Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Statement regarding Andrew O’Hagan’s reporting on Craig Wright and the London School of Economics

In a recent article on Craig Wright and the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto (the pseudonymous creator of bitcoin) in the London Review of Books, Andrew O’Hagan made the following comment about LSE:
"Originally, the plan was for the London School of Economics to host a panel discussion about the evidence and the findings, but someone seems to have blabbed to the Financial Times, which ran an article on 31 March. ‘After nearly four months of silence,’ the FT blogger Izabella Kaminska wrote, ‘and a bitcoin community mostly resigned to the notion that the story was an elaborate hoax – conditional approaches are being made to media and other institutions in connection to an upcoming “big reveal” of Wright as Satoshi Nakamoto.’ Her source was clearly inside the project.”
I am one of a small number of LSE staff actively researching bitcoin and my research involves working with hundreds of individuals and organisations who trust me to confidentially manage information and data. As a result of the comment made by Andrew O’Hagan, I feel that it is necessary for me to make it clear that I had no knowledge of or involvement in any discussions between LSE and Craig Wright (and/or his associates) and no involvement in disclosing anything on this matter to the Financial Times. I only first learnt about any discussions in mid-May.

Thank you for taking time to read my statement on this matter, and please feel free to contact me or LSE External Communications with any questions.

Sincerely, Garrick Hileman