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The Face Behind Bitcoin?

mag.newsweek.com

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Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#221

Post by gexla »

Iftheshoefits wrote: post #198
gexla wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe he developed those views after working for the government. Maybe he saw something while working for the government (that we don't see) which helped shape those views. Maybe for him, given the chance to do things he found to be interesting and challenging was greater than his views of the government. This story obviously leaves a lot out from a guy who has had a long secretive life. Also, he isn't on a soapbox.…

Those things are all possible--but unlikely, in my experience. I've worked for the government and for government contractors. I did not ever come across even one single self-proclaimed conservative or libertarian individual who fell into any of the "maybe" hypotheses you describe. To a person there is one word to describe them: hypocrite. They did exactly what the parent wrote: railed against government while earning…

He doesn't seem to be the railing type.

In the Bitcoin conversations, it seemed he wasn't interested in talking about much outside the code. Even though Bitcoin was created for X reasons, the discussions were about code. Then he disappeared. Bitcoin has since exploded and he still hasn't come out.

From the description of the guy, it seems to wouldn't be self proclaimed anything except in passing down advice to his children.

Who knows if these are even his actual views. I doubt we will be seeing any interviews. Just short comments from family who apparently aren't close to him. This includes his brother who thinks he is an asshole.

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#224

Post by jellicle »

smacktoward wrote: post #150
liopleurodon wrote: post #118

"The punctuation in the proposal is also consistent with how Dorian S. Nakamoto writes, with double spaces after periods and other format quirks." wtf!! That's how you're supposed to write!!

Actually, no. Double spaces after periods are an artifact of the formatting limitations of typewriters (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentence_spacing#Mechanical_typ... ). In an age of properly kerned digital type, there's no reason to use more than one space. As a result of this, you can get a rough sense of a person's age by looking at how they handle sentence spacing. People old enough to have learned how to ty…

> In an age of properly kerned digital type, there's no reason to use more than one space.

But there's also no reason not to use two spaces, as kerning can turn one space into 1.5 and can also turn two spaces into 1.5.

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#225

Post by BillyMaize »

michaelt wrote: post #168
dTal wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be honest I agree with you that there quite a few red flags about this article. However, short of Newsweek outright making everything up, isn't the lack of a denial in this instance tantamount to an admission? I mean, if it were me, and I valued my privacy that much, I would a) have used an actual pseudonym, b) responded to questions about Bitcoin with "bit-what-now"?

isn't the lack of a denial in this instance tantamount to an admission? I mean, if it were me, [...] responded to questions about Bitcoin with "bit-what-now"? If all his friends and family know he shares his name with the creator of bitcoin, he might have already heard all the jokes and think "not this shit again" as well as not being able to credibly deny knowing about it. There's a british general who goes by Mike…

As someone with the name Paul Brown in the Cincinnati area (where the Paul Brown stadium is) I deal with this almost daily. I'm sick of meeting someone and about 75% of the time they go "oh, do you own the stadium?". I'm seriously starting to think about moving far away so I don't have to hear it anymore. I don't even like football!

I also went to high school with a guy named John Conner and everyone use to thank him for some day saving the human race from the machines.

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#226

Post by howeyc »

arrrg wrote: post #206
polymatter wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I understand your comment, you believe you are ok with sounds posting that list of sensitive private information, but only if he "put the work in" to find it. I guess thats the only reason you don't post all of that information publically yourself. Your information is clearly interesting to the public, look a member of the public specifically asked for it. How about if I compensate you, is that a reasonable substi…

No, you didn’t understand me. A. You have to put in the work and actually find stuff out. That’s what journalists do. B. You have to report on something relevant and interesting to the public. Some random person who didn’t do anything of any note is not relevant. Publishing identifying information on them is unethical. Publishing identifying information on someone hugely influential is very much ethical.

Who decides what is "anything of note" or who is considered "highly influential"

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#228

Post by saalweachter »

noir_lord wrote: post #18
Blahah wrote: post #16

The author of the piece can be reached in these ways: http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1zpmo8/the_face_beh... If you think this article is a dangerous invasion of privacy, tell her and her employers (Newsweek).

Forget Dangerous... it's down right irresponsible They list the guys entire family including kids and where they work etc. Beside that the article has very little content other than "he's a little bit weird" an observation that is not exactly original, it's almost a stereotype that really smart people are often a "little bit weird" .

Are you missing the part where his family happily talked to the reporter?

Brother: "My brother is an asshole. What you don't know about him is that he's worked on classified stuff. His life was a complete blank for a while. You're not going to be able to get to him. He'll deny everything. He'll never admit to starting Bitcoin."

Daughter: "He would keep his office locked and we would get into trouble if we touched his computer," she recalls. "He was always expounding on politics and current events. He loved new and old technology. He built his own computers and was very proud of them."

etc etc etc.

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#229

Post by nilkn »

smacktoward wrote: post #141
grej wrote: post #107

I wonder if Leah McGrath Goodman would like photos of her home published and members of her family identified against her will? I wonder if she thought about that, or the man and his family's safety, before choosing to publish this information about him? Reading the description of the man and recognizing the value he placed on privacy and anonymity, I'm genuinely sad for him. I also fear for his personal safety and t…

> I wonder if Leah McGrath Goodman would like photos of her home published Nobody at Google Street View, which cheerfully publishes pictures of millions of peoples' homes without consent or even notification, appears to have ever wondered that.

I've seen a number of homes blurred out on Google Street View.

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#230

Post by bane »

ctdonath wrote: post #207
bane wrote: post #101

Topic other than discussing the irresponsibility of "outing" a guy using the clever tricks of using his name and public records look ups. > A libertarian, Nakamoto encouraged his daughter to be independent, start her own business and "not be under the government's thumb," she says. "He was very wary of the government, taxes and people in charge." > What you don't know about him is that he's worked on classified stuff…

Non-fing-sequitur straw-man. We can point at ANY part of the sociopolitical spectrum and find hypocrites. I could spew the same sort of such outrageous examples about liberals/leftists/progressives/socialists but won't because it has nothing to do with the topic. Suffice to say Nakamoto did have a change of mind and did do something world-changing about it. And, golly, he is a libertarian who made a herculean effort…

> Suffice to say Nakamoto did have a change of mind

We actually don't know that. On the surface sure look like it, but he could have had a similar personal philosophy before during and after his time working for the government.

> We can point at ANY part of the sociopolitical spectrum and find hypocrites.

Absolutely agree. I could add also the large number of pacifist liberal vegan types I know who work for the DoD or whatever.

>Non-fing-sequitur straw-man

It's obviously not, if by your own theory his philosophy is what drove him to develop bitcoin, then it is sequitur to examine that philosophy and how it's expressed.

> I could spew the same sort of such outrageous examples about liberals/leftists/progressives/socialists

What example did I provide that was outrageous? You either don't work in or near the Fed-space and haven't come across this kind of person daily or you're living in a state of denial.

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