“Bitcoin Creator” is a Fraud, Says Vitalik Buterin

Vitalik Buterin and Craig Wright have already fought their war multiple times, but it seems to be far from over. The self-proclaimed “Bitcoin creator” who also claims that he and none other is Satoshi Nakamoto made some erroneous claims in a Q&A session following the “Bitcoin, Controversy over Principle” presentation at Deconomy conference in Seoul and Buterin did not hesitate to call him out on it.

Buterin took to Twitter to “live tweet comments on the "Bitcoin, Controversy over Principle" section of Deconomy for fun” as he said himself. What followed was a thread full of his musings, comments and corrections, offering insight into different lines of thinking. He touched upon some common misconceptions about the overlaps between the history of cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies, as well as the philosophy behind decentralized currencies.

But during the speech by Craig Wright, he let himself go: he pointed out exactly in how many ways Wright was wrong, finishing with, “So I do think both sides need to improve their discourse. But Craig Wright is crazy. Fin.”

This did not end here: as can be seen in a video uploaded by other attendees, Buterin stood up and addressed some of these problematic claims, and dropped the ball by saying, “Given that [Wright] makes so many non-sequiturs [an invalid argument] at this stage, why is this fraud allowed to speak at this conference?” to a loud applause by a number of audience members.

Craig Wright retaliated on Twitter, tweeting first that, “Vitalik has one issue… When we demonstrate what BCH can do, he knows that ETH will wither and die,” adding in a later tweet that, “[Buterin] is a twig.. must remember to be gentle next time ....” He did not, however, address most of the issues brought up by Buterin.

This is not the first time Buterin has called Wright out. In October last year, he told him to “stop being a fraud, please.” He spoke publicly against this claim even earlier than that, explaining how Wright could have proven he’s Satoshi but didn’t, followed by a verbal smackdown that the public considers quite satisfying to watch.