gigatech1Craig Steven Wright is claiming to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious founder of Bitcoin. Could we finally be close to figuring out a mystery that security researchers have been trying to find out for years. The Economist is one of the three publications to break the story:

“This mystery may finally be solved: Craig Steven Wright — a 45-year-old Australian computer scientist and inventor who was outed against his will and with dubious evidence as Mr Nakamoto in December last year — now claims he is the real Satoshi. On May 2nd he published a blog post offering what he says is cryptographic proof that he is indeed the creator of bitcoin.”

Regardless of the initial evidence, there is still  uncertainty:

“Still, questions remain. Mr Wright does not want to make public the proof for block 1, arguing that block 9 contains the only bitcoin address that is clearly linked to Mr Nakamoto (because he sent money to Hal Finney). Repeating the procedure for other blocks, he says, would not add more certainty. He also says he can’t send any bitcoin because they are now owned by a trust. And he rejected the idea of having The Economist send him another text to sign as proof that he actually possesses these private keys, rather than simply being the first to publish a proof which was generated at some point in the past by somebody else. Either people believe him now — or they don’t, he says. “I’m not going to keep jumping through hoops.”

Such statements will feed doubts.

The issue here is that Wright is refusing to sign another block of text provided by the Economist when it would clearly remove any doubt. With many security researchers about to weigh in, there should be something definitive in the next few weeks.


gigatech2For a long time, Microsoft made a killing with its licensing deals with Android manufacturers. It was to the tune of a billion dollars and the best part was that Microsoft made money from almost every Android handset that was sold. Unfortunately it looks like the proliferation of cheap Chinese phones is causing that licensing revenue to fall:

From Business Insider:

“In the release, Microsoft noted that its patent-licensing revenue was down 26% from a year ago. And it’s because of Android. […] Suh also noted that not every Android manufacturer has a licensing deal with Microsoft. He didn’t name names, but Chinese phone makers typically take a very loose approach toward licensing American intellectual property, and as those inexpensive phones take over the world, Microsoft doesn’t benefit as much.

At one point, Microsoft was reported to be booking $2 billion a year from licensing its patents and other intellectual property to Android handset makers like Samsung and HTC. Microsoft has never confirmed that number, but it’s probably a drop in the bucket compared to the overall Windows business, which booked revenue around $4.2 billion this quarter. (“Windows revenue decreased $292 million or 7%,” the release says.)

Still, the Android gravy train is slowing down for everybody.”

The fall in sales for licensed partners like HTC, LG and Sony and the increase in sales of the iPhone with chinese phones is leading to less royalties. The concern for Microsoft is that this looks like it will only get worse.