As governments and agencies around the world begin to crack down on all forms of digital currency, last week Newsweek ran an article believing they had found the founder of the highly controversial Bitcoin. Bitcoin has come under fire recently for its alleged illegal business dealings and potential for financial fraud and abuse in the international community. Different countries — such as China and Britain — have begun working on ways to regulate the business that is done with online money, including tracking where the money comes from and who it goes to.
The increasingly strong measures are a way to prevent money laundering and even the possible funding of terrorism. Since it is easy to lie about where digital currency comes from, it is difficult for law enforcement officials to keep track of the money that is being moved and what it is being used for. Governments around the world are working to catch laws up to the new form of technology to prevent any abuses. Now, Newsweek has outed who they believe to be the mastermind behind the most-used digital money, Bitcoin: 64-year-old Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto.
The California resident vehemently denies being the founder of Bitcoin, and has gone on to hire a lawyer to defend him against the allegations made by Newsweek. Nakamoto claims that he has a background in engineering and has not had a steady job in nearly a decade, a gap that Newsweek claims is when he founded the digital money enterprise. Nakamoto told the New York Times that the first time he had even heard of Bitcoin was in February after his son had been contacted by a Newsweek reporter about the article.
Mr. Nakamoto had given a two hour interview to the Associated Press emphasizing that he has no involvement with Bitcoin, in its founding or otherwise. Newsweek has since released a public statement standing by their account.
