Leah McGrath Goodwin has apparently tracked down the man who invented Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto.
The Bitcoin community is not thrilled.
Writing in Newsweek, McGrath Goodman talked to, among others, Gavin Andresen, one of Bitcoin's volunteer developers who interacted with Nakamoto in the digital currency's infancy.
This morning, Andresen took to Twitter to voice his disapproval of Goodman's reporting:
I'm disappointed Newsweek decided to dox the Nakamoto family, and regret talking to Leah.
— Gavin Andresen (@gavinandresen) March 6, 2014But he also seemed to warn against any kind of attack on her or Newsweek, linking to a blog post that called humans "pattern-seeking, story telling animals."
RE: Satoshi: remember we are pattern-seeking, storytelling animals. http://t.co/C8o8pZTllf
— Gavin Andresen (@gavinandresen) March 6, 2014But some who responded do not appear to be heeding his advice.
@CryptoCobain this is all gonna backlash on Newsweek so hard... pissing off an entire community of geeks and hackers is always a smart move.
— Tagada (@elflo) March 6, 2014@gavinandresen Poor guy, the floodgates are going to open. #bitcoin is now tethered indefinitely to the man and his actions.
— bitcoinG (@GeorgiBitcoing) March 6, 2014@gavinandresen Bitcoiners need to STOP talking to press or create a media strategy with prepared statements.
— Qikcoin (@qikcoin) March 6, 2014McGrath Goodman is not the first to attempt to attempt to track down the man behind the global financial phenomenon. But those previous efforts all failed, in large part because those in the Bitcoin community itself feared the hunt would divert attention from the cryptocurrency's potential.
Assuming this is the actual #Satoshi, I kind of liked it better when we didn't know. More sense of community ownership.
— Arianna Simpson (@AriannaSimpson) March 6, 2014Reddit, an unofficial home for the Bitcoin community, is also pissed.
Although there are a few more level-headed voices.
But some now fear for Nakamoto himself, since he is estimated to be worth north of $400 million.
.@marcvanway even if it's NOT him, she still painted a 1,000,000BTC target on this man's home... It's possibly worse if it's not him....
— CRYPTO CO฿AIN (@CryptoCobain) March 6, 2014