Sporting a colorful turban, camouflage pattern pants, a black suit and a long gray beard — a man named Stephen Mollah has become the latest character claiming to have invented Bitcoin.
On Oct. 31, around a dozen journalists gathered at the Front Line Club (they have denied endorsing or being affiliated with the event) after being promised they’ll be able to finally meet the real Satoshi Nakamoto.
Tried to film the demonstration but it doesn’t seem to be forthcoming. Here’s Mr Mollah: pic.twitter.com/5VEW5ji9Ne
— Joe Tidy (@joetidy) October 31, 2024
And for just a low-low price of $644 (500 British pounds) a pop.
“I’m at a London event billed as the ‘unveiling of the true legal identity of Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto,’” wrote BBC News reporter Joe Tidy, who live-tweeted the event on X.
“An odd set up to the press conference as the organizer asked me to pay £500 to attend and appear on stage to ask questions of the billionaire mystery man.”
But from the get-go, journalists weren’t too convinced they were about to meet the most famous person in crypto.
The Financial Times reported the presentation from Mollah and event organizer Charles Anderson kicked off by testing the microphone with the classic: “testicles, one, two, three.”
Then came a monologue about how Anderson apparently invented “energy recovery systems” in cars and Britain’s Got Talent. At least one reporter had already walked out at this point.
Eventually, after 40 minutes, Mollah takes to the stage — dressed like an eccentric grandpa.
Source: Joe Tidy
Among Mollah’s various reported words of wisdom, was his saying he is a “business person who does business,” an economic and monetary scientist, before claiming he is Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of Bitcoin.
A representative from BitMEX Research said Mollah also claimed to invent the Twitter logo, the Eurobond and the “ChatGPT protocol” during the bizarre event.
But when it came to providing proof of his so-called claims, Mollah reportedly fell short.
DL News reported that Mollah sped through screenshots of Nakamoto’s posts on a Bitcoin forum from nearly 16 years ago, which the BBC’s Tidy pointed out were “easy to fake.”
Mollah, however, claims they were “timestamped” and had “paper copies,” which proves he published them… however that’s supposed to work.
Tidy said he then asked Mollah to do a live transfer of Nakomoto’s famed “Genesis coins” on stage.
But Mollah claimed he didn’t have the keys to those early Bitcoin wallets, which were split into eight parts and put on eight computers “around the world.”
He also said groups were chasing him to try to hack his devices for the massive crypto haul.
Mollah is the latest in a line of would-be Nakamoto’s whose claims or evidence have fallen flat. Earlier this month, an HBO documentary slotted inaccurate information together to claim Canadian Bitcoin dev Peter Todd was the Bitcoin maker, which he denied.
Australian computer scientist Craig Wright was another long-time Nakamoto claimant with no evidence that has sued vocal non-believers. In March, England’s High Court ruled he wasn’t the Bitcoin inventor, and Wright later admitted that he wasn’t.
Mollah and Anderson are too in a reported legal fight over their claim, with a private prosecution by alleged victim Dlmit Dohil accusing the pair of dishonestly claiming that Mollah was Nakamoto, which exposed him to a risk of loss, per an Oct. 10 report in the London Standard.
Both pleaded not guilty to fraud by false representation last month at a London crown court and were given bail with a trial set for Nov. 3 next year.
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