Litecoin and DigiByte founders cryptographically proved they created their blockchains, why can’t Craig Wright? ๐จ This article is 5 years old...
Litecoin and DigiByte founders cryptographically proved they created their blockchains, why can’t Craig Wright?
2 min read
Updated: Dec. 5, 2019 at 2:48 am UTC
Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
In May 2016, Charlie Lee and Jared Tate, the creators of Litecoin and DigiByte, cryptographically proved they were the creators of their blockchain platforms in less than a minute. Ifย Craig Wrightย is truly Satoshi Nakamoto as he claims, why doesn’t he do the same on the Bitcoin blockchain?
A single signature could end the Craig Wright saga once and for all
It has been more than three years since Craig Wright became the main focus of the crypto world by declaring he is Satoshi Nakamoto, the true creator of Bitcoin. And while the Australian programmer certainly wanted to make a big entrance, the community reaction has been less than welcoming, to say the least.
Some, of course, believed Wright and the vague and mostly circumstantial evidence he has so far provided is sufficient to back his claims. And, a small group of people, oftentimes supporters ofย Bitcoin SV, do indeed believe these claims.
The majority, however, found Wright’s claims to be nothing short of absurd. Of course, that didn’t stop Wright from making dozens of public appearances, giving countless interviews, and authoring numerous blog posts where he elaborated about his involvement in the creation of Bitcoin.
All of that could have been avoided, though, if Wright just used the key of Bitcoin’s Genesis Block to sign a message. The genesis block is the first block of the blockchainโwith block height 0.ย By signing a message using the keys of the Genesis Block, Craig could once and for all prove he possesses the key which only Satoshi has access to.
Actual blockchain creators showed Wright how to prove he invented Bitcoin
This was something Charlie Lee and Jared Tate, the respective creators of Litecoin and DigiBytes, knew even back in 2016. More than three years ago, Lee tried to put an end to Wright’s ludicrous claims by showing him how a blockchain creator can prove his identity.
On May 2, 2016, Lee used the key of Litecoin’s original block to sign a message saying “I, Charlie Lee, am the creator of Bitcoin.”
Here's my proof. Simple. No need to have a proof ceremony and a long blog post.https://t.co/icmGGTKPsZ
— Charlie Lee [LTCโก] (@SatoshiLite) May 2, 2016
Tate, the founder and CTO of DigiByte, soon followed suit by signing his own message. The message, where he stated he was the creator of the DigiByte blockchain, was sent from an address from the network’s first block, created on Jan. 10, 2014.
Just like @SatoshiLite w/ #Litecoin Here is simple proof I am the creator of #DigiByte #blockchain #Satoshi #Verify pic.twitter.com/6gAZCmlGpp
— Jared Tate (@jaredctate) May 2, 2016
As only the creator of a blockchain, in this case Bitcoin, would have access to the key associated with the Genesis Block, signing a message with that key would be the ultimate proof of ownership.
Itโs everything to do with CSW. Charlie Lee signed the Litecoin genesis block. Its all CSW needs to do with the Bitcoin genesis block. He has refused to do so. Heโs a fraud.
— Max (@maxtannahill) April 18, 2018
Wright seems to have been aware of this when he provided the list of Bitcoin addresses as part of a court proceeding. Wright claimed that he did not remember the specific addresses that would prove he mined the first blocks on the Bitcoin blockchain, but said that he could just look up addresses from the block rewards on the blockchain.
However, researchers quickly found that Wright just scraped the blockchain for early block reward beneficiaries and claimed those as his own addresses. The list of the first 70 block reward addresses, not including the Genesis block, line up perfectly with the redacted list Wright filed in court.
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Bitcoin
$97,610.25
Bitcoin, a decentralized currency that defies the sway of central banks or administrators, transacts electronically, circumventing intermediaries via a peer-to-peer network.
Litecoin
$90.0991
Litecoin is a peer-to-peer Internet currency that enables instant, near-zero cost payments to anyone in the world.
DigiByte
$0.01059
DigiByte (DGB) is a UTXO PoW based blockchain with a focus on cybersecurity, digiassets, payments, and secure communications technologies.The DigiByte blockchain was developed in 2013 and released in January 2014 by Jared Tate (Creator & Founder of DigiByte) with an open-source protocol..
Charlie Lee stands prominently in the cryptocurrency community as the founder of Litecoin and currently holds the position of Managing Director at the Litecoin Foundation.
Craig Steven Wright, commonly referred to as CSW, is an Australian computer scientist and business professional who has been at the center of controversy within the cryptocurrency community.