Martin Shkreli claims to know the true identity of Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto Here is his proof

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Source: Adobe/Mihail

Disgraced biotech entrepreneur and hedge fund manager Martin Shkreli has released a discovery that appears to prove who the real person behind the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto is. But the Bitcoin community is not yet convinced.

The discovery was shared in a blog post published on Tuesday, where Shkreli deciphered a signature from the first Bitcoin transaction ever. Decryption can be done using “any decryption tool”, Shkreli wrote in the comments section.

As known from the early days of Bitcoin, the first transaction was sent by Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto to American programmer and member of the cypherpunk community Hal Finney.

Shkreli’s blog post read:

This is the bitcoin wallet used by Hal Finney to receive Satoshi’s first bitcoin transfer.

1Q2TWHE3GMdB6BZKafqwxXtWAWgFt5Jvm3

The following signature

HM7vpPSUbNsfDHRX6gv8xxWcVNHEc/3pOk0YrVehaGoUdbWizznfzOdELkLd1EjSXsW1oE5vHAkNAPzrAVzhuoI=

decipher in:

—–START BITCOIN SIGNED MESSAGE—–

This Transaction was made by Paul Leroux to Hal Finney on January 12, 2009 #bitcoin

—–END OF BITCOIN SIGNED MESSAGE—–

Is Paul Le Roux Satoshi?

Since the wallet address is confirmed to belong to Hal Finney, Shkreli’s discovery implies that Finney himself wanted to convey that Paul Le Roux is Satoshi Nakamoto.

Paul Le Roux is a programmer, criminal mastermind and informant with the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). He is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence in the United States, which was imposed on him in June 2020 for planning or participating in seven murders, as well as his role in running a global illegal business empire.

Interestingly, this isn’t the first time Le Roux has been suggested to be Satoshi. In 2019, a Wired article stated that there were several signs that Le Roux was Satoshi, although no hard evidence was presented.

Skeptical community

According to community members commenting under Shkreli’s blog, it’s entirely possible that the signature on the wallet was written by someone other than Hal Finney. The reason is that the wallet was last active in 2017, three years after Finney passed away.

One possibility, according to some commentators, is that Finney’s family after his death sold access to the entire wallet, rather than sending on-chain coins to a buyer. This would make sense considering this was in the early days of Bitcoin, when a certain level of technical know-how was needed to transact.

“The address was last used in 2017, while Hal died in 2014. So someone has Hall’s private key for this address and signed this bullshit message,” wrote a user called BitMax14 .

The same user went on to accuse Shkreli of “being used to spread this lie”, while asking who sent him the message and signature.

Other users also followed suit, with renowned Bitcoin promoter and author Saifedean Ammous saying:

“Since these private keys were active after Hal’s death, the more interesting question here is: how did you get this message?”

Shkreli didn’t answer any questions about who told him about the signature and the message, but went into detail in a follow-up post on Wednesday:

“A few days ago I received a message that I thought was clearly a prank: there is a new message signed by the recipient of the first bitcoin. I get a lot of cranks calling me with “discoveries But sometimes they’re real: Lil Wayne’s Carter V album appearing at a luxury car auction comes to mind.

“Everything Fits”

Although many commentators were skeptical of the idea of ​​Paul Le Roux being Satoshi Nakamoto, some supported the idea.

“Everything fits. He had the motivation, the incentive. Movement of illicit gains. Very complex character. Conflict. Very smart but arrogant,” wrote a user named Bellweirdboy, while adding:

“Satoshi disappeared after Gavin Andresen told him he would talk to the CIA. My thought is that this scared Le Roux. This is the real reason ‘Satoshi’ disappeared.

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