Dorian Nakamoto denies he’s Bitcoin founder

Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto

The man Newsweek claims is the founder of Bitcoin denied he had anything to do with the digital currency.

In an interview with The Associated Press , Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto said he had never heard of Bitcoin until his son told him he had been contacted by a Newsweek reporter three weeks ago.

Mr. Nakamoto acknowledged that many of the details in

Newsweek ’s report are correct, including that he once worked for a defence contractor, and that his given name at birth was Satoshi. But he strongly disputed the magazine’s assertion that he is “the face behind Bitcoin.”

“I got nothing to do with it,” he said, repeatedly.

Newsweek stands by its account.

Since Bitcoin’s birth in 2009, the currency’s creator has remained a mystery. The person or people behind its founding have been known only as “Satoshi Nakamoto,” which many observers believed to be a pseudonym.

“I’m saying I’m no longer in engineering. That’s it,” he said of the exchange. “And even if I was, when we get hired, you have to sign this document, contract saying you will not reveal anything we divulge during and after employment. So that’s what I implied.”

“It sounded like I was involved before with Bitcoin and looked like I’m not involved now. That’s not what I meant. I want to clarify that,” he said.

Newsweek writer Leah McGrath Goodman, who spent two months researching the story, told the AP : “I stand completely by my exchange with Mr. Nakamoto. There was no confusion whatsoever about the context of our conversation — and his acknowledgment of his involvement in Bitcoin.”

Bitcoin has become popular among tech enthusiasts, libertarians and risk-seeking investors because it allows people to make one-to-one transactions, buy goods and services and exchange money across borders without involving banks, credit card issuers or other third parties.