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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

#21

Post by SwellJoe »

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…

I agree with you that there's no way DPR is Satoshi. DPR seemed to be learning to code when launching Silk Road. While Bitcoin had bugs (lots of them) to start with, it is not amateur level computer science. It's not even reasonable to assume that a dude who needed help getting curl to talk to a proxy would be competent enough to work with very advanced crypto concepts, and even invent a few things of their own (using standard crypto algorithms, but still, Bitcoin was not tested waters...).

So, yes, SN is smarter than DPR, and vastly more capable as a software engineer.

And, Satoshi wouldn't need Silk Road to be fantastically rich in Bitcoins. As far as we know, he's got a vast swath of the first mined Bitcoins, even if he gave away most of it. (Which is possibly how Satoshi's identity will be revealed...if suddenly there's a new trillionaire in the world in five years...well, might be Satoshi.)

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

#22

Post by sillysaurus2 »

Zigurd wrote: post #16
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.

This is extremely likely. The SilkRoad admins all have access to the old (and the new) DPR forum account. One of them was using it even after Ross was arrested, leading someone to ask why DPR was showing up on the active members list of the SR forum even after be was arrested.

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

#23

Post by feral »

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 is fairly humble.

You are talking about some one or group who took great care (including in all their dealings with other early bitcoin users) to maintain their anonymity - which is really hard to do, in the face of the sort of scrutiny that SN has had.

Its at least plausible that, along with the name, other aspects of the SN persona were explicitly constructed.

There's all this myth around who SN is. A lot of people seem to believe SN is a benevolent crypto researcher working in their bedroom, for the benefit of humanity, with no profit motive in sight. I mean, sure, I hope that's the case too, but we should remember that we don't actually know very much at all.

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

#24

Post by nkuttler »

Jtsummers wrote: post #18
[deleted] wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[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.

I did, but not in detail. I just see too many unsubstantiated negative articles about bitcoin that it gets tiresome sometimes. I'm glad to know I was wrong this time.

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

#25

Post by Aqueous »

feral wrote: post #23
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 is fairly humble. You are talking about some one or group who took great care (including in all their dealings with other early bitcoin users) to maintain their anonymity - which is really hard to do, in the face of the sort of scrutiny that SN has had. Its at least plausible that, along with the name, other aspects of the SN persona were explicitly constructed. There's all this myth around who SN is. A lot of…

It is possible that aspects of the SN persona were highly constructed but what is a simpler explanation - that everything about SN was fake or just his identity? It would have taken an enormous cognitive effort to be able to consistently demonstrate the same personality traits in post after post unless it came naturally. It seems like he was more concerned about technical discussion than hiding information about himself beyond his identity.

But of course you are right - until we know who SN is, we can only speculate.

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

#26

Post by kristopolous »

feral wrote: post #23
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 is fairly humble. You are talking about some one or group who took great care (including in all their dealings with other early bitcoin users) to maintain their anonymity - which is really hard to do, in the face of the sort of scrutiny that SN has had. Its at least plausible that, along with the name, other aspects of the SN persona were explicitly constructed. There's all this myth around who SN is. A lot of…

I consider SN to be an entity with one or more people behind it.

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

#28

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#29

Post by ISL »

stfu wrote: post #17
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.

GP may not have had ideology in mind. Bitcoin is probably worth more when everyone has some.
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