Two years after Newsweek wrote an inaugural article upon returning to print in which it "unmasked" bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto and which turned out be a hoax (the author "found" Nakamoto using a white pages search), earlier this week the world was fixated on the story of another self-professed bitcoin "creator", this time Australian entrepreneuer Craig Wright, who "came out" concurrently to both BBC and the Economist, claiming he was the elusive creator of bitcoin.

However, just three days later the entrepreneur reneged on a promise to present new "proof" to support his case, effectively proving all his skeptics correct. He had pledged to move some of the virtual currency from one of its early address blocks, an act many believe can only be done by the tech's creator. This would have addressed complaints that earlier evidence he had published online was misleading.

Wright said he did not "have the courage" to prove he is Satoshi Nakamoto.

Or the facts.

Wright said that he was "sorry" adding that "I believed that I could put years of anonymity and hiding behind me" he put up in a short blog.

"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."

The full statement from his blog.

After doubt emerged that Wright was indeed Nakamoto, the Australian indicated that he would transfer some bitcoins from "block 9" by using a private key thought to be known only to Satoshi Nakamoto. Satoshi is known to have used the address in 2009 to send coins to a computer scientist.

Dr Wright had promised the "extraordinary proof" in light of a growing backlash against one of his blogs.

On Monday, the Australian had posted what seemed to be evidence that he had Satoshi's key by describing a process that led to the creation of a "digital signature". But soon after, this was attacked by security researchers who linked the signature to an earlier Satoshi Bitcoin transaction that could be found via a search engine.

Dr Wright subsequently wrote that he was the victim of "false allegations" and would prove his case by both moving the coins and by sharing "independently verifiable documents".

Wright's claims had initially been bolstered by the fact that two senior members of the Bitcoin Foundation - an organisation set up to protect and promote the virtual currency - had said they were convinced he was indeed behind the technology.

Dr Wright had shown Gavin Andresen and Jon Matonis other evidence in private before the BBC, the Economist and GQ magazine reported his claims at the start of the week.

He apologised to the two men in his latest blog.

In short, as we concluded in Is The "Unmasking" Of Bitcoin's Satoshi Nakamoto Just A Publicity Stunt, "the bottom line, if Wright wants to convince the community, he’s picked a bad way to do it. So far, his case has been all authority and no math."

Meanwhile, the search for the real Satoshi will continue.

And, for the record, it was just a publicity stunt.