Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Study Suggests Link Between Dread Pirate Roberts and Satoshi Nakamoto

bits.blogs.nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 130 posts

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

#91

Post by jfoster »

gwern wrote: post #58
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?"

I think that's a misleading litmus test.

Only yen could be worked around through a prepaid card, stolen card number, gratis account, and probably other methods I'm not aware of.

Lack of English support doesn't necessarily make the person Japanese. Westerners can learn Japanese or use translation tools.

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

#92

Post by joosters »

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…

Ross Ulbricht failed at this completely throughout his underground career.

That's a bit of revisionism. It turned out that he made mistakes, which in hindsight now make his identity seem 'obvious', but it took some time for his identity to become known, despite DPR & SR being very high-profile targets for many different people.

If he really had been rubbish at this, his identity would have been known so much sooner.

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

#93

Post by irremediable »

SwellJoe wrote: post #21
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 (usin…

> 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.)

Out of interest, aren't Satoshi's coins all held in a small number of wallets, so people will immediately see if anyone tries to use them? Presumably, this would provoke a crash in bitcoin prices.

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

#95

Post by rheide »

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…

I agree with you completely. But in the meantime, mainstream media have started picking the story (omg shocking), which will surely have an effect on the price of Bitcoins. I wonder if the authors are planning to take advantage of this.

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

#96

Post by topynate »

dllthomas wrote: post #57
topynate wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 reall…

Yes, good points. I was thinking of Bitcoin as an asset and not the numéraire, which to my mind changes the situation a bit - the problem suggested is that some 'undesirable' people will end up with too many Bitcoins and use them to manipulate the market. The Coase theorem points to this being as unlikely as it is for any other asset class. The bad actors will eventually get bought out if the putative damage they're doing is great enough - and, compared to the size of transaction implied, the costs will be small.

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

#97

Post by michaelt »

GeneralMayhem wrote: post #56
mschuster91 wrote: post #41

I don't believe that at all. DPR got busted for posting total newbie questions on Stack Overflow, after all - and SN displayed a deep knowledge of secure coding and cryptography!

What better cover?

A form of cover that doesn't get you busted by the feds and thrown in jail?

Let's say I'm an expert killer who has assassinated dozens of people without being caught. Do I camouflage myself by doing a shitty job and getting sent to jail? Of course not, I keep doing an expert job because I'd rather not be in jail.

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

#98

Post by raverbashing »

eitland wrote: post #89
nanidin wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this level of pedantry really necessary? According to Wikipedia, the name is generally given to males.

Against the rules I guess, but thank you. I don't care if Satoshi is he/she/it (well the "it" case could be interesting) but having to add " or she " to every sentence sounds tiring.

Or "they" which has a good probability (at least, much better than 'it')

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

#99

Post by kzrdude »

auctiontheory wrote: post #77
dobbsbob wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Satoshi carefully concealed his identity Or her.

Are you assuming it is one single person behind the pseudonym?

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

#100

Post by fsiefken »

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...

yes, bitcoin originated in germany
Post reply on HN