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Ask HN: Why do people care about Satoshi Nakamoto's identity?

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Re: Ask HN: Why do people care about Satoshi Nakamoto's identity?

#31

Post by nunobrito »

The identity seems to have been shared initially between 2 people. One of them being Craig Wright, the other is the genius Dave Kleinman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Kleiman

Dave died years ago following depression, before releasing bitcoin he published papers on the topic of Cipher Block Chaining and similar cryptographic tech: https://www.davekleiman.com/

This has already been known for years. There were good reasons to keep his anonimity at the time, especially if you consider that his main customer was the same government where cryptography tech is considered an ammunition. At that time he could face jail for his work, or in the best scenario lose his customers/reputation.

You have to remember that in 2009 and next years, BTC was something only relevant for cybersec researchers and criminals. You would not want to be seen as associated with the latter.

Re: Ask HN: Why do people care about Satoshi Nakamoto's identity?

#33

Post by defrost »

nunobrito wrote: post #31

The identity seems to have been shared initially between 2 people. One of them being Craig Wright, the other is the genius Dave Kleinman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Kleiman Dave died years ago following depression, before releasing bitcoin he published papers on the topic of Cipher Block Chaining and similar cryptographic tech: https://www.davekleiman.com/ This has already been known for years. There were goo…

Maybe those two, maybe not.

There's a very high chance that Satoshi is some form of modern day Nicolas Bourbaki with a segmented shared key.

Whether it's a majority vote share or an all in or nothing key split, that's a good back story on the long silence, either some are dead or not everybody agrees to move forward on joint releases or cashing in.

Re: Ask HN: Why do people care about Satoshi Nakamoto's identity?

#34

Post by muzani »

ffpip wrote: post #14
muzani wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also someone with that much wealth probably owes some tax somewhere. He's pretty much El Dorado.

He hasn't spent anything. Do any countries have taxes on assets instead of income?

"Do any countries have taxes on assets instead of income?"

Not applicable to this situation, but zakat in Islamic countries requires a 2.5% payment to the government, similar to a tithe. This is why many of the theocratic Islamic countries have 0% income tax. It's always applied to assets above a certain amount, but some places apply it on income as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tax_rates

But the joke is that you can't run from taxes. If there's that much money floating around in one person's wallet, someone will figure out how to tax it. If it doesn't get taxed, well, someone will figure out how to rob him.

Re: Ask HN: Why do people care about Satoshi Nakamoto's identity?

#35

Post by ajvpot »

nunobrito wrote: post #31

The identity seems to have been shared initially between 2 people. One of them being Craig Wright, the other is the genius Dave Kleinman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Kleiman Dave died years ago following depression, before releasing bitcoin he published papers on the topic of Cipher Block Chaining and similar cryptographic tech: https://www.davekleiman.com/ This has already been known for years. There were goo…

FYI Craig Wright’s claims are quite contentious.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Steven_Wright

Re: Ask HN: Why do people care about Satoshi Nakamoto's identity?

#36

Post by sneak »

Human beings are obsessed with narrative: x did y to z. This repeats everywhere - the identity of the characters is as important as the events themselves.

I don’t know why this is, but I do know that it is much, much bigger than Bitcoin.

It’s not about the billions of dollars, it’s not about the mystery. It’s because we are pack animals obsessed with hierarchy and cannot rest as organisms until we identify which people are important.

It could be related to survival in pre-civilized times. Not being aware of the social hierarchy and society’s expectations placed on you based on your position in it could very well have proven to be lethal throughout most of human history.

Re: Ask HN: Why do people care about Satoshi Nakamoto's identity?

#37

Post by yulaow »

ffpip wrote: post #14
muzani wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also someone with that much wealth probably owes some tax somewhere. He's pretty much El Dorado.

He hasn't spent anything. Do any countries have taxes on assets instead of income?

yes, in Italy for example you pay 0.2% annually on whatever you hold (stock, bonds, cryptos, etc) even if you sell nothing or they depreciate compared to the year before

Re: Ask HN: Why do people care about Satoshi Nakamoto's identity?

#38

Post by cusspvz »

I think it is a mixture of both celebrity worship and the fact that his stake within his invention is significantly high. He specifically stated that he didn't want to be associated with the project anymore, so I'm pretty sure he had his own reasoning behind that decision. Taking into consideration the fact that he used a nickname to keep his anonymity, I assume that not becoming a public figure was one of those.

Re: Ask HN: Why do people care about Satoshi Nakamoto's identity?

#39

Post by thiago_fm »

RCitronsBroker wrote: post #30
slater wrote: post #17

i always thought it was that Swiss guy living in Tokyo

you know what? one factoid that just came to mind is that he listed an @gmx mail address on the original Bitcoin paper. I genuinely don’t know a single person using GMX without some sort of connection to DACh (Germany, Austria and Switzerland).

I always have this in my mind. For some reason, people want to believe he's American.

Yet even before crypto was a thing, Germany always had a thriving community of people concerned with privacy, hell, even the average german prefer to pay in cash to not be tracked. We have CCC and so on.

About the gmx email: I've seen people from abroad using those gmx emails, mainly in the security space. I find it funny because gmx is kinda crappy, full of ads.

Re: Ask HN: Why do people care about Satoshi Nakamoto's identity?

#40

Post by DaSHacka »

ajvpot wrote: post #35
nunobrito wrote: post #31

The identity seems to have been shared initially between 2 people. One of them being Craig Wright, the other is the genius Dave Kleinman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Kleiman Dave died years ago following depression, before releasing bitcoin he published papers on the topic of Cipher Block Chaining and similar cryptographic tech: https://www.davekleiman.com/ This has already been known for years. There were goo…

FYI Craig Wright’s claims are quite contentious. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Steven_Wright

From the article:

> In order to resolve Wright's claim of being Satoshi Nakamoto, the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) opened a lawsuit against Wright in United Kingdom on 5 February 2024 in London High Court.[46]

I wonder if this will lead anywhere

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