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

The Face Behind Bitcoin?

mag.newsweek.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 703 posts

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#81

Post by sillysaurus3 »

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…

Also, if Nakamoto wishes to remain private, then it's their right to remain private.

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#82

Post by argumentum »

Quite an odd article for such an important (if true) expose. The only reason I think its possibly true is Gavin's vague tweet.

50% of the article deals with material about bitcoin that is redundant to anyone whose been following it for more than a day (like most here).

45% deals with "Dorian S. Nakamoto"'s family, personal background and that he's a libertarian oddball, with a penchant for math (but no other significant accomplishment within it or CS) who (other than possible being the Satoshi) has led a fairly normal, middle class southern california lifestyle.

The remaining 5% or so details a brief encounter with the man, in which he neither confirms or denies it.

I'm skeptical.

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#83

Post by draugadrotten »

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…

> 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 could provide.

This is true. Bitcoin transactions has already been used as evidence in Sweden. In 2013 bitcoin transactions were evidence in at least 6 drug cases alone.

(Source: http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=sv&tl=ru&js=n&prev=...)

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#84

Post by jessaustin »

dTal wrote: post #7

Wait, it was just a single smart dude whose actual real name is Satoshi Nakamoto, and here we've been theorizing shadowy pseudonymous cabals of libertarian cryptographers? I feel very silly.

I always assumed it was a real dude, since only a certain type of westerner would use a Japanese pseudonym, and that type of westerner would have chosen "Kenichi Kusanagi" or something similarly ridiculous.

[To be clear, I had also assumed that a Japanese crypto person who wanted privacy would have used a western pseudonym.]

But yeah, it almost seems like the crypto community didn't really want to dox Nakamoto, even if many of them could have.

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#86

Post by danielweber »

verroq wrote: post #2

HN can't decry censorship and keep flagging this article because it includes Satoshi's dox.

First:

This is a private board, we are guests here. Even boards dedicated to discussing free speech regularly regulate the speech on their board because they need to keep peace. It's a big Internet, and you can make your own space.

Second:

I don't know how the people who run HN have ever claimed to be special free-speech proponents. They probably think, like most Americans can be shamed into thinking, that the government shouldn't punish you for speech, but aside from that I'm not aware of them, say, calling out other message boards for regulating their content as "censorship."

Third:

Unfortunately, once a general-purpose journalism piece lists your information, that's usually where claims of "doxxing" end.

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#87

Post by awakeasleep »

verroq wrote: post #2

HN can't decry censorship and keep flagging this article because it includes Satoshi's dox.

Flagged as a troll, if you're genuinely suggesting what you write, consider that we can desire dissemination of public information or of government & corporate actions without believing individuals have no right to privacy.

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#88

Post by joncrocks »

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.

If you read the article, it suggests that the police officer is told that the person is Satoshi Nakamoto and the officer exclaims:

"What?" The police officer balks. "This is the guy who created Bitcoin?"

I can accept that the man on the street would have heard about bitcoin, but to know the name of the person who did the original work on the currency? That just seems a bit unlikely.

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#89

Post by danielweber »

greyskull wrote: post #48
mcphilip wrote: post #15

Apparently the author of this newsweek piece will be on CNBC sometime this morning: https://twitter.com/SquawkCNBC/status/441544016421978112

I feel really bad for Mr. Nakamoto. He would have likely been found out at some point, but this is the worst way for it to happen. Now everyone knows. If he was put off by just one journalist visit, I imagine he'll consider relocating now.

Was he "put off"? He seems to have consented to the interview, and to have posed for a picture.

Having interacted enough with bad members of the media [NB: there are also good ones], I'm not so naive as to think that there's no way they could have persuaded him to do it with lies or bullshit or empty threats, but without evidence for that he could have just said "I don't want to talk to you" and left it at that.

EDIT: I've re-read and might be changing my position. He didn't actually consent to any in-person interview. It was very very clear he didn't want to talk in person. So where did the picture come from?

Post reply on HN