Craig Steven Wright, an Australian entrepreneur, publicly identified himself Monday as the creator of the digital currency Bitcoin, apparently ending months of speculation.
Wright gave interviews to the BBC, the Economist, and GQ, and provided proof to the BBC by using coins that are known by other Bitcoin users to be owned only by the currency's creator.
Wright's name first surfaced in December 2015, when Wired and Gizmodo both published stories that identified Wright as the probable creator.
After the publication of those stories, Wright scrubbed his online presence and Australian authorities raided his home, later announcing that Wright was not the creator of Bitcoin, according to the New York Times.
Wright said he was speaking out now because he was tired of being pursued.
"I didn’t take the decision lightly to make my identity public," Wright said in a press release. "I want to be clear that I’m doing this because I care so passionately about my work and also to dispel any negative myths and fears about bitcoin."
In 2014, Newsweek identified a Californian man named Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto as the creator of Bitcoin. But that man "unconditionally denied" that report, which was widely criticized.
Other publications have also tried and failed to unmask Bitcoin's creator, but Monday's revelation seems like something close to definitive–even if some have already expressed skepticism. Reddit users, of course, have been hotly debating the matter.
So is it Craig Wright or not? Probably–though we may never know for sure.