Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, who Newsweek claimed was “the” Satoshi Nakamoto credited with the creation of bitcoin, has now issued a statement through his lawyer Ethan Kirschner completely denying his involvement in creating the digital currency. 
 
 “I did not create, invent, or otherwise work on Bitcoin. I unconditionally deny the Newsweek report,” Nakamoto said in the statement. 
 
 The Newsweek story, which revealed details about Dorian’s life including what town he lived in, sparked something akin to a modern tech manhunt as reports raced to chase the older man down. To be fair, Dorian denied everything then, too, and then again. 
 
 And now we have Dorian’s denial in written form as well. Reuters Blogger Felix Salmon first produced the statement, but, in this ongoing story of slippery bitcoin “facts,” we have also confirmed the text of the note directly with Kirschner. 
 
 “We have no comment beyond confirming that we’ve been retained by Mr. Nakamoto and that it is his statement that was released,” he told TechCrunch in an emailed statement. 
 
 The drama around Bitcoin’s creator fails to die, very much in line with the roller coaster ride the crypto-currency has been going through over past year. 
 
 This latest chapter is a particularly frustrating one, centred as it is not only on an individual who is claiming no involvement, but one who was already in difficult times. 
 
 Not only were there apparently no facts unveiled in the Newsweek story, but there has been quite a significant casualty resulting from it, in the form of an individual’s privacy. 
 
 Dorian writes in the letter that he had never heard of the word “bitcoin” before February 2014, when he was contacted by a reporter. (He does not name Leah McGrath Goodman in his letter.) It was his son who first mentioned the word bitcoin to him, he writes. 
 
 While the Newsweek story sets up Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto as a hidden-in-plain-sight mystery solved, Nakamoto’s letter paints a rather different picture of the person. 
 
 Here, we have a smart, but also struggling, individual. Someone who is very much on the other spectrum of the tech boom that is so often the subject of public discourse — and of bitcoin in particular. 
 
 Despite having a background in engineering, Nakamoto notes that he couldn’t find a programmer’s job for over a decade. 
 
 “I’ve worked as a laborer, polltaker and a substitute teacher,” he added in the statement. He says he has never worked on cryptography, peer-to-peer systems, or alternative currencies. 
 
 He also underscores some of the other problems he has had outside of this case of apparently very mistaken identity. They include several health issues and “severe financial distress.” 
 
 You can imagine that this letter, coming with legal backing, is a precursor to further legal action and claims for damages, either publicly or behind the scenes. 
 
 Despite Newsweek maintaining a solid stance on its story, the tech world has been skeptical of the evidence from the moment it came out. We’ve even seen one person, allegedly the “real” Satoshi Nakamoto (or at least posting on an account linked with the original manifesto), post on a message board to deny the Newsweek article. ||||| TEMPLE CITY, California (Reuters) - A Japanese American man thought to be the reclusive multi-millionaire father of Bitcoin emerged from a modest Southern California home and denied involvement with the digital currency before leading reporters on a freeway car chase to the local headquarters of the Associated Press. 
 
 Satoshi Nakamoto is surrounded by reporters as he leaves his home in Temple City, California, March 6, 2014. REUTERS/David McNew 
 
 Satoshi Nakamoto, a name known to legions of bitcoin traders, practitioners and boosters around the world, appeared to lose his anonymity on Thursday after Newsweek published a story that said he lived in Temple City, California, just east of Los Angeles. 
 
 Newsweek included a photograph and described a short interview, in which Nakamoto said he was no longer associated with Bitcoin and that it had been turned over to other people. The magazine concluded that the man was the same Nakamoto who founded Bitcoin. 
 
 Dozens of reporters, including a sprinkling of Japanese media, encircled and camped outside the man’s two-story house on Thursday morning, accosting the mailman and repeatedly ringing the doorbell, to no avail. Police cruisers drove by several times but did not stop. 
 
 Several times, someone pulled back the drapes on an upstairs window. 
 
 In the afternoon, the silver-haired, bespectacled Nakamoto stepped outside, dressed in a gray sport coat and green striped shirt, with a pen tucked in his shirt pocket. He was mobbed by reporters and told them he was looking for someone who understood Japanese to buy him a free lunch. 
 
 Newsweek estimates his wealth at $400 million. 
 
 “I’m not involved in Bitcoin. Wait a minute, I want my free lunch first. I’m going with this guy,” Nakamoto said, pointing at a reporter from AP. “I’m not in Bitcoin, I don’t know anything about it,” he said again while walking down the street with several cameras at his heels. 
 
 He and the AP reporter made their way to a nearby sushi restaurant with media in tow, before leaving and heading downtown. Los Angeles Times reporter Joe Bel Bruno followed the pair and described the chase in a running stream of tweets. Eventually, the pair dashed into the Associated Press offices in downtown Los Angeles. 
 
 MISUNDERSTOOD 
 
 In a later AP interview, Nakamoto said he was misunderstood in a key portion of the Newsweek story, where he tells the reporter on his doorstep, “I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it.” 
 
 Related Coverage Bitcoin true believers unfazed by losses in Mt. Gox collapse 
 
 Asked by the AP if he had said that, Nakamoto said, “No.” 
 
 “I’m saying I’m no longer in engineering. That’s it,” he told the AP. “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,” the AP reported him as saying. 
 
 The Bitcoin Foundation, an advocacy group promoting the adoption of the digital currency, said “... We have seen zero conclusive evidence that the identified person is the designer of Bitcoin.” 
 
 “Those closest to the Bitcoin project, the informal team of core developers, have always been unaware of Nakamoto’s true identity, as Nakamoto communicated purely through electronic means,” it said in a post on its website. 
 
 Newsweek writer Leah McGrath Goodman told the AP that she stood by her story. “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.” 
 
 “FOCUSED AND ECLECTIC” 
 
 Fans see Bitcoin as a digital-world currency beyond government interference, while critics, whose ranks swelled with the recent bankruptcy filing by major bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, see a risky investment whose anonymity aids drug dealers and other criminals. 
 
 Nakamoto kept a low profile in part to avoid the attention of authorities, Newsweek said. On Thursday, the office of Benjamin Lawsky, superintendent of New York’s Department of Financial Services, was keen on speaking with him, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters. 
 
 Bitcoin is bought and sold on a peer-to-peer network independent of central control. Its value soared last year, and the total worth of bitcoins minted is now about $7 billion. 
 
 In the Newsweek article, Nakamoto was credited by Bitcoin’s chief scientist, Gavin Andresen, in working out the first codes behind the currency. 
 
 Slideshow (3 Images) 
 
 A man of few words who refused to discuss anything beyond the currency or even communicate outside of email, Nakamoto was described by his brother in the Newsweek article as “fickle and has very weird hobbies,” including a penchant for model trains. 
 
 Japanese-born Nakamoto displayed an unusual aptitude for math as a child. He immigrated with his mother to California in 1959. He worked for defense and electronics company Hughes Aircraft, but never discussed work because much of it was classified, according to Newsweek interviews with several friends and relatives. 
 
 “He’s very focused and eclectic in his way of thinking. Smart, intelligent, mathematics, engineering, computers. You name it, he can do it,” Newsweek quoted Arthur Nakamoto, his younger brother, as saying.
– The man "unmasked" as the founder of bitcoin by Newsweek says he'd never even heard of the virtual currency until reporters tracked his son down a couple of weeks ago. In an exclusive interview with the AP, Dorian Nakamoto—also known as Satoshi Nakamoto—says many of the details in the Newsweek report about him are correct, but he strongly denies having anything to do with bitcoin, which he repeatedly referred to as "Bitcom." Newsweek's reporter stands by her story, but Nakamoto—who says he came to the US from Japan when he was 10 but his English isn't flawless—believes a key quote was misinterpreted. "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 says, explaining that he worked on missile systems for years and many aspects of his career are confidential. While Nakamoto was speaking to the AP, reporters from outlets including the Los Angeles Times and Reuters followed their car in a farcical chase that ended at the AP's offices in downtown Los Angeles. (Click for more on Leah McGrath Goodman's Newsweek profile.)