A column published on Newsweek back in March 2014 claimed that the man behind the invention of the first digital currency; was a retired physicist by the name Dorian Nakamoto. There have been quite a number of self-declared candidates over the last decade, alongside those accused of being Satoshi. Well, most of these suspects are in one way involved with the cypherpunk movement. However, Dorian was not involved with the movement.
The author of the column on Newsweek, Leah McGrath Goodman investigated his story for two good months before publishing. Her strongest selling point was that Dorian’s birth name was actually Satoshi Nakamoto, not Dorian. Dorian at the time of the expose, was a 64-year-old retired physicist. Also, Dorian is a very well-educated Engineer, and his career and skill set contributed to the idea that he could actually create Bitcoin.
I Got Nothing To Do With It
Dorian had worked in addition to working for the US military for a few companies and some of the projects he worked on were considered classified information. This veil of secrecy strengthened Goodman’s case of Dorian being the man behind the invention of Bitcoin. However, the 64-year-old was in denial of the accusations.“I got nothing to do with it,” he said.
According to Goodman, when he visited Dorian at his home in California to question him on his dealings with Bitcoin; he did not give straight forward answers but they were “careful but revealing.”
“I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it. It’s been turned over to other people. They are in charge of it now. I no longer have any connection,” Dorian told Goodman.
However, it remains unclear whether Newsweek got the right man behind the first decentralized currency. Goodman was convinced by his denial that she had found the mysterious creator of Bitcoin. She decided to run an expose on Dorian S. Nakamoto’s life story and even highlighted several similarities between Dorian and Satoshi Nakamoto.
Indeed, Goodman’s biggest argument was the fact that Dorian was an American-Japanese, participated in classified projects; the fact that he graduated with physics from California Polytechnic. The fact that Dorian, when questioned, said that he had turned over to other people, strengthened her case. Additionally, Dorian lived close to Hal Finney, the Japanese-American who had liberation ideologies. In addition, Dorian’s daughter spoke exclusively about her father’s belief in individualism. She said:
“He was very wary of the government, taxes, and people in charge.”
Moving forward, Dorian decided to go public and cleared the air on Newsweek’s publication. He claimed that he got confused by Goodman’s question as he thought she was talking about a classified project he did for Citibank. He went on to say that he felt victimized. He denied any involvement with Bitcoin which drew the ire of the crypto community towards Newsweek. He said:
“It sounded like I was involved before with bitcoin and looked like I’m not involved now. That’s not what I meant. I want to clarify that.”
Conclusion
After Dorian’s exposure with Newsweek, he emerged out as a hero among the cryptocurrency community. He appeared on posters, T-shirts, flyers, and even stickers. The Japanese-American has appeared at digital currency conferences to discuss his experience after the Newsweek publication. Moreover, many cryptocurrency prospects actually wish Dorian was the real Satoshi as he is far more friendly compared to the other self-proclaimed Satoshi’s. He is considered as the best Satoshi Nakamoto suspect.
