Screengrab by Dara Kerr/CNET
While Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto maintains he isn’t the creator of Bitcoin, he has been able to make money from the cryptocurrency.
Sympathizers for the man have raised more than $20,000 worth of Bitcoin in an online fundraiser to help him “with medical bills his family is facing, any legal bills they may incur, or anything else.” According to Bitcoin news service NewsBTC, a total of 47.5 bitcoins were donated.
In a YouTube video published Tuesday, Nakamoto thanked the Bitcoin community for all of its efforts to help him.
“Thank you very much for your support throughout this ordeal that I’m still fighting,” Nakamoto said in the video. “I want to hug you, this 2,000 of you, who donated. I’m very happy, each one gives me a tick in my heart.”
Nakamoto was the focus of a wacky saga that took place last month after a Newsweek magazine cover story alleged he was the mysterious and sought-after creator of Bitcoin. The news resulted in Nakamoto being stalked at his Temple City, Calif., home by reporters and then led to a comical slow-moving car chase in which he and an Associated Press reporter tried to outrun other journalists in pursuit of the story.
Members of the Bitcoin community were infuriated that Newsweek targeted Nakamoto, who they said was the wrong man. One of those members was entrepreneur and coder Andreas M. Antonopoulos, who arranged the online fundraiser for Nakamoto.
Antonopoulos wrote in a Reddit post last month that the donations were a small gesture to help “soften the damage caused by irresponsible journalism and to demonstrate the generosity and empathy of the community, which I know is huge.”
After a month of fundraising, Antonopoulos concluded the campaign and handed over the bitcoins to Nakamoto. Antonopoulos also filmed and published Tuesday’s YouTube video to prove that Nakamoto received the donation. In the video, Nakamoto reiterates that he is not the inventor of the virtual currency.
“I am not Satoshi Nakamoto,” he said. “My name is Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, and, of course, if I was the creator, I would never use my real name. So from that point of view, I’m sure you guys would know, that Satoshi Nakamoto is not me.”
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