Over the weekend, the cryptocurrency community went abuzz with someone claiming to be the “real” Satoshi Nakamoto saying that his/her identity would be revealed this week. The first part of the “big reveal” was found to have several holes in it.

As CryptoGlobe covered, the “real” Satoshi Nakamoto claims to have nearly 1 million bitcoins in his control, worth around $10 billion at press time. Per a spokesperson who contacted the media on his behalf the reveal isn’t a PR stunt, even though the “real” Nakamoto is set to unveil a project called Tabula Rasa.

Has Bitcoin’s Creator Revealed His/Her Identity?

In a lengthy post published on its website, the self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto wrote about the supposed origins of bitcoin, the flagship cryptocurrency, but failed to provide his real name or a photo of himself.

In the post, however, the self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto claims his nickname as a child was Shaikho, and teased he’ll be disclosing his identity on August 20. He claimed to be living in the United Kingdom, and to be the son of a banker who worked at a Pakistani multinational bank, United Bank Limited.

The post’s author added that he created Bitcoin because of the shortcomings of traditional banking – including because of the corruption involved in it – and said he is now looking to take bitcoin to the next level. The post reads:

Today, when Bitcoin is understood by the advances of technology, but at the same time is being hijacked by greed, I feel I have a duty to work hard and make my creation better and take its vision to the next level.

Per the author he chose the name “bitcoin” because he both wanted to use “bit” in it, but also because he “was obsessed with bringing back the BCCI name to its glory days.” BCCI stands for Bank of Credit and Commerce International and it was, the author notes, at one point the “world’s seventh-largest bank.”

Bitcoin's naming scheme, according to the self-prroclaimed SatoshiHow Bitcoin got its name, according to the post

The self-proclaimed Nakamoto further added he worked with his “closest ally and mentor” Hal Finney on the project. Finney is well-known for being an early bitcoin contributor and was the first person to tweet about the flagship cryptocurrency, after starting to run its second node ever. He passed away in 2014.

“Satoshi” added that he was looking to democratize financial services so anyone could easily access them with Bitcoin, in a move that would “empower the poor person, empower the little man, and create something that was accessible as the people’s money.”

In the post he details he supposedly registered Bitcoin.org at the same time he registered another domain, “TheBCCI.net,” with his real name. This among various other statements, sparked interest in the cryptocurrency community, and saw the identity of the post’s author be revealed.

Crypto Community Pokes Holes in “Satoshi’s” Big Reveal

Using available data from the Internet Archive and domain registrars, cryptocurrency community members saw that some of the things the post’s author wrote just didn’t add up. Riccardo “fluffypony” Spagni, Monero’s lead maintainer, revealed the BCCI domain was never really used for anything related to Bitcoin.

Using the available data other community members managed to unveil those behind companies associated with the domains, and identified Bilal Khalid and Munir Aslam Malik as those behind the post.

Some have even managed to dig data out of the WordPress website the “big reveal” is being made on, and have published most of the files within it. Others merely pointed out that in the cryptocurrency community it’s common not to trust but to verify claims.

The real Satoshi Nakamoto has a clear way of proving his or her real identity, by merely cryptographically signing a message using the keys from Bitcoin’s Genesis block.