voice beginning to falter.

‘This will probably come out anyway. The US government knows it all already.’

Ira Kleiman’s court filings state that his brother and Wright shared a ‘mutual obsession with cryptography and data security’.

‘It is unclear whether Craig, Dave, and/or both created Bitcoin,’ it continues.

‘For reasons not yet completely clear, they chose to keep their involvement in Bitcoin hidden from most of their family and friends. It is undeniable, however, that Craig and Dave were involved in Bitcoin from its inception and that they both accumulated a vast wealth of bitcoins from 2009 through 2013.’

Bitcoin soared in price during 2017 to almost $20,000 before plunging down to under $7,000 at the time of writing in a cryptocurrency ‘bloodbath’ (Picture: Getty/ Metro.co.uk)

Dave Kleiman was left wheelchair-bound following a major motorcycle accident in 1995.

After contracting MRSA from infected bed sores, he spent the last few years of his life in and out of hospitals.

Finally, in 2013, he allegedly told doctors to ‘go fuck themselves’, checked himself out and went back to his home in Palm Beach County

The computer genius died a month later in poverty, facing the foreclosure of his house.

According to a report from the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner Office, his body was found decomposing and blood and faecal matter was detected in his wheelchair tracks.

His house was scattered with open bottles of alcohol and a loaded handgun was found next to him.

Although Kleiman’s mattress had a bullet hole in it, there were no empty cases in the house, ruling out suicide, and coroners said MRSA had stopped his heart.

‘Dave was in hospital and had been left too long, so ended up with infected bed sores and all sorts of problems,’ Craig says.

‘Things were getting it worse and I don’t think people there really cared.

‘At the end of it, he got sick of the pain and checked himself out without telling anyone.’

KFC is one of many firms which now accept Bitcoin for certain purchases (Credit: Getty/ Rex)

He tells me Kleiman died in poverty because his money was seized during an investigation into a Costa Rica-based Bitcoin exchange called Liberty Reserve, which was one of the earliest Bitcoin exchanges.

‘Early in 2013, the Americans sized Liberty Reserve and seized all funds there, saying these guys fund drugs and terrorism and everything like that. Which, so do banks, honestly.

‘When it was shut down, all his money was seized.

‘Dave had a lot of Bitcoins. But they were… wherever Dave left his Bitcoins.’

Kleiman reportedly carried a USB drive at all times, although this has not been confirmed. If this did contain a fortune in Bitcoin, opening up could prove impossible because it is likely to be locked down using strong encryption.

Craig Wright speaking to the BBC (Photograph: BBC News)

Ira Kleiman’s court case alleges Wright ‘perpetrated a scheme against Dave’s estate to seize Dave’s bitcoins and his rights to certain intellectual property associated with the Bitcoin technology’.

It continues: ‘As part of this plan, Craig forged a series of contracts that purported to transfer Dave’s assets to Craig and/or companies controlled by him. Craig backdated these contracts and forged Dave’s signature on them.’

I ask Craig if was upset by the allegations and feels hurt.

He responds: ‘I do in many ways. Yes.’

We sit in silence for a moment after Craig shares his sadness about the death of Dave Kleiman, who was a ‘good friend’.

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The tragedy is compounded by the sad fact that Kleiman never got to see Bitcoin explode in price and even begin gain a measure of mainstream acceptance.

Nowadays, everyone from Paris Hilton to the bra entrepreneur Michelle Mone is investing in cryptocurrencies, while banks and financial organisations are rushing to see how they can make even more money by taking part in this emerging economy.

It wasn’t always like this. In its infancy, Bitcoin’s advocates imagined it would become a global currency which would liberate us from the tyranny of mighty governments and central banks, freeing citizens by effectively allowing them to become their own bank.

Craig says he’s a libertarian, but ‘pragmatic’ enough that it hasn’t stopped him working for government agencies.

‘You have a lot of anarchists talking about Bitcoin because they think they can build a system without central banks, overthrow the government and all the rest.

‘This is absolute BS.’

Since Bitcoin was released, a number of other crytocurrencies including TrumpCoin have been unleashed (Credit: AP, Bitcoin)

He believes Bitcoin can make banks and governments a ‘little more honest’, because their transactions are visible because they are recorded on the blockchain, but does not believe it will bring about some kind of utopia.

‘You have to be realistic. We have the opportunity to open up global free trade with Bitcoin and it gives us the ability save money without it being taken, because it’s pseudonymous and we can save money in an account no-one knows about.

‘Bitcoin is a tool and like all tools it can be used for good or bad.

‘Hammers can be used to make a set of shelves. Hammers can be used to beat someone.

‘It’s how you use a tool that matters.’

So doesn’t this new economy need a leader? If he really is Satoshi, isn’t it time to come and lead the faithful to their cryptographically protected promised land?

‘Why would anyone do that?’ he asks.

‘If you want a system to be built on truth and start trying to get people to understand, what’s better: a scenario where people blindly follow you because of a name or a slow battle where you convince people using facts, mathematics and science?

‘I’ll tell you that people don’t learn if you come out there and build a cult of followers. They spout what you say, but don’t understand it.

‘That’s a Church of Satoshi, for heck’s sake. It’s even been divided in a Protestant and Catholic schism.’

‘This is a hugely negative thing.

‘At the end of all this, Bitcoin isn’t a universal saviour. The only thing that will save humanity is humanity.’

Dr Craig Wright will speak at the inaugural bComm Conference in Hong Kong on May 18, which is organised by the website CoinGeek.com and will also host ‘TED Talk-style roster of highly respected speakers in the industry’. Organisers said ‘the key event will give a valuable insight into the ever-changing market and is aimed at the all-important issue of merchant adoption’.