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The Face Behind Bitcoin?

mag.newsweek.com

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Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#61

Post by cpwright »

bachback wrote: post #20

worst reporting I've seen. it implies this person has admitted working on bitcoin. actually that's not even true, if you read the words. why on earth all this work, just to chose a real name? this does not make any sense. as if SN could not haven chosen a name to deflect his identity.

This quote tells you how sloppy the journalism is: "Even so, Bitcoin is vulnerable to massive theft, fraud and scandal, which has seen the price of Bitcoins whipsaw from more than $1,200 each last year to as little as $130 in late February." The MtGox price in February was meaningless, a more accurate representation would have been $1,200 to somewhere around $500 that reputable exchanges were selling for (I don't know the actual price, just enough to know that his figures are misleading).

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#62

Post by dagw »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #42
dagw wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They basically published not only his full name and home address, but that of his whole family. What journalistic purpose does that serve? They could have written exactly the same story, but without giving away exactly where he and his family lives, and it wouldn't have suffered in any way.

> They basically published not only his full name and home address, but that of his whole family. I might argue that it's often difficult to publish someone's home address without publishing his family's address too.

And I might argue that that is an excellent reason to not publish his home address in the first place.

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#63

Post by adventured »

confluence wrote: post #46

There's one thing that doesn't add up: why would such a privacy conscious man use his real name on a project he thought might be illegal? If he was so serious about his privacy, he would not have used his real name in public.

Usually the simplest explanations are the right ones. Who expects to create a new form of exchange, that goes on to become a $10 billion network (and maybe one day far larger)?

It's entirely plausible that Satoshi thought using that name, on his little project, would be enough. There is sometimes a lab mentality among people whose work has mostly been hidden away, they would never expect it to touch every corner of the world economy. It was just an experiment early on, and by the time it was obvious it would be more than that, his name was already attached.

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#64

Post by cbr »

tonyhb wrote: post #35
brunoqc wrote: post #25

It's weird that some police officers would know who Satoshi Nakamoto is.

Not really – the Kentucky police chief is paid in bitcoin: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57614544-93/kentucky-police... People don't have to be working in the tech scene to be interested.

a Kentucky police chief

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#65

Post by GuiA »

jbondeson wrote: post #57

I'm torn about the article. On one hand this seems like a horrid breach of privacy and a terribly dangerous thing to do. On the other, even if they just said he lives in his family home in California, people were going to find out all this information. Half of me thinks it's better everyone knows they were doxed all at once.

> On the other, even if they just said he lives in his family home in California, people were going to find out all this information.

How is the argument "X was going to happen anyway so it's fine if it happens now" ever right?

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#66

Post by xsace »

watty wrote: post #55
blakesterz wrote: post #34

"What?" The police officer balks. "This is the guy who created Bitcoin? It looks like he's living a pretty humble life." That quote smells totally fake to me. There's just no way some random office would know what Bitcoin is, and even if he did, that's not something a police officer would say. I don't know what that says about the rest of the article, but that quote doesn't read very factual to me.

Why couldn't a random officer know what Bitcoin is? My father heard of it and knows nothing about technology. It's no longer a secretive online currency, it's everywhere.

yeah but it doesn't mean everyone know the name of Satoshi

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#67

Post by arrrg »

nwh wrote: post #22

Being labeled Satoshi regardless of truth is pretty much going to get you robbed, kidnapped or killed. This dude lives in this town and has $400M of untraceable currency? The article gives his name, face, address and relatives. You can be sure as hell that somebody will do something stupid to try and get to it. I wouldn't wish this label upon anybody, it's exactly why the community tries to avoid speculating about it…

Doxxing? That is such a stupid term. It’s called journalism. Reporting on people with a huge impact on the world is sort of what journalists do. Of course that includes identifying information.

Sure, publishing identifying information of people who did nothing special is unethical but that can hardly be said about Satoshi. If the story is correct then this is some insanely rich dude who got rich by inventing Bitcoin which now got huge. I don’t think he needs you to defend him. (If any of this is incorrect her reporting is quite obviously highly irresponsible and unethical, but I’m assuming it is for now.)

Also, quit being so paranoid.

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#68

Post by nwh »

ewoodrich wrote: post #38
nwh wrote: post #22

Being labeled Satoshi regardless of truth is pretty much going to get you robbed, kidnapped or killed. This dude lives in this town and has $400M of untraceable currency? The article gives his name, face, address and relatives. You can be sure as hell that somebody will do something stupid to try and get to it. I wouldn't wish this label upon anybody, it's exactly why the community tries to avoid speculating about it…

It is hardly untraceable. I hear Bitcoin advocates frequently claim that government has an interest in "shutting down Bitcoin", but compared to the all-cash industry of most organized crime, Bitcoin's pseudonymity is law enforcement's dream come true. A state actor would merely have to obtain the identity of one key in a series of transactions on the blockchain, and would gain far more information than any informant…

Hyperbole. Bitcoin is presented in some media as an "anonymous" "untracable" currency, but it's really neither.

(Repost from dead original thread)

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#69

Post by ewoodrich »

Tyrannosaurs wrote: post #49
jxf wrote: post #28

So Newsweek outed a guy who allegedly owns half a billion dollars in pseudo-untraceable, digital cash? I hope they're also going to chip in for a permanent security detail... More seriously, I think they could have done a better job reporting on the identity without giving so much away: * A picture of his house is posted, identical to the one in Google Street View * The license plate is relatively clear in the high-r…

I agree with you, but would temper it very slightly by saying that a man with a $400m fortune has some options here. That doesn't make it right and his wealth doesn't make him free game but it does mean that he's not completely been hung out to dry.

Using any of his Bitcoin would attract far more attention than any dubiously sourced article though, and could risk proving both that he is Satoshi and still has access to an enormous amount of money. (For all we know right now he could have lost/destroyed all of his private keys).

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#70

Post by fnordfnordfnord »

Tyrannosaurs wrote: post #49
jxf wrote: post #28

So Newsweek outed a guy who allegedly owns half a billion dollars in pseudo-untraceable, digital cash? I hope they're also going to chip in for a permanent security detail... More seriously, I think they could have done a better job reporting on the identity without giving so much away: * A picture of his house is posted, identical to the one in Google Street View * The license plate is relatively clear in the high-r…

I agree with you, but would temper it very slightly by saying that a man with a $400m fortune has some options here. That doesn't make it right and his wealth doesn't make him free game but it does mean that he's not completely been hung out to dry.

They haven't presented any evidence. The Satoshi they found sounds like a plausible Satoshi but is it really him?

If he is the real Satoshi he may have lost or discarded his private keys.

Some snarky comment about how this is why bloggers aren't journalists because a "real" news organization has ethics or something.

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