Vol. 38 No. 13 · 30 June 2016

The Satoshi Affair

Andrew O’Hagan on the many lives of Satoshi Nakamoto

34,936 words

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The Raid

Ten men raided​ a house in Gordon, a north shore suburb of Sydney, at 1.30 p.m. on Wednesday, 9 December 2015. Some of the federal agents wore shirts that said ‘Computer Forensics’; one carried a search warrant issued under the Australian Crimes Act 1914. They were looking for a man named Craig Steven Wright, who lived with his wife, Ramona, at 43 St Johns Avenue. The warrant was issued at the behest of the Australian Taxation Office. Wright, a computer scientist and businessman, headed a group of companies associated with cryptocurrency and online security. As one set of agents scoured his kitchen cupboards and emptied out his garage, another entered his main company headquarters at 32 Delhi Road in North Ryde. They were looking for ‘originals or copies’ of material held on hard drives and computers; they wanted bank statements, mobile phone records, research papers and photographs. The warrant listed dozens of companies whose papers were to be scrutinised, and 32 individuals, some with alternative names, or alternative spellings. The name ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’ appeared sixth from the bottom of the list.

Craig Wright in the Oxford Circus office.

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Vol. 38 No. 15 · 28 July 2016

Craig Wright tells Andrew O’Hagan that in Japanese satoshi means ‘ash’ (LRB, 30 June). In fact the Japanese word for ‘ash’ is hai. ‘Satoshi’ is a name given to a boy, signifying cleverness and quick wittedness.

Jeremy White
London SE5

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