I had just decided to sit-down and write something when a pretty big story came across the wire from the BBC (I’ve since seen that it came out earlier as well, but hey, it was new to me). It’s about Bitcoin and the man who created it. He’s long went by Satoshi Nakamoto, but early this morning it’s been revealed that his real name is Craig Wright and he lives in Australia. Media organizations have spent years (and likely hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars) trying to uncover his identity. He said that recent scrutiny has made his life uncomfortable and that in order to spare his friends and family from undue burdens, he has decided to come forward.

However, he made it very clear that this was not something he truly wanted to do…

Australian entrepreneur Craig Wright has publicly identified himself as Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto. His admission ends years of speculation about who came up with the original ideas underlying the digital cash system. Mr Wright has provided technical proof to back up his claim using coins known to be owned by Bitcoin’s creator.

Prominent members of the Bitcoin community and its core development team have also confirmed Mr Wright’s claim.

Mr Wright has revealed his identity to three media organisations – the BBC, the Economist and GQ.

At the meeting with the BBC, Mr Wright digitally signed messages using cryptographic keys created during the early days of Bitcoin’s development. The keys are inextricably linked to blocks of bitcoins known to have been created or “mined” by Satoshi Nakamoto…

The stories in December have led to many more journalists and others pursuing him and people he knows, he said.

“There are lots of stories out there that have been made up and I don’t like it hurting those people I care about,” he said. “I don’t want any of them to be impacted by this.”

“I have not done this because it is what I wanted. It’s not because of my choice,” he said, adding that he had no plans to become the figurehead for bitcoins.

The article has more details, such as him being worth $450 million due to the 1 million bitcoins he’s sitting on. As you might imagine, this has rubbed Australian tax authorities the wrong way and they’re now negotiating with Mr. Wright over what he has to pay in order to be in the clear with them. The government has to get their cut, as always.

I’ve long been personally fascinated by bitcoin and all the stories and machinations surrounding it. I’ve also been impressed that despite all the haters and predictions of imminent demise, it has stayed relatively strong for many years. I don’t study the currency daily, but it appears that it will keep going for many more years to come. Still, Mr. Wright said he doesn’t intend to get involved in the sometimes quite nasty internal politics surrounding bitcoin. Apparently, he just wants to go on living a normal life.

Here’s hoping that he can accomplish that goal.