Newsweek tracks down founder of Bitcoin

TEMPLE CITY, Calif., March 6 (UPI) -- Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of the virtual currency bitcoin, is a highly secretive man living outside of Los Angeles, Newsweek reports.

Nakamoto, who goes by the name Dorian S. Nakamoto, made an estimated $400 million from bitcoin, which he created in 2008, before he left the company and moved to Temple City, Calif., Newsweek reported Thursday.

The man, who has previously worked on projects for top companies and the military, would not directly answer any questions asked by Newsweek.

"I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it," he said. "It's been turned over to other people. They are in charge of it now. I no longer have any connection."

Newsweek interviewed Nakamoto's family and co-workers to put together a better picture of who the man behind bitcoin, which were worth $1,200 each at the currency's high last year.

"He was the kind of person who, if you made an honest mistake, he might call you an idiot and never speak to you again," said bitcoin's chief scientist, Gavin Andresen, 47. "Back then, it was not clear that creating bitcoin might be a legal thing to do. He went to great lengths to protect his anonymity."

"He's a brilliant man. I'm just a humble engineer. He's very focused and eclectic in his way of thinking. Smart, intelligent, mathematics, engineering, computers. You name it, he can do it," said Nakamoto's youngest sibling, Arthur Nakamoto.

However, "my brother is an [expletive]. What you don't know about him is that he's worked on classified stuff. His life was a complete blank for a while. You're not going to be able to get to him. He'll deny everything. He'll never admit to starting bitcoin."