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Study Suggests Link Between Dread Pirate Roberts and Satoshi Nakamoto

bits.blogs.nytimes.com

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Re: Study Suggests Link Between Dread Pirate Roberts and Satoshi Nakamoto

#11

Post by Aqueous »

I doubt that the link here amounts to DPR knowing SN personally, or even worse, DPR being SN.

Obviously I don't know DPR or SN, but I really doubt that DPR is SN or even communicated with him. The reasons are entirely circumstantial but from what I've read of both of them:

- DPR is arrogant.

- DPR makes stupid mistakes.

- SN is fairly humble.

- SN is smarter than DPR.

- SN doesn't make mistakes.

Is it possible that DPR himself was an early adopter of BitCoins, and mined those early coins himself - giving him the occasion to later transfer them to himself? He might have had to become acquainted with the BitCoin crypto-currrency scheme for some time before he was confident enough in it to use it to protect his own identity, which means he may have been in the first couple of groups of people to download and use the software.

Re: Study Suggests Link Between Dread Pirate Roberts and Satoshi Nakamoto

#12

Post by ronaldx »

spenvo wrote: post #7

This currently isn't "news," as the paper hasn't been published yet, and none of the disclosed findings are too damning or conclusive. That being said, it's important for two reasons: 1.) the paper gets published tomorrow, which will lead to a round of negative press, regardless of the claims' merit. 2.) More significant: it highlights what I see as an existential threat to the Bitcoin experiment: a.) the poor distri…

An uneven distribution of early wealth describes almost every organisation in society (including society itself): as long as later participants perceive they are gaining value for themselves, they will allow this to continue.

Part (b) is more interesting - the danger as I see it is that Bitcoin is entering legal-issues territory. For example, a legal crackdown on ownership of Bitcoin identified with illegal activity would likely provide an economic shock to the whole network.

Re: Study Suggests Link Between Dread Pirate Roberts and Satoshi Nakamoto

#14

Post by gnerd »

spenvo wrote: post #7

This currently isn't "news," as the paper hasn't been published yet, and none of the disclosed findings are too damning or conclusive. That being said, it's important for two reasons: 1.) the paper gets published tomorrow, which will lead to a round of negative press, regardless of the claims' merit. 2.) More significant: it highlights what I see as an existential threat to the Bitcoin experiment: a.) the poor distri…

> a.) the lack of even distribution of early wealth

Like an IPO? [1]

> b.) the possibility that a great percentage of Bitcoin are currently held by bad actors (criminals, anarchists, use your imagination).

I know you are probably using the term anarchist in the colloquial sense (meaning those black bloc anarchists who smash things and want revolution) conjuring images of a Mad Max like dystopia, but would you consider Noam Chomsky a bad actor? People of that ilk just consider a different structure to organizing society, or as he puts it "a kind of voluntary socialism, that is, as libertarian socialist or anarcho-syndicalist or communist anarchist, in the tradition of, say, Bakunin and Kropotkin and others."[1]

Sometimes its tempting to paint pictures with broad strokes but as someone who can appreciate many different political viewpoints (as long as they are peaceful and productive), it doesn't seem to make your image any more accurate.

bitcoin.it has a page on some myths you should read.[3]

[1] https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Myths#Early_adopters_are_unfairly...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky%27s_political_vie...

[3] https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Myths#The_Bitcoin_community_consi...

Re: Study Suggests Link Between Dread Pirate Roberts and Satoshi Nakamoto

#15

Post by etherael »

spenvo wrote: post #7

This currently isn't "news," as the paper hasn't been published yet, and none of the disclosed findings are too damning or conclusive. That being said, it's important for two reasons: 1.) the paper gets published tomorrow, which will lead to a round of negative press, regardless of the claims' merit. 2.) More significant: it highlights what I see as an existential threat to the Bitcoin experiment: a.) the poor distri…

Anarchists are not necessarily "bad actors". What is it you are afraid they will do with their btc wealth?

Re: Study Suggests Link Between Dread Pirate Roberts and Satoshi Nakamoto

#16

Post by Zigurd »

Aqueous wrote: post #11

I doubt that the link here amounts to DPR knowing SN personally, or even worse, DPR being SN. Obviously I don't know DPR or SN, but I really doubt that DPR is SN or even communicated with him. The reasons are entirely circumstantial but from what I've read of both of them: - DPR is arrogant. - DPR makes stupid mistakes. - SN is fairly humble. - SN is smarter than DPR. - SN doesn't make mistakes. Is it possible that D…

> Is it possible that DPR himself was an early adopter of BitCoins

It is also possible that DPR is more than one person.

Re: Study Suggests Link Between Dread Pirate Roberts and Satoshi Nakamoto

#17

Post by stfu »

spenvo wrote: post #7

This currently isn't "news," as the paper hasn't been published yet, and none of the disclosed findings are too damning or conclusive. That being said, it's important for two reasons: 1.) the paper gets published tomorrow, which will lead to a round of negative press, regardless of the claims' merit. 2.) More significant: it highlights what I see as an existential threat to the Bitcoin experiment: a.) the poor distri…

the lack of even distribution of early wealth

Totally! All we need is an "affordable bitcoin act" and the problem is solved.

Without being snarky: I just dislike when people tie political ideology into their evaluation of new technology.

Re: Study Suggests Link Between Dread Pirate Roberts and Satoshi Nakamoto

#18

Post by Jtsummers »

[deleted] wrote: post #8
andyh2 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Article says they "will publish a paper Sunday."

[deleted]

Serious question, then, why the need to provide a negative comment when you didn't even examine the material presented?

EDIT: Won't out the author's identity, but parent post explained that he had only skimmed the article. The original post was asking who the computer scientists were and why this wasn't just link bait.

Re: Study Suggests Link Between Dread Pirate Roberts and Satoshi Nakamoto

#19

Post by sillysaurus2 »

Aqueous wrote: post #11

I doubt that the link here amounts to DPR knowing SN personally, or even worse, DPR being SN. Obviously I don't know DPR or SN, but I really doubt that DPR is SN or even communicated with him. The reasons are entirely circumstantial but from what I've read of both of them: - DPR is arrogant. - DPR makes stupid mistakes. - SN is fairly humble. - SN is smarter than DPR. - SN doesn't make mistakes. Is it possible that D…

SN makes mistakes. Most notably the bad build that required global cooperation from the miners to roll back.

Re: Study Suggests Link Between Dread Pirate Roberts and Satoshi Nakamoto

#20

Post by [deleted] »

etherael wrote: post #15
spenvo wrote: post #7

This currently isn't "news," as the paper hasn't been published yet, and none of the disclosed findings are too damning or conclusive. That being said, it's important for two reasons: 1.) the paper gets published tomorrow, which will lead to a round of negative press, regardless of the claims' merit. 2.) More significant: it highlights what I see as an existential threat to the Bitcoin experiment: a.) the poor distri…

Anarchists are not necessarily "bad actors". What is it you are afraid they will do with their btc wealth?

[deleted]
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