This article states that:
"Bitcoin’s initial code had a poker client included."
Does anyone have more information about this? I had no idea this was the case.
New Evidence Suggests Satoshi Nakamoto Is Paul Le Roux
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Re: New Evidence Suggests Satoshi Nakamoto Is Paul Le Roux
#112Isn't Satoshi Nakamoto supposed to control >5% of the total Bitcoin supply currently available? But they're inexplicably not tapping into the large amount of wealth that'd seem to be available to them?
It's a bit hard to believe that someone who'd go to such extremes for money as Le Roux would simply choose not to enjoy some payday from the Bitcoin hoard.
Re: New Evidence Suggests Satoshi Nakamoto Is Paul Le Roux
#113I was one of the first users of Bitcoin, and one of the earliest developers. I'd like to have a beer with Satoshi some day, so I took a brief look at this. But I'm unconvinced.
One key claim is "they both liked gambling, Bitcoin 0.1 had a poker client in it". Beyond the obvious problem that lots of people like poker, this claim is nonsense. None of the versions of Bitcoin I've ever seen had a poker client in them. It's not even clear what that would mean - you can't implement (mental) poker with Bitcoin Script. And I don't recall Satoshi ever commenting on gambling one way or another.
Another claim is that they both knew C++. Let's assume for a moment that TrueCrypt was written by Paul le Roux (I don't know the backstory). I downloaded the TrueCrypt code and had a look at it.
The TrueCrypt code doesn't share the same rather distinctive coding style Satoshi used. Bitcoin was rare for all kinds of reasons, but one rather obscure reason is that he used a simplified variant of Hungarian notation and only wrote code for Windows. The TrueCrypt code doesn't share this quirk, but it does have a different formatting quirk that I haven't seen before (there's always a space after a function name and the argument list in invocations). Satoshi didn't use that style either. Styles can be pretty distinctive, and I've never seen one that exactly matched Bitcoin's. So it looks to me like these codebases were written by different people.
The other bits of "evidence" are all circumstantial and frequently absurd. The entire thing traces back to Craig Wright, which isn't a good sign.
Re: New Evidence Suggests Satoshi Nakamoto Is Paul Le Roux
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
We also have pervasive surveillance, drones that bomb enemies of the state at their weddings, social credit scores, masses who are addicted to their (two way, voice controlled!) telescreens, bionic humans with RFID chips embedded in their hands, reality TV stars running the government, people drinking green mush called Soylent, reusable rockets to colonize Mars, a cloud of Internet-bearing satellites surrounding the…
I'll add more: "Console cowboys" who constantly pop stimulants like Modafinil and Adderall to maintain their edge and shoot for a big payday (via startups, cryptocurrency, cybercrime, etc.), weird subcultures of nihilistic cyber-terrorists, enormously powerful criminal organizations that are almost indistinguishable from states (the Russian mob), an Asian superstate with crazy pollution and industry (China instead of…
The Matrix, probably. Harvested for bio-energy after a losing a war with the AI, while being pacified by a simulation of ordinary life.
Who knows, maybe it's already happened?
Re: New Evidence Suggests Satoshi Nakamoto Is Paul Le Roux
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hal was in the dorm room next to mine at Caltech. It's just like him to be Satoshi. Hal was a great guy, wicked smart even for Caltech, and his sense of humor fits right in with being the anonymous creator. I have no idea about the other two fellows, but my money's on Hal just because I want it to have been him!
There is also the thought that it is more likely the creator is dead than someone who gave up being world famous as well as 20 billion dollars.
If satoshi tried to cash out, wouldn't the value of bitcoin plummet?
Re: New Evidence Suggests Satoshi Nakamoto Is Paul Le Roux
#116After 7 years in the crypto space, I'm still not convinced of any particular Satoshi theory. That being said, Nick Szabo, Hal Finney, and Paul Le Roux all have decent evidence pointing to them.
Hal was in the dorm room next to mine at Caltech. It's just like him to be Satoshi. Hal was a great guy, wicked smart even for Caltech, and his sense of humor fits right in with being the anonymous creator. I have no idea about the other two fellows, but my money's on Hal just because I want it to have been him!
I read Hal's posts and he did seem like such an amazing person. I was very sad when I read of his illness and death.
Re: New Evidence Suggests Satoshi Nakamoto Is Paul Le Roux
#117Evidence: * Both Le Roux and Satoshi did significant cryptography projects. * Both Le Roux and Satoshi work in C++. * Wright claimed in legal filings to have been involved with Le Roux. * Allegedly, Wright and a friend have built a cluster of computers to crack secrets, which the theory presumes to be the password for a TrueCrypt volume with Le Roux's bitcoin key. * Le Roux has an alias, "Solotshi", which sounds like…
I want this to be true so we can stop having stories written about it once and for all. (I mean, why does it matter? Someone desires privacy, and we as a community are hellbent on depriving them of any... what does that say about our moral character?)
> I mean, why does it matter?
It doesn't matter on a personal level to anyone not related, but it's a big deal for the BTC market. If sentencing ends up light, and Satoshi is free in a couple years, that's a huge number of BTC that could be then sold, crashing the market...
Re: New Evidence Suggests Satoshi Nakamoto Is Paul Le Roux
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
We also have pervasive surveillance, drones that bomb enemies of the state at their weddings, social credit scores, masses who are addicted to their (two way, voice controlled!) telescreens, bionic humans with RFID chips embedded in their hands, reality TV stars running the government, people drinking green mush called Soylent, reusable rockets to colonize Mars, a cloud of Internet-bearing satellites surrounding the…
Add to that corporations with more power than governments (Facebook,Amazon,Google), and that the eco-systems around us are being pushed to their breaking points. I think people don't think we're in a cyberpunk novel because the world isn't bathed in neon lights.
> Add to that corporations with more power than governments (Facebook,Amazon,Google)
Until one of the FAANGs get access and control to their own nuclear weapon and/or military - they unequivocally do not have more power than governments do.
Governments (in general) have a monopoly on the power to kill their citizens and (potentially) the citizens of other governments/countries. None of the FAANGs have that (that we know of).
Re: New Evidence Suggests Satoshi Nakamoto Is Paul Le Roux
#119"The newfound Satoshi candidate is Paul Solotshi Calder Le Roux, a 46-year old former cartel boss, drug smuggler, arms dealer, informant to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and genius programmer." How do you run a drug cartel, be responsible for gun running, play undercover informant for the DEA and still have time to program in C++ AFTER thinking deeply about the best architecture for crypto-currency th…
"a near perfect academic quality paper on the seminal algos"
What paper are you referring to? The original Bitcoin whitepaper was poorly written, demonstrated limited background research (including a failure to cite the vast body of previous work on e-cash, which seems pretty obviously relevant), and probably would not have been accepted at even a third-tier conference.
Really, people idolize Satoshi to an absurd degree. There is no reason to think Bitcoin is anything more than a hobby project that, for a combination of reasons, happened to become something big enough for non-tech folks to care about.
Re: New Evidence Suggests Satoshi Nakamoto Is Paul Le Roux
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
>(I mean, why does it matter? Someone desires privacy, and we as a community are hellbent on depriving them of any... what does that say about our moral character?) Are you talking about Paul Le Roux or Craig Wright? Both of them have been actively craving recognition and courting notoriety of their own accord, for differing reasons ─ either due a flaw in their character or empty spots in their souls, probably not re…
> Are you talking about Paul Le Roux or Craig Wright? Neither. I was talking about Satoshi Nakamoto. It disturbs me that so many people are willing to unmask Satoshi. More generally: It horrifies me that, when confronted with someone who created something neat and only wanted privacy, everyone's instinct is to deprive them of their privacy. What the fuck, humanity?
>It horrifies me that, when confronted with someone who created something neat and only wanted privacy, everyone's instinct is to deprive them of their privacy.
I agree that it is unsettling to watch a once in a lifetime concept that has privacy at it's core with a potential to empower so many in the future being ripped apart. At present, there is absolutely no information available other than speculation on whether it is a person(s), group(s) or a state-actor involved. Which coupled with no movement on the genesis block, with so much at stake ─ unfortunately, the attempts to de-anonymise or the prospect of more charlatans, will only increase and become even more bizarre.