The real Satoshi Nakamoto

Will Oremus has a Slate article about (maybe) the mysterious inventor of Bitcoin:

The first revelation of the day is that Newsweek still exists, or rather, exists again. (The print edition of the recently resuscitated magazine is expected to hit newsstands tomorrow.)
But the bigger revelation is that Newsweek believes it has found the shadowy figure who created bitcoin, the world’s most popular crypto-currency.
For years bitcoin’s invention, as detailed in this seminal paper, has been credited to “a pseudonymous person or group of people” who went by the name of “Satoshi Nakamoto.” Efforts to find the real Satoshi Nakamoto have been numerous, and suspects have run the gamut from a Finnish economic sociologist named Vili Lehdonvirta to a Texas security researcher named Dustin Trammell to a Japanese mathematician named Shinichi Mochizuki. All have denied being Satoshi Nakamoto, and for good reason: The real Satoshi Nakamoto, according to Newsweek, is actually a man named … wait for it … Satoshi Nakamoto. From the magazine:

Far from leading to a Tokyo-based whiz kid using the name "Satoshi Nakamoto" as a cipher or pseudonym (a story repeated by everyone from Bitcoin's rabid fans to The New Yorker), the trail followed by Newsweek led to a 64-year-old Japanese-American man whose name really is Satoshi Nakamoto. He is someone with a penchant for collecting model trains and a career shrouded in secrecy, having done classified work for major corporations and the U.S. military.

When Newsweek’s Leah McGrath Goodman tracked Nakamoto to his humble family home in Temple City, California, he apparently panicked and called the cops. Eventually he let slip a few words about his relationship to bitcoin before clamming up for good:
“I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it," he says, dismissing all further queries with a swat of his left hand. "It's been turned over to other people. They are in charge of it now. I no longer have any connection."
If this is indeed the real Satoshi Nakamoto, it seems he has eluded identification until now in part because he changed his name at age 23 from Satoshi Nakamoto to Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto and now goes by Dorian S. Nakamoto. The full story, in which Nakamoto is described as both “brilliant” and “an asshole” by people close to him, is well worth your click. Among the fascinating tidbits: Nakamoto's second wife suspects he may have created bitcoin in part because he was frustrated by the bank fees and exchange rates he faced when wiring money to buy model trains from overseas.
The bitcoin fanboys at Reddit, meanwhile, are outraged that Newsweek has “doxxed” their hero. Or, some have suggested, perhaps they’re just sucking on sour grapes because a traditional print journalist succeeded where they had failed.
McGrath’s full story is here:

Satoshi Nakamoto stands at the end of his sunbaked driveway looking timorous and annoyed. He's wearing a rumpled t-shirt, old blue jeans, and white gym socks without shoes, like he has left the house in a hurry. His hair is unkempt, and he has the thousand-mile stare of someone who has gone weeks without sleep. He stands, not with defiance, but with the slackness of a person who has waged battle for a long time and now faces a grave loss.
Two police officers from the Temple City, California sheriff's department flank him, looking puzzled. "So, what is it you want to ask this man about?" one of them asks me. "He thinks if he talks to you he's going to get into trouble."
"I don't think he's in any trouble," I say. "I would like to ask him about Bitcoin. This man is Satoshi Nakamoto."
"What?" The police officer balks. "This is the guy who created Bitcoin? It looks like he's living a pretty humble life."
I'd come here to try to find out more about Nakamoto and his humble life. It seemed ludicrous that the man credited with inventing Bitcoin, the world's most wildly successful digital currency, with transactions of nearly five hundred million dollars a day at its peak, would retreat to Los Angeles' San Bernardino foothills, hole up in the family home and leave his estimated four hundred million dollars worth of Bitcoin riches untouched. It seemed similarly implausible that Nakamoto's first response to my knocking at his door would be to call the cops. Now face to face, with two police officers as witnesses, Nakamoto's responses to my questions about Bitcoin were careful but revealing.
Tacitly acknowledging his role in the Bitcoin project, he looks down, staring at the pavement and categorically refuses to answer questions. "I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it," he says, dismissing all further queries with a swat of his left hand. "It's been turned over to other people. They are in charge of it now. I no longer have any connection." Nakamoto refused to say any more, and the police made it clear our conversation was over.
But a two-month investigation and interviews with those closest to Nakamoto and the developers who worked most frequently with him on the out-of-nowhere global phenomenon that is Bitcoin reveal the myths surrounding the world's most famous crypto-currency are largely just that— myths— and the facts are much stranger than the well-established fiction.
Far from leading to a Tokyo-based whiz kid using the name Satoshi Nakamoto as a cipher or pseudonym (a story repeated by everyone from Bitcoin's rabid fans to The New Yorker), the trail followed by Newsweek led to a 64-year-old Japanese-American man whose name really is Satoshi Nakamoto. He is someone with a penchant for collecting model trains and a career shrouded in secrecy, having done classified work for major corporations and the US military. Standing before me, eyes downcast, appeared to be the father of Bitcoin. Not even his family knew. 

Rico says this doesn't improve his opinion of the whole Bitcoin concept...