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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

#461

Post by adastra22 »

vintermann wrote: post #451
adastra22 wrote: post #418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I co-founded a company with Adam Back. If he is Satoshi, I'd be pissed that we had to take money on really bad terms while he was sitting on billions. And I'd find it strange that I had to correct minor misconceptions about how bitcoin worked back in 2013/2014. That's all non-transferable evidence though that you just have to take, or not take at face value. On the other hand, just go read Adam's twitter. Half the ti…

I'm not one of those who thinks it's Adam Back, I believe it's Szabo - which means of course that I find your anecdotes perfectly convincing :) And it seems also the thing you mention about taking money on bad terms should be independently verifiable, which the journalist writing this article should probably have checked. I have trouble believing Satoshi would pursue a venture capital startup founder life in his pers…

In 2014 I found myself having to explain the fundamental basis of bitcoin's economic model and Satoshi's contribution to ecash (that the value of proof-of-work is independent of the work it represents, something the cypherpunks consistently got wrong pre-bitcoin) to a non-comprehending Nick Szabo. It's not him.

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

#462

Post by nneonneo »

dnnehgf wrote: post #168

satoshi: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=3;sa=show... adam back: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=101601;sa... page through each of those profiles and search for the following strings: ")." "(i" "(e" "nor" you find: 1. adam back is constantly writing full sentences in parentheses with a period standing outside the end parenthesis. so, for example: "To review it will be clearer if…

1. I do something similar quite frequently in informal contexts, and have to catch myself before posting such text to more formal settings. If Satoshi was as aware of stylometry as the article claims, it stands to reason that he would edit those out of his writing. The article is clear that Satoshi’s writing is generally more concise than Beck’s, which may have been highly intentional; parenthetical sentences are generally the opposite of concise (they’re often used to go on a tangent or ramble, etc.).

2. Similar to 1 - a quirk that is easily caught by editing, if your goal is to sound more refined and precise. Academics know it’s i.e/e.g but the dots may get omitted when writing quickly.

3. Interesting observation. That’s a fairly stark difference! Are there other posters who do not use “nor”? If Satoshi doesn’t use “nor”, does he use a grammatically incorrect alternative, or are his sentences just structured to avoid it?

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

#465

Post by entropyneur »

ghaff wrote: post #423
SXX wrote: post #419

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine mafia knocking on your door and putting a gun to your head because some journalist figured out you are secret billionare. Not cool?

How is it different from all the non-secret billionaires to say nothing of all the people with 100s of millions?

Satoshi is a paper billionaire - he can't use a small fraction of his "wealth" to hire proper security. Simultaneously his "assets" are much more attractive to criminals. Imagine holding a regular billionaire hostage and demanding they give you a billion dollars. They'd probably have to sell 1B worth of stock, then convert it to cash (or crypto), etc. all of that requiring multiple interactions with different people and institutions.

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

#466

Post by nekitamo »

johnfn wrote: post #346
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…

The NYTimes infamously doxxed Slate Star Codex[1], despite him basically begging them not to because it would upend his psychiatry practice, back in 2020 for no reason other than because they could. [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23610416

One of their journalists also doxxed Naomi Wu, intruding on her personal life, making her lose her income, and possibly getting her in trouble with Chinese authorities: https://x.com/RealSexyCyborg/status/1209815150376574976

The journalist themselves is a real piece of work: https://thehill.com/homenews/media/463503-sarah-jeong-out-at...

Kinda goes to show you the kind of people who write these stories. Ethics haven't been on their mind for a long time, and them preaching to anyone about ethics is rank hypocrisy.

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

#467

Post by reincarnate0x14 »

hbbio wrote: post #202
Lerc wrote: post #112

I found this amusing. >P.G.P., a free encryption program used by antinuclear activists and human rights groups to shield their files and emails from government surveillance. I find it fascinating to see how the users of a program change, based on how a reporter wants to build or diminish. At least it's going in a positive direction today.

> I would ping him over the Signal app Signal, the free encryption app used by journalists

Signal, which shares its name with the propaganda publication of the Third Reich ...

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

#468

Post by nothinkjustai »

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…

Journalists largely have no morals or ethics these days. Literal scum of the earth, anything to make a name for themselves or to push their ideological agendas.

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

#469

Post by csa »

raincole wrote: post #447
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…

And the "evidence" they presented includes things like, body language . > I presented my evidence piece by piece. In his soft British lilt, Mr. Back insisted he wasn’t Satoshi and chalked it all up to a series of coincidences. But at times, his body language told a different story. His face reddened and he shifted uncomfortably in his seat when confronted with things that were harder to explain away. Yes, they uniron…

> this is unashamedly published on a so-called credible journalism outlet

There may be credible journalists at some major print newspapers, but I don’t think there are many people who actually believe that any major US-based journalism outlet defaults to credible any more.

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

#470

Post by alyxya »

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…

I think of journalism like any other job where there's an expectation to produce results, where the main objective here is to write an article that lots of people read. It's a topic that catches a lot of people's attention, so in a sense they've succeeded by getting a lot of people to read and talk about it.
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