Bitcoin's Purported Founder Won't Provide Proof After All

When Australian Craig Wright publicly declared himself to be the creator of Bitcoin this week, plenty of skepticism emerged in the tech world. Wright promised to provide indisputable proof to lay those doubts to rest, but his blog post Thursday will only intensify them. "I believed that I could put the years of anonymity and hiding behind me," it reads. "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." The post is headlined "I'm Sorry," though Reuters notes that Wright does not disavow his original claim that he is man behind the presumed pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto.

In the post, Wright says he hopes his apology won't hurt the reputations of those who have supported him, and he singles out two prominent members of the Bitcoin community, Jon Matonis and Gavin Andresen. But it doesn't appear that Wright will be coming out with any further clarification, given that the post ends with, "And goodbye." Wired, which had suggested Wright was indeed the creator months before this week's strange turn of events, calls it a "bizarre conclusion to a bizarre saga that, like most things Satoshi Nakamoto-related, leaves more questions than answers." (More bitcoin stories.)