The founder of Ethereum just called the man who claims to have invented bitcoin a 'fraud'

Vitalik Buterin/Twitter

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin called Craig Wright a 'fraud' at a recent conference.

• Craig Wright claimed to be the creator of bitcoin in 2016.
• But Vitalik Buterin, the confirmed creator of Ethereum, said he was a "fraud" at a conference on Tuesday.

Satoshi Nakamoto is still a mystery. Nobody knows the real identity of the pseudonymous billionaire creator of bitcoin.

However, Ethereum cofounder Vitalik Buterin is pretty sure it's not Craig Wright, the Australian who claimed to be Satoshi in a 2016 announcement.

"Given that he makes so many non-sequiturs and mistakes, why is this fraud allowed to speak at this conference?" Buterin said to event organizers at the Deconomy conference in South Korea on Tuesday. Members of the audience applauded him after asking the question.

Watch the video below: 

Here's another look at what Buterin said: 

The confrontation happened during a panel called "Bitcoin, Controversy over Principle," which featured Roger Ver, Samson Mow, and Wright. The discussion centered around Bitcoin Cash, a controversial bitcoin derivative backed by the panelists. 

Buterin also live-tweeted the panel, mostly with extremely technical critiques of the discussion: 

It might be difficult for non-technical people to follow his arguments, but his conclusion is clear: 

Craig Wright first shot to fame when stories from Gizmodo and Wired both said they had identified him as the inventor of bitcoin.

In May 2016, Wright published a blog post and spearheaded a media push including the BBC, Economist, and GQ, where he said he was in fact Satoshi Nakamoto.

But the proof in the blog post made little sense on a technical, cryptographic level. Cryptography experts said at the time that it was nearly nonsensical. There are many ways that the creator of bitcoin could prove he is who he says he is, but Wright's supposed proof contained none of it and was needlessly complicated. Wright eventually took down the post. 

Still, Wright has used the fame to start a cryptocurrency-related company and vocally back bitcoin cash. It shouldn't be surprising that some - especially Butalin, who is respected as the technical vision behind Ethereum - in the cryptocurrency world still think he's a fraud.

Wright fired back at Butalin in a tweet on Tuesday morning without tagging him:

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