Self-proclaimed Bitcoin inventor Craig S. Wright, the entrepreneur behind nChain and a primary driving force of the Bitcoin Cash “Satoshi Vision” hard fork, said on live radio this week via Austin-based The Crypto Show that the Lightning Network project is “a joke” which has “a major flaw that will be discovered next year.”
Wright’s full statement on the subject goes as such:
It’s a joke. That’s an easy way to put it.
I mean, they keep ignoring the fact that the routing problem is actually insurmountable. You’ll never get around it. And worse than that, it has a a major flaw that will be discovered next year.
Wright then wore the following facial expression:
The apparently edited video recording left by The Crypto Show on YouTube does not reveal much more about Wright’s thinking or knowledge as regards such a “flaw” that is to be “discovered.” Instead the discussion rolls into the topic of whether or not Lightning node operators – e.g. businesses using the Lightning Network to receive payments – were money transmitters or not, and the legal implications thereof. Wright elucidated why he feels that Lightning Nodes are money transmitters and why regulators will view them as such.
Other parts of the interview shed light on Craig S. Wright’s prolonged involvement with the Bitcoin project, including his statement on the lawsuit being brought against him by the estate of Dave Kleiman, whom longtime Bitcoin and Linux kernel developer Jeff Garzik believes was the most likely true Satoshi based on the early Bitcoin code and synchronicity of events.
Within the first five minutes of the episode, Crypto Show host Danny Sessom bluntly asks Wright if there is “any merit to Dave Kleiman actually being part of the team of Satoshi.” In a revelatory response, Wright says:
There would be merit in saying that. But merit in the lawsuit? No.
Sessom further inquired as to the nature of the Wright family’s Tulip Trust, which owns several companies Wright is associated with, and whether it was the “famed Satoshi wallet.” Wright did not comment much beside saying that it was a family trust to protect the interests of his children.
The real identity of Satoshi Nakamoto may never be known, but the persona of Craig S. Wright and his relation to Bitcoin and cryptocurrency as a whole will never be forgotten. He has put himself on course to dominate crypto headlines in the coming weeks, particularly in the aftermath of yesterday’s Bitcoin Cash hard fork roll out.
Featured image from Youtube/BBC.