Craig Wright’s proof that he invented Bitcoin: “F**k off, I’m not going to jump through hoops”

Back in May, Craig Wright proclaimed that he was Satoshi Nakamoto—the creator of the Bitcoin cryptocurrency. We all know what happened swiftly after that, though: Wright's initial proof didn't withstand scrutiny; two days later he promised "extraordinary proof," which never came; and then, a day after that, he left a mysterious message on his website that said "goodbye." He hasn't been seen since.

At the time, when Wright was trying to prove his identity, he gave three interviews: to the BBC, the Economist, and GQ. Now, however, GQ has released an audio recording of its interview with Wright, as a teaser for the latest edition of the print magazine (which is released tomorrow). The recording is, er, rather heated. You should use headphones if you're at work, or if there are any impressionable people nearby.

The voices in the GQ interview are as follows: Craig Wright, who claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto (and swears a lot); Dr. Nicolas T. Courtois, a lecturer in cryptography at University College London, who GQ brought along to verify Wright's claim to the Bitcoin throne; and Stuart McGurk is GQ's senior commissioning editor, and the one who wrote the story for the magazine.

If you find it hard to follow along, the interview mostly revolves around Courtois suggesting that Wright's proof isn't solid enough, and that it should be easy for him to provide a true cryptographic proof if he really was the creator of Bitcoin. Wright doesn't say a whole lot except "fuck off." I think this is probably my favourite bit:

I’m not going to job through everybody’s fucking hoops. Bullshit from Maxwell [who first poked holes in Wright's cryptographic proof] that we’ve had to pay money to get bloody disproven because the codes’ fucking out there. I’m not doing this every fucking time. I’m not going to sign every fucking key I own in the world. I’ve got the first fucking nine keys, I’ve got the fucking genesis bloody block, I’ve got the fucking code, I’ve got the fucking papers. I’m not going to go through fucking everything. I don’t really give a shit whether people like it.

He does say one interesting thing towards the end, though. "My biggest thing in life, what I enjoy the most is education, which I can’t fucking do properly anymore." Why? asks the interviewer. "I can’t go to a conference any more." Why? "Because I turn up and it’s not fucking not anonymous anymore. I’m not just some guy in the crowd ever again."

It's worth noting that this isn't the entirety of GQ's interview; it's just a small clip from a 90-minute recording. Presumably Wright did say something of substance in the other 80 minutes—but to find out, we'll have to read the GQ story tomorrow.