KEY POINTS

  • Escobar Inc.'s CEO claims Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto was once a drug runner for drug lord Pablo Escobar named Yasutaka Nakamoto
  • Yasutaka shares the same address as Dorian Nakamoto, who, in 2014, was thought to be Satoshi himself
  • The Escobar Estate once launched Diet Bitcoin, a Bitcoin fork that claims to be "faster"

If the Escobar estate is to be believed, Satoshi Nakamoto is someone who worked for them in the past.

Escobar Inc., the company associated with the famous drug lord, revealed to Cointelegraph the "identity" of Satoshi -- a certain Yasutaka Nakamoto. Escobar Inc. CEO Olof Gustaffson said Yasutaka worked for the late drug lord Pablo Escobar to smuggle drugs to the United States. Yasutaka later hid after an assassination attempt almost took his life. Sometime after that, allegedly, he created Bitcoin.

Gustaffson also said Yasutaka is the brother of Dorian Nakamoto, who was once put forward by Newsweek as the "real" Bitcoin creator.

Escobar Inc. is the Colombian company re-established in 2014 to acquire and control the "Pablo Escobar" and "Escobar" family brand.

Gustaffson’s story about Yasutaka continued with his technical background -- he was head engineer at Pacific West Airlines and “had experience with microprocessors and semiconductors.” Gustaffson claimed this supplied Yasutaka with the knowledge to create Bitcoin.

In verifying the story, Greg Thomson, who wrote the article on Cointelegraph found a Yasutaka in a Los Angeles Times article where the man in question escaped a car bomb. Yasutaka in this article was an employee of Hughes Aircraft Co.

Bitcoin jumped more than 15 percent to just short of $10,000 following Xi Jinping's comments
Bitcoin jumped more than 15 percent to just short of $10,000 following Xi Jinping's comments AFP / KAREN BLEIER

Gustaffson said Yasutaka died in 2010 after creating Bitcoin. Coincidentally, Satoshi Nakamoto last posted on the Bitcoin forums on Dec 12, 2010. He "briefly returned" in 2014 (later found false) to deny that he is Dorian Nakamoto. Gustaffson claimed Dorian is the brother of Yasutaka, referencing a Whitepages entry where both names share the same address. If there is a person who can lay credibility to Escobar Inc.’s story, it will be Dorian. But Dorian, through a "final" public statement in 2014 said he does not wish to be asked on any matters relating to Bitcoin anymore and asked everyone to respect his and his family’s privacy. It is unlike to get a confirmation or denial on his part.

While Escobar Inc. is known mostly through their case against Netflix for the adaptation of Pablo Escobar’s story to a television series, the company also claimed ownership of the Bitcoin trademark. Escobar Inc.’s founder Roberto (brother of Pablo) launched his own cryptocurrency called Diet Bitcoin which promised a faster and lighter alternative to Bitcoin.

Finally, Gustaffson said the reason why they chose to reveal this information now is to “set the record straight”. Through the years, there were many names put forward as the "real Satoshi." Among them are Dorian, Craig Wright, and Nick Szabo. Only Wright claims up to this day that he is in fact Satoshi. Dorian set the record straight in 2014, as did Szabo.

Roberto Escobar, brother of Pablo Escobar
An undated photograph of Roberto Escobar, the brother of Pablo Escobar. Roberto Escobar, who has been in prison since 1992, declared, 11 November 2000, to the magazine Cambio de Bogota, that his brother the extinct narcotics trafficker, gave a millon of dollars to ex- presidential adviser Peruvian Vladimiro Montesinos, to finance the first presidential run of Alberto Fujimori. STR/AFP via Getty Images