The father of the lonely and depressed Bitcoin

Newsweek published an article in which the focus was only 8 words: They had found the Ben Cong, the one who created the bitcoin.

Reporter to see the cong.

When Ben Cong stood at the end of the sun-baked carriageway, he looked shy and irritated.

He himself called the police, while two policemen from Temple of California (Temple City) were holding him, and two policemen were puzzled to ask reporters what they wanted to say to him, and he thought it seemed that he would have trouble talking to me.

"I don't think he's going to get into any trouble," I said. "I actually wanted to ask him about Bitcoin," he said. This man is Ching, the one who created Bitcoin. ”

What？ "The police don't seem to believe it. "Is that the guy who created bitcoin?" It seems that he is very shabby. ”

I came here to try to find out more about the Ben Cong, to restore his "humble" life. It seems ridiculous, the man created Bitcoin, the world's most widely spread and successful digital currency, which spent 500 million dollars a day at the peak of the trade--living at the foot of San Benadino in Los Angeles, holed up at home and guarding $400 million worth of Bitcoin. It was also incredible that when I knocked on his door, Ben Cong first reacted by calling the police. Now, next to us are two policemen as witnesses, Ben Cong and I were talking face-to-face, he was very cautious when he answered the questions, but the truth was revealed.

The man had a tacit understanding of his role in the Bitcoin project, looked down on the road and flatly refused to answer the question.

"I am no longer involved in this project and I cannot discuss it," he said as he proceeded to refuse further questioning. "It has been handed over to someone else. They are in charge of the matter. I have nothing to do with Bitcoin. ”

Ching refused to say more and the police made it clear that the conversation was over.

But I've been working on it for two months, interviewing friends and relatives closest to the Chinese, and those who have made Bitcoin the world's best-known cryptographic electronic currency. The story of Bitcoin is a legend, a myth, and its uncanny nature transcends all existing novels.

Unlike people who think, Ben Cong is not a living in Tokyo, a gifted teenager named "Ching" (a story from a fan of bitcoin to a repeat in the New Yorker), the man behind the name is a 64-year-old Japanese-American whose name is really called "the word". He has a hobby of collecting train models, keeping a secret in his career, and carrying out confidential work for large businesses and art generals.

Even his family didn't know that identity.

There are many people in the world called "Zhong Ben Cong", who are alive and have already died. Ralph Lauren's men's wear designer called Ching, the 08 Hawaii Fire Honolulu also died two called this son. One person even claims to be the father of Bitcoin on LinkedIn, but none of these people's files and known information are right. Of course, "Zhong Ben Cong" may also be a pseudonym, but the question is, why some people deliberately want to conceal identity, while using a so distinguished name? I found this in a database that included U.S. citizenship information. But it wasn't until I pulled out his records from the National Archives and visited a lot of people that all the clues were strung up.

Two weeks before I met with Ben Cong, I got my email address from a train model company--Ching bought a train model at that company--he had been buying train model parts from Japan and the UK since his boyhood.

From the manual lathe to the grinding machine, Ben Cong the model processing process single-handedly. It requires excellent math skills, and the Ching are good at math. Ching's three brothers work in engineering and technology, and as the eldest, Ben Cong is a Bachelor of physics at the Pomonaga State Polytechnic University. But unlike their brothers, Ben Cong's career path is bewildering.

At the end of February, Ben Cong and I ended up with my email at the moment I mentioned bitcoin. Previously, I asked the Ben Cong of the professional background, but in the Cong. Ching then asked about my background, and I told Ching that I was willing to communicate with him by phone.

After the end of the mail, I would like to Ben Cong 31-year-old eldest son to get help, to contact Ching, see he is willing to talk about Bitcoin, the final answer is no-through the other family of the same temptation.

Since then, Ben Cong will not answer the phone. Until I personally went to his ordinary house in Southern California, watching the silver Toyota in Ben Cong parked in the driveway, the smart still did not answer the door. Then he tried to look out, lift the curtain and make eye contact with me, but then closed the curtain-and then the police came.

The Ben Cong's home.

"You want to know something about my amazing physicist Laugo?" he said. He is a brilliant man, and I am just a lowly engineer. He is focused on his own way of thinking and eclectic. Intelligence, math, engineering, computer, he can do anything you want. ”

But he also gave me a warning: "My eldest brother is a jerk, you do not know that he is engaged in confidential work." He's been out of the world for a while and you can't find him. He would deny it all and would not admit to creating Bitcoin. He said, and hung up the phone.

His words made me feel like I was on the right track, but that wasn't enough. He said he had no regular contact with Ben. So whether his words are authentic, I'm not sure.

Bitcoin is a currency in the world of computer code that can be sent to any corner of the world and stored on a mobile phone or hard drive until it needs to be taken. The essence of this currency is code, so a generation of hard disk crashes or someone else gets the key to get the code, the bitcoin is lost.

"Bitcoin is the most efficient means of financial trading – and that's why geeks are excited about Bitcoin." "says Gavin Anderson, 47-Year-old chief scientist at Bitcoin. He admits that the ease with which Bitcoin is used will also lead to easy theft. But he also points out that when Bitcoin is in a safe or not networked hard drive, it will be the safest currency. "For those who want to transfer money overseas, the convenience of bitcoin is obvious, as simple as sending emails." ”

But even so, Bitcoin is vulnerable in the face of massive theft, extortion and scandal. One example is the value of each Bitcoin plunging from $1200 trillion last year to $130 trillion at the end of February this year.

Bitcoin has been brought to the attention of the U.S. Senate, Homeland Security, the Federal Reserve, the IRS, the financial Crime Enforcement Network of the Treasury, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. They banned the internet's black market Silk Road last October and cleared its $3.5 million worth of Bitcoin. "Now the FBI is one of the largest holders of the world's Bitcoin. "said Anderson. In recent weeks, the revised Silk Road and the Mt of Tokyo. Gox, one of the largest Bitcoin trading points, has also been declared bankrupt after hacking into every dollar.

Andresen said he had had close contact with Benson, the person (or this identity), in developing Bitcoin in June 2010 to April 2011. At the time the Bitcoin economy had not burst, until last year, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said, "The virtual currency may have broad prospects." ”

Since then, Bitcoin ATM has sprung up in North America, and many companies such as Tesla, OkCupid, reddit,overstock.com, Virgin Galactic, Richard Branton Airlines have also begun to accept bitcoin.

Ching's family described him as a man of extreme intelligence, emotional and personal privacy. He was taciturn, accustomed to blocking the screen on the phone, sending his name in the mail, and obsessed with two things in his life: money and secrecy-exactly the two words that best describe bitcoin.

In the past 40 years, Ben Cong never used his real name in his life. According to the Los Angeles District Court's 1973 file, he changed his name to Dolian Prentis Ching (Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto) when he graduated from California State Polytechnic University at the age of 23. From then on, he no longer uses the name "Cong", but uses Dolian China s (Dorian S. Nakamoto) as his signature.

As soon as he graduated, Ben Cong entered the Hughes Aircraft Company (Hughes Aircraft) to work in defense and electronic communications. "That's just the beginning," said a colleague who also worked on the Hughes plane. "He's the only one I know who said an idiot in an interview and proved it." ”

"We were building defensive electronic and communications systems for military government aircraft and warships, but those were secret and I couldn't elaborate," said David Micha, the president of the Hughes Aircraft Company, now known as L-3 Communications. "

Ching's wife says her husband "rarely mentions his work" and sometimes works for military projects outside of the United States Radio Company. The couple moved back to California in 1987. There, Ben Cong has been a computer engineer in several communications and technology companies in the Los Angeles area, including the financial Information Services company Quotron BAE Inc., which was later sold to Reuters, and the Nortel Network (Nortel NX).

His wife also mentioned that Ben Cong had been sacked two times, because they could not afford to pay the mortgage and tax, their house had been repossessed by the bank. Ching's older daughter says the experience is likely to affect her father's perceptions of banks and the government.

As a liberal, Ben Cong encouraged his daughter to be independent, set up his own business and "Don't be fooled by the government." His daughter said, "he is very wary of government, taxes and people in power."

She also described Ben Cong as a full-time workaholic who had been busy until late at night from the time the whole family got up. "His office is always locked, and if we touch his computer, we'll be in big trouble," he said. He enjoys reading politics and current affairs, and likes all new and old technologies. He assembled his own computer and was very proud of it. ”

According to his wife, Ben Cong was there to work for the Federal Aviation Administration after 911 and to participate in security and communications.

Since bitcoin became a figure, people began to trace the true identity of Ching. Is he acting alone or working for the government? Rumors about Bitcoin from the NSA to the International Monetary Fund involve a variety of organizations.

However, in Silicon Valley, where creative ownership of almost any innovative project triggers legal warfare, the inventor of bitcoin has been remarkably silent for the past 5 years.

Ching's older daughter said: "I can see that Dad is doing some great things but doesn't want to accept them as a huge effect." I really don't think he'll admit it. I'm with you. Any normal person would be scrambling to admit it, but he's not a normal person. ”

Ching's brother agreed: "He is meticulous in his work, but very afraid of exposure to the media, you have to forgive him." ”

There are many characteristics of Dolian China. Those who have worked with Bitcoin inventors have noticed details: He looks older than other Bitcoin developers and seems to be working alone.

(This translation version saves some information about the Ben Cong family, and hides some names, but does not affect reading.) )