比特币之父浮出水面了吗？没人知道

如果你打算画一份关于经济和技术的维恩图解，比特币是这两个领域交集的最佳代表。在一些人看来，这种“加密货币”可能是货币的未来；而在另一些人眼里，它是欺诈师、阴谋论者和疯子的滋生地。不幸的是，本文认为后者的描述似乎更加精确。

比特币的创造者是一个名为中本聪的神秘男子。自2008年这种货币诞生以来，他的身份一直是个谜团。2014年，《新闻周刊》（Newsweek）发表了一篇引人注目的封面故事，声称揭开了这位比特币创造者的真实身份。但是这篇文章的主角对此矢口否认，比特币专家也对文章表示了怀疑。

一位名叫克雷格•赖特的澳大利亚人在上周称，自己就是比特币的创造者，并表示他能够提供证据。尽管许多重要的比特币专家都拆穿了怀特在去年曾名中本聪的说法，不过英国广播公司（BBC）、《经济学人》（The Economist）和其他媒体还是对这一新闻进行了广泛报道。

这一次，怀特列举了许多比特币领域的著名人士来证明他的身份。例如比特币基金会（Bitcoin Foundation）的首席科学家嘉文•安德森，他在中本聪消失后接过了比特币的开发工作。但是比特币领域的许多专家又一次指出了怀特的漏洞，安德森也承认自己的结论可能有些草率。

然而怀特不为所动，他表示会提供自己是中本聪的真凭实据，取出由比特币创造者建立的区块中的比特币。这一区块中比特币目前预计价值约为4.5亿美元。然而，上周四，怀特收回了他的承诺，表示他目前不能提供证据。

比特币的创造者究竟是谁为什么这么重要？实际上并不总要。就算我们不知道他是谁，这种数字货币的功能也依旧完备——毕竟，这是一种分散化的货币系统。然而，这种以支付可信度著称的系统，是由一个动机不明的未知人物创建的，这一点多少有些讽刺。所以，这个谜团还会继续下去。（财富中文网）

译者：严匡正

If you were drawing a Venn diagram of finance and technology, nothing would represent the overlap between those two things quite as well as bitcoin. Depending on whom you choose to believe, the “crypto-currency” is either the future of money, or a breeding ground for scam artists, conspiracy theorists, and wackos. As of this writing, unfortunately, the latter seems like a more apt description.

The identity of bitcoin’s mysterious creator, a man known only as Satoshi Nakamoto, has been a closely guarded secret since the currency was created in 2008. Newsweek magazine claimed to have revealed Nakamoto’s true identity in a splashy 2014 cover story, but the subject of the story denied being the currency’s creator, and experts on bitcoin were also unconvinced.

Last week, an Australian man named Craig Wright claimed to be the inventor, and said he could prove it. His claims were widely reported by the BBC, The Economist and others, despite the fact that Wright was previously named as Nakamoto last year—claims that were more or less debunked by a number of leading bitcoin experts.

This time around, Wright lined up prominent members of the bitcoin community to attest to his identity, including Gavin Andresen, chief scientist at the Bitcoin Foundation, who took over development of the currency after Nakamoto disappeared. But a number of experts in the crypto-currency again blew holes in his claims, and Andresen admitted that he might have been too hasty.

Not to be dissuaded, Wright said he would provide conclusive proof that he is Nakamoto by withdrawing bitcoins from a cache that was originally set up by the currency’s creator. The current value of that cache is estimated to be about $450 million. On Thursday, however, Wright backed away from his promise and said he couldn’t go through with providing proof.

Why does it matter so much that we know who the creator of bitcoin is? It doesn’t really. The digital currency functions just fine without that knowledge—after all, the whole point is that it’s a decentralized monetary system. But it does seem more than a little ironic that a payment method renowned for its trustworthiness was created by a shadowy figure with unknown motives. And so, the mystery continues.