Not really, all it requires is someone to produce a signed message with one of Satoshi’s private keys, which can be easily verified with the public addresses on the blockchain. Whoever produced that message can be proven to possess that private key.

If we presume that Satoshi understood that Bitcoin may be valuable one day and kept the keys private, that would mean that the signer really is Satoshi (or one of his associates or heirs Satoshi trusted wih access). Even if that person wasn’t actually Satoshi, their word on who it is would be considered authoritative.

Unless it’s Craig. Fuck that guy. Nobody believes him.