Ripple CTO Says He Could Have Been Part of “Satoshi,” Here’s What Happened

Ripple CTO David Schwartz says he could have been part of “Satoshi” — a small group of people that created Bitcoin, but sadly he only found out about the world’s first cryptocurrency back in 2011. The pseudonymous Bitcoin creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, disappeared about 12 years ago, precisely in December 2010, and remains one of the biggest mysteries in the crypto space.

I certainly could have been part of Satoshi. Nearly everything Satoshi did is within my capabilities. But, sadly, I didn’t find out about bitcoin until 2011.

— 𝙳𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚍 𝚂𝚌𝚑𝚠𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚣 (@JoelKatz) October 24, 2022

According to Schwartz, who had previously denied accusations that he was Satoshi, nearly everything the enigmatic Bitcoin creator accomplished was within his capacity. When rumors of him being Satoshi first started to circulate back in 2020, Schwartz said it was possible to presume that he might have been one of the individuals involved in the creation of Bitcoin, but he was not.

He said at the time that a small group of people might have created Bitcoin, not one individual, given how difficult and skill-demanding the creation of Bitcoin was.

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The Ripple CTO delved into this discussion following a loss in a lawsuit against Australian computer scientist and self-proclaimed Satoshi Craig Wright. Schwartz wrote, “There is nothing defamatory about saying that Craig Wright is not Satoshi, just as there is nothing defamatory about saying that I am not Satoshi.”

In the past week, Magnus Granath, often known on Twitter as “Hodlonaut,” won a lawsuit against Craig Wright. Granath sued Wright in Norway in an attempt to prevent a defamation claim Wright planned to launch against Granath in the U.K.

Wright’s lack of proof that he is Satoshi has been an issue in prior trials, including in a defamation case he brought against podcaster Peter McCormack in the U.K. After a judge ruled that his evidence was false, Wright was given one pound in damages.

After McCormack called the self-proclaimed Satoshi a fraud, Wright launched a lawsuit against him in April 2019.