WSJ report: Satoshi e-mail hack story probably a hoax

Wall Street Journal reports that the story of alleged hacking into Satoshi Nakamoto 's e-mail is most likely "one big, nasty prank". In any event, Bitcoin 's inventor(s) remain(s) anonymous.

Since the story emerged in the middle of last week, followed by some drama on Motherboard, everything's gone quiet. The alleged hacker's demands of 25 BTC is nowhere near being met, with only 1.55 bitcoins received thus far. Apparently, the community didn't bite.

Catherine Meyer, the senior counsel at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, says that the 25 BTC ($11,750) bounty is a poultry sum for such valuable information. She added:

“A lot of time these guys who want ransom don’t have what they say they have. This sounds a lot more like the Nigerian scam than anything else.”

No evidence of Satoshi's identity has been produced, not even a real teaser. Two "teasers" posted by the alleged hacker don't provide any clues.

E-mails sent to the satoshin@gmx.com address bounce back. The account may be locked or deleted. The delivery failure error message reads, "550 Requested action not taken: mailbox unavailable."

Michael Marquardt, Bitcoin Forum administrator, doubts that any identifying information can be gleaned even if all the e-mails were to be released: “He was always extremely careful.”

Wall Street Journal reports that the story of alleged hacking into Satoshi Nakamoto 's e-mail is most likely "one big, nasty prank". In any event, Bitcoin 's inventor(s) remain(s) anonymous.

Catherine Meyer, the senior counsel at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, says that the 25 BTC ($11,750) bounty is a poultry sum for such valuable information. She added:

“A lot of time these guys who want ransom don’t have what they say they have. This sounds a lot more like the Nigerian scam than anything else.”

No evidence of Satoshi's identity has been produced, not even a real teaser. Two "teasers" posted by the alleged hacker don't provide any clues.

E-mails sent to the satoshin@gmx.com address bounce back. The account may be locked or deleted. The delivery failure error message reads, "550 Requested action not taken: mailbox unavailable."

Michael Marquardt, Bitcoin Forum administrator, doubts that any identifying information can be gleaned even if all the e-mails were to be released: “He was always extremely careful.”