> It's pretty likely that Paul Le Roux was behind TrueCrypt.
He worked on E4M, but I can't imagine that he did TrueCrypt, given the stuff he did at these (post-E4M) times. It simply doesn't fit. Also, from Wikipedia link:
"Le Roux himself has denied developing TrueCrypt in a court hearing in March 2016, in which he also confirmed he had written E4M."
It's interesting that he is from Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia). Of course, his name gives it away (that's why I checked). But what I wanted to say was something else.
> he [liked] the video game Wing Commander [1]
Somewhere between 1990 and 1995 I recall that Windows PCs in South Africa shipped with a games CD. You would get Ultima (immediately banned by your parents), Wing Commander, Sea Wolf and other games and this would be your staple for a while. When Warcraft 2 (or it may have been Starcraft) came out I think it cost about R 350 (USD 90 in 1995) so you would need to be more picky in the games you could buy than today. One should mention the rand's historic dissonance with regard to the exchange rate and PPP, but whatever.
I remember buying some shitty Disney game for the same amount and regretting it instantly (I played Warcraft 2 instead). It was not until 1999 that I saw games "in bulk" with Tiberian Sun, ReVolt and a multitude of other games being shared on DC.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Le_Roux, edited for sensational language. Note that he had the console version, but I am not sure which console that would be. The PS1 was the first major console in South Africa (apart from "video games", i.e. famicon or NES clones) but I may stand corrected.
I’m reading the Atavist piece and noticed that he was extremely racist towards Asians and yet two of his ex-wives were Asian. I wonder how he reconciled that.
I feel really bad for his kids. When I studying in Asia, I met a few mixed-race kids that had racist expat parents and they often had major identity issues. For those that didn’t stay in the expat bubble, they would shun their “Western side” and try to completely blend in with the locals.
It doesn’t fit with any of his skills. People think “oh, he knows cryptography, so he Must be a good candidate to be satoshi”. It’s not that simple, the perfect candidate is someone versed in the ecash literature as well as someone who can write an academic paper (even if lacking, the form is there).
https://www.wired.com/story/mastermind-excerpt/
https://magazine.atavist.com/the-mastermind
It's pretty likely that Paul Le Roux was behind TrueCrypt.