Entrepreneur Craig Wright has identified himself creator of the cryptocurrency bitcoin.

Wright made the admission in a blog post on Monday, providing proof of his claim to the BBC, The Economist and GQ magazine.

The 45-year-old Australian’s revelation potentially ends years of speculation about who came up with the original ideas behind the digital currency, which allows people to make electronic transactions without using banks as intermediaries.

Wright said on Monday he was revealing himself because “I care so passionately about my work, and also to dispel any negative myths and fears about bitcoin”.

“I cannot allow the misinformation that has been spread to impact the future of bitcoin,” he said in a statement.

Wright is an IT and security consultant, until recently he was the director of more than a dozen companies, some involved in cryptocurrency. He divested himself of 12 of them in the space of a week in July 2015.

Members of the bitcoin community have also backed up Mr Wright's claim however not everyone is convinced.

The cryptocurrency’s creator has always operated under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamato.

The Economist said it had concluded that the Australian “could well be Mr Nakamoto, but that nagging questions remain”.

David Glance, a professor of computer science who has worked with Wright in the past, told the Guardian he remained “highly sceptical”.

“I would wait until we’ve actually seen absolutely proof that it’s the case,” he said.

Wright was named as bitcoin’s creator following investigations by media organisations Wired and Gizmodo last year. The same day his home in Sydney was raided by Australian federal police in connection with a tax investigation, unrelated to bitcoin.

Publications including the New Yorker and Newsweek have unsuccessfully tried to reveal Nakamoto’s identity in the past.

One bitcoin is currently worth around €391. There are approximately 15.5m currently in circulation. About one million of these are reportedly owned by Nakamoto, giving the founder a net worth of around €400 million, at the current price.