Who is Stephen Mollah, man claiming to be 'real' founder of Bitcoin? Internet calls him Faketoshi

A man dressed up in a colourful, quite flamboyant style, sporting a long grey beard claims to be the inventor of Bitcoin- the ‘real’ founder of the cryptocurrency, Satoshi Nakamoto.

On Thursday (Oct 31), a dozen journalists gathered at a London club to meet the inventor, a man named Stephen Mollah, and ask him about his identity.

BBC News reporter Joe Tidy, who attended the event, mentioned that attendees were asked to pay £500 to participate and ask questions.

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“A man called Stephen Mollah has taken to the stage. He claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto – the mystery inventor of Bitcoin. He’s claimed this before and is currently in a legal dispute about it. He will now provide evidence, he says,” Tidy continued.

The event began with a presentation by Mollah and organizer Charles Anderson, which included a strange monologue about Anderson's alleged inventions.

After some 40 minutes, Mollah took the stage, all dressed up in an eccentric manner, and claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto.

He described himself as a businessperson and an economic and monetary scientist.

What followed was more of a grilling session than an interview. But that didn’t stop Mollah from “revealing the truth to the world”. He further claimed to have invented the Twitter (now X) logo, the Eurobrand and of course the ChatGPT protocol.

Mollah also presented screenshots of Nakamoto’s posts on a Bitcoin forum from nearly 16 years ago, which were deemed easy to fake. He claimed the posts were timestamped and had paper copies as proof.

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When asked to perform a live transfer of Nakamoto's famed Genesis coins, Mollah stated he did not have the keys to those early Bitcoin wallets, which were split into eight parts and stored on eight computers around the world.

He went on to say that there are some groups that are attempting to hack his devices for the massive crypto haul.

Despite several claims and efforts to prove himself as Bitcoin’s creator, Mollah’s presentation fell flat, exposing a struggle to present convincing proof amid scepticism.

How internet reacted to ‘new’ Satoshi Nakamoto

Mollah is the latest in a series of individuals claiming to be Nakamoto, with previous claimants like Australian computer scientist Craig Wright, who was ruled not to be the Bitcoin inventor by England's High Court.

Here’s how netizens reacted to ‘new’ Satoshi Nakamoto:

Mollah and Anderson are currently involved in a legal battle over their claim, with a private prosecution by alleged victim Dlmit Dohil accusing them of dishonestly claiming that Mollah was Nakamoto, exposing him to a risk of loss. Both pleaded not guilty to fraud by false representation and were given bail, with a trial set for November 3 next year.

(With inputs from agencies)