Famed science fiction author Neal Stephenson has shot down rumors that he might be Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto.
Last month, Peter Suderman, the features editor at Reason, posited that Stephenson could be Nakamoto due to the detailed descriptions of cryptographic technology found in his writing years before Bitcoin was created.
The author, however, denied the rumor during an interview on the podcast “Conversations with Tyler.”
“I saw that article last week on this topic, and I realized that the guy who’s writing it is largely just goofing, but I hope nobody takes it seriously.
It’s flattering that anyone imagines I’ve got the mathematical know-how needed to make something like blockchain. But if you look at how that system works, it requires a very high degree of cryptographic knowledge and coding skill that is beyond my abilities, certainly. And I definitely do not have the lifestyle of a person who has that much money.”
Stephenson wrote The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer back in 1995, describing a peer-to-peer system that can power confidential communications and move money. According to the novel, the system was so powerful it triggered a new world order and the fall of governments that could no longer track their citizens’ income or collect taxes.
Suderman himself noted that Stephenson’s theory was an “outlandish possibility,” though he then went on to mention the author’s other fictional works, including Cryptonomicon, The Baroque Cycle, and even his new book, Fall, that could suggest an association with Nakamoto.
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