For much of its existence, the cryptocurrency company nChain was governed by a golden rule of office politics: It was not a good idea to challenge Craig Steven Wright, the chief science officer. <\/p>\n
At nChains London offices, Dr. Wright, an Australian computer scientist, was treated as a sort of philosopher king. He wore three-piece suits and drove a Lamborghini. A middle manager would tape Dr. Wrights ramblings about obscure technical matters and then share the recordings with a staff of researchers, who were instructed to turn his musings into patents. <\/p>\n
In 2017, Martin Sewell, an nChain employee, circulated a skeptical memo documenting technical errors in a series of papers that Dr. Wright had published about economics and computer science. A manager called Mr. Sewell into his office and told him that he had to stop. <\/p>\n
The deference to Dr. Wright was just this extraordinary arrangement, Mr. Sewell recalled. Like he was some sort of god of everything. <\/p>\n
Indeed, Dr. Wrights authority rested on a claim to a kind of divine significance that he was the mysterious creator of Bitcoin, the original cryptocurrency. <\/p>\n
In 2008, a person using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto published a white paper explaining the basics of Bitcoin, a clever idea that eventually became the foundation of a multitrillion-dollar industry. Then, as abruptly as he had emerged, he vanished. Satoshi, whos known by his first name, controls an estimated 1.1 million Bitcoins, a $75 billion stash that has sat untouched for more than a decade. <\/p>\n
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Read this article: For much of its existence, the cryptocurrency company nChain was governed by a golden rule of office politics: It was not a good idea to challenge Craig Steven Wright, the chief science officer. At nChains London offices, Dr Continue reading
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