In May 2016, MacGregor presented Wright to the world as the creator of bitcoin through a coordinated media campaign with the BBC, the Economist and GQ magazine. However, when the cameras rolled, Wright failed to convince experts he really was Satoshi – and the bitcoin world dismissed him as a crank.
The publicity misfire led people with knowledge of Wright to speculate at the time that he would stop making bitcoin and blockchain patent applications. Wright did drop from public view. But he continued to produce papers, handwritten notes and voice recordings about patent applications, many of which have been reviewed by Reuters, for colleagues at The Workshop Technologies to convert into patents, according to the person with direct knowledge of Wright’s businesses.
In September last year, a relaxed-looking Wright resumed making visits to the company’s premises in central London, according to the source, who saw him there several times.
In Antigua, meanwhile, Ayre began construction in October of a $25 million call center, saying it was part of his vision for bitcoin and online gaming. Speech notes provided by Ayre’s spokesman, Pownall, show that Ayre said at a launch event: “I see a growing convergence of Bitcoin, online gaming, virtual reality and gamification technologies, and progressive countries like Antigua are poised to take advantage of this convergence by developing a truly global services industry.”
