Newsweek could get sued for its dubious Bitcoin scoop

Back in March, Newsweek published what would have been one of the year’s biggest technology scoops. An article by Leah McGrath Goodman claimed to have unmasked Satoshi Nakamoto, the reclusive – and likely pseudonymous – genius who invented Bitcoin. Goodman pointed to an elderly Japanese-American engineer named Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto who was living in Southern California.
Dorian vehemently denied any connection to Bitcoin, and Goodman’s story – based overwhelmingly on circumstantial evidence, quickly crumbled. Yet Newsweek refused to admit that the story, which appeared on the cover of its first print edition under new ownership – was wrong.
The Bitcoin community saw the Newsweek article – which revealed intimate details of his personal life and quoted family members making unflattering comments about him – as a serious invasion of an elderly man’s privacy. They quickly raised more than $20,000 to help him cover personal expenses. And now, Dorian’s law firm has has created a website to raise more funds to file a lawsuit against Newsweek.

This post was published at Vox on October 13, 2014,.