Around 10 days after being identified by Newsweek magazine as the mysterious creator of the digital currency Bitcoin, Dorian Nakamoto, a 64-year-old semi-employed engineer, has hired a lawyer and issued a statement unconditionally denying that he had any involvement in Bitcoin.

“I am writing this statement to clear my name,” Mr. Nakamoto said in the statement released early Monday morning by his lawyer, Ethan D. Kirschner of Los Angeles. “I did not create, invent or otherwise work on Bitcoin.”

Mr. Nakamoto said in the statement that he first heard the term Bitcoin last month from his son after Newsweek contacted the son about the article. He also noted that he had recently fallen on hard times, working as a polltaker and substitute teacher. And in a disclosure clearly meant to challenge his identification as a technological revolutionary, Mr. Nakamoto said he discontinued his Internet service in 2013 because he could not afford it.

The statement increased the pressure on Newsweek, which had just returned to print under new owners with the Bitcoin article on its cover. It also appeared to lay the groundwork for possible litigation against Newsweek, legal experts said. Mr. Nakamoto included assertions that his prospects for gainful employment have been harmed by the article and that the “false report has been the source of a great deal of confusion and stress for myself, my 93-year-old mother, my siblings and their families.”