A Web Founding Father Says Mathematician Invented Bitcoin

(Inside Science) -- A web pioneer has speculated that the digital currency Bitcoin was invented under a pseudonym by a Japanese mathematician, who, oh by the way, just may have cracked a famously difficult topic in math called the ABC conjecture.

Neither of these claims seems to be iron-clad. Ted Nelson, the academic who coined the term “hypertext,” released a YouTube video (embedded below) suggesting that Shinichi Mochizuki probably invented Bitcoin, under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.

The digital news outlet Quartz has posted an article discussing the reasons why the suggestion might or might be true.

Mochizuki is a pretty interesting character anyway -- and he’s been busy. This story from Project Wordsworth describes him as a sort of mathematical monk who has posted a 4-part proof of the ABC conjecture, a very difficult problem in number theory that, if proven, has a number of important consequences. The story is fascinating throughout. Here’s a brief excerpt about the proof:

“This is not just gibberish to the average layman. It was gibberish to the math community as well.

‘Looking at it, you feel a bit like you might be reading a paper from the future, or from outer space,’ wrote Ellenberg on his blog.

‘It’s very, very weird,’ says Columbia University professor Johan de Jong, who works in a related field of mathematics.”