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Study Suggests Link Between Dread Pirate Roberts and Satoshi Nakamoto

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

#51

Post by josephagoss »

dobbsbob wrote: post #43
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…

There's no way in hell Satoshi is anywhere connected to "DPR". Look at the OPSEC between the two. Satoshi carefully concealed his identity even in the early crypto mailing list days of Bitcoin. Ross Ulbricht failed at this completely throughout his underground career. Satoshi was a pretty good developer, Ulbricht posted to Stackexchange the most basic of php questions. Satoshi seemed to be very aware of the power of…

Those points are the first things that come to my mind.

DPR just does not fit the Satoshi profile in anyway. Satoshi was very humble even, DPR has never shown humility and his journal showed evidence he was power obsessed.

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

#52

Post by josephagoss »

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…

Sure he might not be humble, however if you read everything Satoshi wrote he came across as a very humble person.

Regarding his immense Bitcoin wealth, he has anonymised himself but not his Bitcoins. 99.9% of the Bitcoins he mined lay exactly where they were mined and he has made no attempt to move them or anonymise those coins. He might in the future but who knows.

In addition he made the first block unspendable so that the only block he had to mine himself to start the network would never contribute to his wealth.

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

#53

Post by dllthomas »

dobbsbob wrote: post #43
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…

There's no way in hell Satoshi is anywhere connected to "DPR". Look at the OPSEC between the two. Satoshi carefully concealed his identity even in the early crypto mailing list days of Bitcoin. Ross Ulbricht failed at this completely throughout his underground career. Satoshi was a pretty good developer, Ulbricht posted to Stackexchange the most basic of php questions. Satoshi seemed to be very aware of the power of…

Since when does "person X is connected to person Y" mean "person X is person Y"? They're "obviously"[1] not the same people. That by no means shows there is no connection.

[1]: Which isn't to say "definitely" but it'd be quite a lot of misleading going on to no obvious end - better covering up "created something fascinating" than "sold drugs and hired hitmen"?

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

#55

Post by sliverstorm »

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…

It highlights what I see as an existential threat to the Bitcoin experiment: a.) the poor distribution of early wealth and b.) the possibility that a great percentage of all Bitcoins are currently held by bad actors

I share your concerns, and thank you as I've never been able to sum it up as well as you.

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

#57

Post by dllthomas »

topynate wrote: post #47
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 Coase theorem says that the initial allocation doesn't matter if transaction costs are low enough. Transaction costs are exceptionally low in the case of bitcoin.

And Ronald Coase says the Coase theorem doesn't represent reality. Bitcoin dramatically decreases some parts of the costs of transactions, but the cost of buying a loaf of bread isn't only the credit card fee - it's also the trip to the store, time considering other things you could have bought, &c. Transaction costs are merely lower. Which does say this should help the Coase theorem better apply, but we don't really know how much better.

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

#58

Post by gwern »

dsrguru wrote: post #45

I'm really eager to see how conclusive the study will be. For now, I'm sold on Satoshi Nakamoto being King, Oksman, and Bry. http://www.fastcompany.com/1785445/bitcoin-crypto-currency-m...

Here's a quick litmus test when someone proposes a Satoshi candidate X: "how did $X pay for DigiRock hosting of bitcoin.org in August 2008 when DigiRock accepts only yen and has no English language support?"

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

#59

Post by dobbsbob »

pallandt wrote: post #36

2 possible situations I can think of, based strictly on 'Among their discoveries was a particular transfer to an account controlled by Mr. Ulbricht from another that had been created in January 2009, during the very earliest days of the bitcoin network, which was set up the previous year.': - the bitcoin wallet, although said to be associated with SN, has changed ownership since its creation in 2009 - SN purchased so…

Not all the early mined coins were controlled by Satoshi, Hal Finney and other's on the crypto mailing list have many, many coins. Maybe Hal bought some weed

According to Bitcoin developers Satoshi hasn't moved any of the coins they know he is/was in control of. Amateur sleuths trying to unmask Satoshi have gone through every piece of public writing and paper he's done, picked out unique phrases and words and tried to match them up to existing mailing list posts, forum posts and white papers with no success. Satoshi slipped in and out of British slang as well, either on purpose for distraction from his real identity or they were 2 people using the same account. He also referenced the Times when mining the first block as proof he had not premined a bunch of coins to run a ponzi/scam further indicating he may of been from the UK.

Either way he certainly is content with avoiding the spotlight while Ulbricht loved the fame that came with being DPR.

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