In October 2011, a journalist from the New Yorker tried to pin a real-life identity to Bitcoin's inventor Satoshi Nakamoto using circumstantial evidence.
Michael Clear, the Irish computer science student, denied he was Satoshi but the New Yorker’s reporter decided to publish the story anyway. In 2013, Clear wrote a blog post begging people to stop emailing him asking about bitcoin and possible ties to Satoshi Nakamoto. “I was naturally startled when he thought I could be Satoshi, and there was some humor and regrettable mistakes on my part,” Clear said at the time.
In 2011, Clear met with Davis during the reporter’s investigation, and he told the journalist he liked to keep a low profile. Davis said the 23-year-old told him he had been programming since he was ten, and the cryptographer was very proficient in C++ as well. Davis stressed in his editorial that Clear was responsive and calm when he was asked about bitcoin.