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Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? My quest to unmask Bitcoin's creator

nytimes.com

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Re: Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? My quest to unmask Bitcoin's creator

#331

Post by backscratches »

refulgentis wrote: post #134
dboreham wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's been extremely widely known that whoever created Bitcoin had a strong interest in Hashcash, and perhaps created that or worked on it, for years and years. If that's the only smoking gun, why didn't we identify Satoshi long ago?

You're right, "interested in Hashcash" describes dozens of people, and has been a known Satoshi filter for years. The new claim is more specific: between 1997-1999, Back proposed combining Hashcash with b-money, adding inflation adjustment via increasing computational difficulty, and using hash trees for public timestamping. That's most of Bitcoin's architecture in one package, a decade early. The number of people wh…

In every parallel universe where a different person invents bitcoin, every single one is familiar with becks ideas from a decade earlier.

Re: Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? My quest to unmask Bitcoin's creator

#332

Post by alwa »

freejazz wrote: post #148
alwa wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The interests and writing style differentiate Mr. (Dr.?) Back from the general public, sure. But from what I’m reading, they don’t do a great job of distinguishing between 90s hackers. “Get this, his PhD thesis dealt with a computer language called C++, just like Bitcoin papers used ” seems both confused and impossibly lazy to me. > “Scrap patents and copyright,” Mr. Back wrote in September 1997. > Satoshi did a simi…

Did you read most of the article or what?

All 12,000 words. Kept expecting it to take a turn toward something beyond pre-judgment and insinuation. Instead it unfolded as a cautionary tale, of the power of a premature conclusion to close an investigator’s mind to reasonable alternative possibilities. About escalating commitment to an early hunch, even as it leads you down an investigative dead end.

For example it sure seems like his mountain of circumstantial evidence fits better with the theory that “Satoshi” could be a pen name for a small group of people—maybe even the small group whose history he traces and whose styles he has trouble teasing apart—rather than one “suspect” (as he calls it). But we don’t even really weigh that possibility seriously.

So, like—why are we coming at this one guy by name and spooky hacker photo in the New York Times, with the suggestion that he has $110 billion under his mattress? All these speculations and arguments have been done over and over—what does this reporting add that’s worth 12,000 words?

The colorful journey down a dead end, fine—but leave it at “My Quest,” don’t do the weasel subhed “the trail of clues […] led to Adam Back” to insinuate that it proved what it set out to prove. Or even added anything significant to the well-trodden record.

Re: Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? My quest to unmask Bitcoin's creator

#333

Post by jmyeet »

adventured wrote: post #330
jmyeet wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the wallets go well beyond "hundreds of millions". Aren't there like a million Bitcoin in dormant wallets associated with Satoshi? Personally, I'd assumed that whoever the person or persons were, they're dead because nobody can resist the pull of tens of billions of dollars regardless of their ideological position on cryptocurrencies. But that's just a guess. There's absolutely a public interest in this. Sorr…

An estimated 22,000 addresses, 1.1 million Bitcoin. Present value $78 billion. That would make him the 23rd richest person in the world. Bill Gates by comparison is 'only' worth $102 billion these days. If you priced Gates backwards in gold, his $102 billion is about $13 billion two decades ago. He hasn't kept ahead of the destruction of the dollar very well.

1.1m Bitcoin is currently $77B not $7B.

Gold is a weird one. It’s has a hell of a run over the last decade. I’m not sure it looked so rosy in 2015. I kinda feel like betting on gold is betting on the end of civilization. I don’t really want to be right.

Re: Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? My quest to unmask Bitcoin's creator

#334

Post by nytesky »

echelon wrote: post #211
ssl-3 wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Water? Like, from the toilet?

It's what plants crave. (I needed to be able to post that to HN tonight.)

Very on brand for our darkest timeline, if you excuse the mixed media metaphor.

Re: Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? My quest to unmask Bitcoin's creator

#335

Post by farfatched »

wpm wrote: post #308
farfatched wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious about his life, in the same way I might read a biography or the Early Life section on a Wikipedia page. Some people like mysteries.

So am I. I presume I can read if after he passes away, if I am still around. Otherwise I am content to respect people's wishes for anonymity and privacy, as there are plenty of other interesting things to learn about.

I agree. I'm interested, but think Satoshi should keep his anonymity.

I was articulating why someone might want to know, as tavavex asked.

Re: Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? My quest to unmask Bitcoin's creator

#336

Post by anamax »

thehappypm wrote: post #318
idontwantthis wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was just wondering the same thing.

Exposing the wealthy is pretty standard journalism

And if this guy isn't Satoshi?

And if he comes to harm as a result of someone believing the NYT?

Re: Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? My quest to unmask Bitcoin's creator

#337

Post by zzzoom »

adventured wrote: post #330
jmyeet wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the wallets go well beyond "hundreds of millions". Aren't there like a million Bitcoin in dormant wallets associated with Satoshi? Personally, I'd assumed that whoever the person or persons were, they're dead because nobody can resist the pull of tens of billions of dollars regardless of their ideological position on cryptocurrencies. But that's just a guess. There's absolutely a public interest in this. Sorr…

An estimated 22,000 addresses, 1.1 million Bitcoin. Present value $78 billion. That would make him the 23rd richest person in the world. Bill Gates by comparison is 'only' worth $102 billion these days. If you priced Gates backwards in gold, his $102 billion is about $13 billion two decades ago. He hasn't kept ahead of the destruction of the dollar very well.

If any of those addresses sold a single sat the price would crash hard.

Re: Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? My quest to unmask Bitcoin's creator

#339

Post by zamadatix »

gyomu wrote: post #312

Simple question for anyone who’s familiar with this world of journalism: how does the author and the NYTimes cope with the fact that making such claims paint a huge target on the person they claim to have “unmasked”? Satoshi’s wallets are worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and there have been kidnappings/torture/murders for much less than that. Do they just not care about the ethical implications? And really, for…

At least Adam Back is already publicly known to be worth at least tens of millions anywyas. Many of those dozens/hundreds of other guesses are not so lucky.

If the private key still exists, the BTC would be worth more like 10s of billions though. I choose to believe the key is long gone from this world though, whoever originally had it.

Re: Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? My quest to unmask Bitcoin's creator

#340

Post by [deleted] »

lumirth wrote: post #64
raphlinus wrote: post #29

I found this article about as compelling as all the other attempts at identifying him. Half of the cypherpunks (I was pretty active) had the same set of interests in public key cryptography, libertarianism, anonymity, criticism of copyright, and predecessor systems like Chaum's ecash; we talked about those in virtually every meeting. The most compelling evidence is Adam Back's body language, as subjectively observed…

What struck me in particular was the fact the reporter noticed that Back had theorized how to evade stylometry. Obviously, if one of the people in question had specifically come up with ways to evade methods, you’d want to re-roll those methods to account for that. That, alongside a number of other tidbits (Back’s activity and inactivity patterns lining up with Satoshi’s appearance and disappearance, his refusal to p…

[deleted]
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