On December 8, 2015, Wired and Gizmodo simultaneously published investigations identifying Australian computer scientist and businessman Craig Steven Wright as the likely creator of Bitcoin.
Wired’s article, written by Andy Greenberg and titled “Bitcoin’s Creator Satoshi Nakamoto Is Probably This Unknown Australian Genius,” presented evidence including leaked emails, accounting records, blog posts, and other documents suggesting Wright had been involved in Bitcoin’s creation, possibly alongside the late Dave Kleiman, an American computer forensics expert who had died in 2013.
Gizmodo’s article by Sam Biddle presented similar evidence, reportedly obtained from a hacker who had accessed Wright’s email accounts. The evidence included alleged transcripts, legal documents related to a Bitcoin trust, and correspondence that appeared to place Wright at the center of Bitcoin’s early development.
Within hours of publication, Australian Federal Police raided Wright’s home and office in Sydney, though police stated the raid was related to a tax investigation and not to the Bitcoin claims.
Within days, serious doubts emerged about the evidence. Wired published a follow-up article noting that key pieces of evidence appeared to have been fabricated or backdated. Metadata in blog posts supposedly from 2008 and 2009 contained anachronisms, and cryptographic proofs were called into question by security researchers.
Wright would later attempt a more formal “proof” in May 2016, and the question of his identity claims would ultimately be resolved in the 2024 COPA v. Wright trial, where a UK High Court judge ruled definitively that Wright was not Satoshi Nakamoto and had engaged in extensive document forgery.