An individual claiming to be Satoshi Nakamoto has announced they are writing a book about bitcoin and its history that will include personal stories of its creator, though it’s unclear whether the person is the actual inventor of the world’s first – and still biggest – cryptocurrency.
Last Friday, a website named nakamotofamilyfoundation.org posted a letter signed by Satoshi Nakamoto – the (probably pseudonymous) name of the author of the notable 2008 bitcoin white paper, whose real identity still remains unknown.
According to the post, the book, if it ever comes out, will be divided into two parts and named “Honne and Tatamae,” according to the results of a “cryptopuzzle” published with the post.
An explanation from Wikipedia indicates that the name in Japanese means “the contrast between a person’s true feelings and desires and the behavior and opinions one displays in public.”
Further, the post’s author claims the book will contain information about the personal life of bitcoin’s creator, saying:
“But to be certain, there are countless conversations I found to be enlightening that I hope make it to be part of the story. There will be many new names and individuals appearing throughout the book in any case, as it is a story about my personal life.”
Published alongside the announcement is an excerpt from the supposed book, which briefly recaps the development of bitcoin and covers new issues that have emerged since the creation of bitcoin such as scaling, the concept of blockchain and the arrival of application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) miners.
The excerpt also goes on to explain why the name Satoshi Nakamoto was chosen in the first place:
“I wanted the most common name, which I knew no one outside of Japan had any recollection that Satoshi Nakamoto, was the equivalent of ‘John Smith.’ It took time for the public to come to this conclusion, but most with direct access to me had figured it out long ago.”
However, whether the post’s author is indeed the real Nakamoto cannot yet be verified.
Craig Wright, an Australian academic and chief scientist at nChain, who claimed to be Nakamoto in 2015 (though has not provided proof adequate for most observers), took to Twitter after the book announcement came to light, saying that its author “cannot get the dates nor technical details correct.”
Bitcoins on book image via CoinDesk