This past weekend, the two researchers published an article describing what they thought might be a transaction between Bitcoin’s founder — who is known only by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto — and the founder of The Silk Road, which was shutdown by the feds earlier this year. But now an Austin, Texas man has come forward to claim ownership of the bitcoin account they thought was Nakamoto’s.

 

It’s an object lesson in the perils of jumping to conclusions in the world of bitcoin, which has suddenly become a rather popular digital money and payment system. This world is a paradoxical place that is both transparent and very murky.