The man Newsweek claims is the founder of Bitcoin denied he had anything to do with the digital currency.
In an exclusive two-hour interview, Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto, 64, said he had never heard of Bitcoin until his son told him he had been contacted by a reporter for the US magazine.
He acknowledged that many of the details in Newsweek’s report are correct, including that he once worked for a defence contractor, and that his given name at birth was Satoshi.
But he strongly disputed the US magazine’s assertion that he is “the face behind Bitcoin”.
“I got nothing to do with it,” he said, repeatedly.
Newsweek stands by its account.
Since Bitcoin’s launch in 2009, the currency’s creator has remained a mystery. The person – or people – behind its founding have been known only as “Satoshi Nakamoto,” which many observers believed to be a pseudonym.
After the story was posted on Newsweek’s website yesterday, Mr Nakamoto said his home was bombarded by phone calls.
By mid-morning, a dozen reporters were waiting outside the modest two-storey home on the residential street in Temple City, California. He emerged shortly after noon saying he wanted to speak with one reporter only and asked for a “free lunch”.