Approaching the home that Dorian Nakamoto shares with his 93-year-old mother in the small Los Angeles County suburb of Temple City, one beholds a posted note under the doorbell declaring, "Private property: No solicitors or reporters." Though I have come as an invited guest, the note stands as a stark reminder of the peculiar form of hell Nakamoto endured just a year and a half ago, when he was hounded to distraction by hordes of media and various curiosity-seekers after Newsweek magazine published a purported exposé that dubbed him the "Father of Bitcoin."

The claim fell like a bomb on those who follow Bitcoin, and given Newsweek 's longtime status as a paragon of mass magazine journalism, it engendered widespread discussion. The article, by Leah McGrath Goodman, served as the magazine's cover story on March 6, 2014. It claimed to have uncovered the true identity of Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, following a two-month investigation that included "interviews with those closest to (Dorian) Nakamoto and the developers who worked most frequently with him ("Satoshi").

Citing Dorian's past contracting work on top-secret engineering projects, an ingrained disdain for government intrusion, and using quotes from various family members which paint him as a humble, privacy-obsessed engineering mastermind, Goodman made a compelling though surface-level argument for Dorian Nakamoto as the creator of Bitcoin.

But following the article's publication, most involved with Bitcoin were quick to question the validity of Goodman's claims, seeing the evidence presented as largely circumstantial. A commonly held belief among those who are skeptical of Newsweek 's claims is that "Satoshi Nakamoto" is actually an alias for a group of cryptographers/software engineers, rather than an individual. Others who corresponded with "Satoshi," including core developer Gavin Andresen, believe he is in fact an individual.

Furthermore, a recent piece by Nathaniel Popper in The New York Times makes the case that if the creator was indeed an individual, he was probably BitGold inventor and noted cryptocurrency expert Nick Szabo, not Dorian Nakamoto (although Szabo, too, refutes these claims).

Still others have asked the logical question of why a humble and essentially private person such as Dorian Nakamoto would create Bitcoin, seek anonymity for that feat, and then choose an alias that includes his given last name, in light of all of the other measures he took to remain anonymous.