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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

#61
post #49
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I do not know about ideology but there is definately a political angle to all of this. Bitcoin is only worth anything as long as people are willing to give things or services of value in exchange of bitcoins. For now people have because bitcoin has generated a lot of excitement and there have been relatively few bitcoins available for purchase. But if one of the early adopters busts out a billion dollars worth of bit…

Nobody deserves a billion dollars and if someone was to become a billionaire I feel it is more likely the people holding BitCoin would be more concerned with their own value appreciation than all cooperating to devalue a single entities value. You also have to consider that wide adoption of BTC would mean a diverse set of people with a diverse set of values.

I've often read that in the US (as an example, but I'm sure it applies elsewhere) poorer people are likely to vote against their best interest because they have a belief that one day they will be rich. That sort of scenario makes more sense to me, people will just worry about themselves than burning their own value for some collective 'good'.

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

#63
post #16
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.

It seems likely there were at least 2 DPRs. Ulbricht hints at this in his interview: http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/08/14/an-inte...

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

#66
post #58
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?"

Presumably the same reason they chose a Japanese name--that at least one of them speaks Japanese. I'm not really sure where you're going with this, but if you read the analysis in the article I linked to, as well as King's response to the author's email, I think you'll agree that they're a likely candidate.

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

#67
post #23
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…

A braggart might construct a humble persona, but would a true braggart maintain such a persona for long? If they could, is there really any basis for calling them a braggart in the first place?

Being a braggart seems fundamentally incompatible with "not bragging", for years on end, about your greatest accomplishment (and barring the possibility that SN is somebody very famous, say, Putin, it is almost certain that bitcoin is the most famous thing that SN has done). Not in a "Scottish, but doesn't wear a kilt" way, but in a "Scottish, but does not live and was not born in Scotland" kind of way.

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

#68
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…

Sounds just like Dread Pirate Roberts. You could say that his defining feature is that he is NOT the same people.

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

#69
post #63
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is it possible that DPR himself was an early adopter of BitCoins It is also possible that DPR is more than one person.

It seems likely there were at least 2 DPRs. Ulbricht hints at this in his interview: http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/08/14/an-inte...

The link to Ulbricht's identity as DPR seems to go back to the beginning of the site. It seems more plausible he did that interview and made up the multiple DPR story to:

A: Advertise his willingness to sell out.

B: Perhaps toss a bit of confusion onto anyone following him.

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

#70
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…

Not just possible but likely. Then DPR created Silk Road to earn more BTC in a more traditional way than mining, and then DPR passed the business to one Ross Ulbricht. Or there may even have been more than one DPR before Ulbricht.
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