Another mysterious person signs a 2009 BTC address, message shared by Martin Shkreli mentions convicted felon Paul Le Roux – Bitcoin News

Recently, the crypto community discovered a bitcointalk.org forum user who signed a message from bitcoin block 1018, and the signer associated the signature with an address first seen in 2022. Furthermore, further investigation and evidence have linked block 1018 to the now-deceased computer scientist Hal Finney’s bitcoin transactions. Two days ago, another signature and message linked to an old bitcoin address was published, this time revealed by ‘pharma bro’ and former hedge fund manager Martin Shkreli. The latest message makes a bold claim that criminal cartel boss and former programmer Paul Le Roux sent Hal Finney the first bitcoin transaction on January 12, 2009.

Another Bitcoin address from January 2009 has been signed — this time the verified message was shared by ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli

Amidst the chaos surrounding the FTX collapse, the crypto community has witnessed a strange message signature from a bitcointalk.org forum user named “Onesignature.” The user signed a message associated with the address “1NChf”, which is associated with the coinbase reward 1018. So to prove that the user still exists today, the message contained a 2022 bitcoin address and Onesignature signed a message with the newly created address as well. Upon further investigation, Bitcoin.com News discovered that Onesignature’s 1NChf address and block 1018 are associated with Hal Finney’s bitcoin transactions. This includes a good portion of the alleged bitcoin blocks Finney mined and the data scientist’s BTC transfers as well.

The problem is that Finney passed away in 2014, after dealing with years of suffering related to his complications with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). This means that Finney himself did not sign the transaction, but the wallet could still be controlled by his remaining family members and property. The estate could also have sold the wallet in its entirety, even if it was empty and for a significant value. However, after Onesignature’s disclosure, another signature appeared online, this time introduced by former hedge fund manager Martin Shkreli. The convicted felon and ‘pharma bro’ is a controversial figure, and in recent times he has been involved in a number of crypto-related discussions.

On December 13, 2022, Shkreli published a post on his substack blog, and the blog post is titled: “Paul Le Roux is Satoshi.” In the post, Shkreli shares a bitcoin address linked to the message and signature published in Shkreli’s blog. The address is “1Q2TW,” the same address that Satoshi Nakamoto sent 10 bitcoin with on January 12, 2009 to Hal Finney from block 9. Shkreli’s message reads: “This transaction was made by Paul Leroux to Hal Finney on January 12, 2009 #bitcoin. ” The message also contains the signature which proves that the signer has access to the private key 1Q2TW. In the comments section, Shkreli is asked where he got the message, but the former hedge fund manager does not reveal this information.

Software developer Greg Maxwell pokes holes in Shkreli’s evidence

A number of commenters on Shkreli’s blog post criticize him for not sharing where he got the message and the signature. “The failure to answer this question – even by briefly saying why he can’t say directly – is very telling,” one person wrote. “We can see that Martin has gone through the comments.” In addition, Shkreli is confronted by bitcoin developer Greg Maxwell, who explains that the signature type used to sign the message did not exist when Finney developed. “So it was probably created by someone who got Hal’s private keys after his death,” Maxwell insisted. “You can see the address was actively sending transactions long after Hal’s death, so *unequivocally* someone else is in control of the key.”

Maxwell’s comments are correct as the 1Q2TW address had made an outgoing transaction long after Finney’s death. The transfer of 0.034337 BTC was sent from 1Q2TW on September 6, 2017 at 1:42 a.m. (ET). Maxwell goes on to tell ‘pharma bro’ that the signature he posted “is not compatible with the Bitcoin blockchain, it is a new signature type we introduced specifically for message signing, which was first released in Bitcoin 0.5.0 on November 1, 2011.” The software programmer says also that the specific format is an “Electrum style” scheme, which “wasn’t even proposed until mid-2013,” Maxwell stressed. “I’m not sure when it was first implemented.” Maxwell continued:

When the signal message was created in late 2011, Hal was profoundly disabled and only able to use a computer with the help of others, it was not widely used until years later. Other commenters have pointed out that this address was active in 2017, so that provides an obvious explanation: the message was not signed by Hal, but whoever is using his keys now.

Shkreli claims he will “reach out to Finney’s family” to see who owns the private keys

Shkreli responded to Maxwell, talking back and forth with the software developer. “This is very helpful, I’m going to contact Finney’s family to see who has these keys and why they would sign messages,” Shkreli said. “From what little I know about the Finneys, it doesn’t seem like they would be LARPing and signing random autographs or selling the key pairs,” the “pharma bro” added. Maxwell noted that the Finney family was attacked by extortionists at one time, and he further noted that some of Hal’s bitcoins were sold. “It’s possible they did it by just selling the keys (or an entire wallet) — that would be a convenient way to do it that wouldn’t require figuring out how to use it,” Maxwell said.

The name “Paul Le Roux” refers to the former cartel boss, DEA informant and software programmer who lives in prison after he was arrested for various crimes in 2012. Le Roux has been considered a Satoshi suspect for many years now and people believe he had the technical knowledge to create Bitcoin. His name was first associated with Satoshi after evidence emerged during the Kleiman v. Wright lawsuit.

One of the documents in the lawsuit (document 187) highlights an unedited footnote, which shows a URL linked to Paul Le Roux’s Wikipedia page. This document and the fact that Le Roux was highly respected as an innovative software engineer and cryptographer have led many to believe that Le Roux was Satoshi. For example, investigative journalist Evan Ratliff said in an archived Bitcoin.com podcast that he believed Le Roux was “the most credible Satoshi yet.” Ratliff also wrote about his theory in a Wired article published in July 2016.

After further reviewing Maxwell’s comment, Shkreli responded and concluded that he really didn’t care who Satoshi Nakamoto is. “Very interesting,” Shkreli wrote back to Maxwell. “I have no dog in this fight and don’t care if Satoshi is Le Roux, Finney, neither or both. It seems very likely that the signature was created recently by someone who gained access to it.”

What do you think of the message shared by Martin Shkreli? What do you think of the statements Greg Maxwell made? Do you think anyone is signing addresses linked to Hal Finney’s bitcoin addresses? Let us know what you think about this topic in the comments section below.

Jamie Redman

Jamie Redman is the news editor at Bitcoin.com News and a financial technology journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open source and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 6,000 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.