Dr. Craig Wright is no stranger to fireside chats, having previously sat down with Bitcoin Association Founding President Jimmy Nguyen to discuss the history of Bitcoin’s creation. To discuss the larger world of cryptocurrency, he recently sat down with the CEO of the Frontier Network, Eric Van Der Kleij, at the CC Forum on Blockchain, AI and Digital Innovation.
Van Der Kleij was quick to point out that the CC Forum wasn’t afraid about hearing Dr. Wright’s side of the truth, and asked what nChain has been up to. After covering how he came to nChain from his Bitcoin exile, Wright noted that nChain has been very busy patenting his innovations, with 826 currently filed, 1450 in the pipline, and approximately 200 granted or about to be.
When asked what Dr. Wright wants to do with these patents, he responded “Choose how the industry moves.” Van Der Kleij wondered if this might prevent others from using the innovations, to which Wright noted “They can do what they want, as long as they pay licensing fees.”
Once again pressed if this might prevent others from innovating on blockchain technology, Wright quipped “Do I care?” Once Van Der Kleij accepted that answer, Wright explained:
Stifle creativity? What creativity? We have STOs running around saying that they’re new because they’re a token. So what? Wealth isn’t money. Wealth is the creation of goods, services, assets, capital. Because you’ve created a token, so what? That just makes you another scammy loser. If you create a token, and you don’t have a business, you don’t have anything. You’ve got Tone Vays over there, that’s it. Empty, vacuous.”
Changing topic, Van Der Kleij then tried to turn the discussion to Dr. Wright’s ongoing legal battle in Florida, but Wright refused, noting that reporting and crypto twitter speculation has been far off base. “I’ve used toilet paper with more accuracy.”
Van Der Kleij then turned to Bitcoin’s intent to follow the law from the start, which Wright explained:
It’s intended to work in the law. The last sentence says ‘will follow rules.’ Rules include law. The difference between a rule and law is, law is a rule with a consequence. It is a subset of the word. And miners don’t create rules, they enforce rules. I keep stressing this, I’m going to start buying copies of the Oxford and Cambridge dictionary for people so that they can actually read the whitepaper and understand what these words mean.
On that note, he was asked about John McAfee’s new decentralized exchange, which lacks know your customer (KYC) protocols and opens it up to terrorist financing. “And Mr. McAfee, like everyone else, will eventually get caught,” Wright responded. “Blockchain is an immutable evidence trail. It is utterly traceable. It is the opposite of what everyone’s been running around. It is private, but not anonymous. Those records are admissible.”
On that note, Van Der Kleij noted that while he might not have total belief in Dr. Wright’s identity as Satoshi, he agrees with him on so much, but he wants to have more proof of his claims. “You don’t prove anything by moving a coin,” Wright responded. “The university still has my thesis from 2008. They still have my proposal. So I guess on that one alone, you can make the decision when it comes out, which it will.”
That led to a comment which would later prove to be explosive. “You can make the decision: did Satoshi plagiarize me? Because there are sections of the whitepaper, whole paragraphs, in some of my work.” Van Der Kleij was first baffled by the comment, and Tone Vays would later question if Wright was admitting to not be Satoshi, although the intent of the comment is clearly that Dr. Craig Wright is Satoshi, if not for another leap in logic to reach a different conclusion. “You can make the choice, I don’t really care,” Wright concluded.
Ultimately, when asked if Wright cares if his integrity is called into question, he responded that he really doesn’t. As nChain has already cornered the market on blockchain patents, big businesses like Wal-Mart will ultimately be forced to come to Dr. Wright for the technology they need. Van Der Kleij suggested that the world might be more accepting of Dr. Wright if he would prove his integrity. Wright railed back:
“So what you’re saying is, ‘you don’t do my way, that’s not integrity. We want this. We demand you do this. We want Bitcoin to be this way. [Van Der Keij interrupts ‘No, suggest’]. No, demand. It’s demand. You want me to be what you want me to be. So therefore…”
Concluding the discussion of Bitcoin and Dr. Wright’s history, Van Der Keij finally worried that Dr. Wright might be forcing his way on the world of blockchain. “It’s my invention, invent something else,” Wright retorted, rousing applause from a section of the crowd.
What came next might be the part that has received the most attention from the fireside chat, as Van Der Keij tried to lighten the mood by asking about Dr. Wright’s gardening habits, asking him about his tomato garden. “I actually used to have bonsai trees as well, and they’re all dead now,” he started. “I had some really good old bonsai trees, and bloody nChain and all the travel I have to do, every single one of them is dead. My tomatoes, they keep bursting and things like that, because I’m not there to do things. And the gardener sucks, because the last time, he actually mowed by pumpkins.”
“That’s probably not advisable,” Van Der Keij concluded.
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