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The Face Behind Bitcoin?

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Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#311

Post by mbrubeck »

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.

The quote does sound odd, and I wouldn't be surprised if it were an embellishment or paraphrase.

But you know, the New York Times has been running stories on Bitcoin for a couple of years now. It's been all over CNN and other mainstream news sources. The New Yorker printed a feature about Satoshi Nakamoto back in 2011 [1]. Popular TV shows like The Daily Show have talked about Bitcoin [2]. Newspapers are printing political cartoons about it [3]. The Washington Post has three Bitcoin headlines on the front page of its web site this morning! (One about MtGOX, one on Nakamoto, and one on Autumn Radtke.)

Anyone who has read, watched, or listened to news in the past year has a good chance of knowing some stuff about Bitcoin, just like they know that Steve Jobs died and what Google Glass is. The name Satoshi Nakamoto is reasonably memorable and distinctive. And law enforcement officers in particular might have some professional curiosity about the Bitcoin economy.

[1]: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/10/10/111010fa_fact_...

[2]: http://www.thewire.com/entertainment/2014/02/daily-show-help...

[3]: http://buttcoin.org/bitcoin-hardy-har-har

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#312

Post by neurobro »

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.

Supposing there is some truth to the quote, I have to assume she skipped over the part where she told the police officer "He is the guy who created Bitcoin."

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#313

Post by Houshalter »

cairnsh wrote: post #294
MadManE wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taking advantage of the existing situation for maximum personal gain doesn't indicate doublethink. It only indicates that they care more about themselves than they care about "the greater good" - which, in my opinion is how it should be. Somebody's going to be getting paid for doing nothing - it might as well be me.

JTSummers: I don't think it's doublethink to complain about a situation you personally benefit from. (Actually, it gives you more credibility, because you have a personal stake in the problem: You yourself would be hurt by the change you propose.) But it is doublethink if you hold other people in contempt for getting benefits from tax revenue, or if you think they are immoral for doing so. For example, I think Ayn Ra…

Ayn Rand withdrew Social Security checks (to get back what the government took.) There is nothing necessarily wrong with that.

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#314

Post by cairnsh »

johngalt wrote: post #217
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…

If anti-government and inexperienced then: 'These libertarians are just backwards and don't understand government' If anti-government and experienced then: 'Hypocrites!' else: more government It's a stronger position to oppose something you are experienced with and benefit from. Imagine a nuclear engineer who's advocating that the new plant she's working on is being built dangerously by the people in charge. Would yo…

A libertarian government worker would be more like a nuclear engineer who thinks nuclear energy plants are intrinsically dangerous. So dangerous that they should be avoided if at all possible.

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#315

Post by btcfn »

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 can be untraceable. All you have to do is mix dirty money with clean money and split them. No way to tell which pieces are dirty, which ones are clean.

Most likely you don't even need to do that. Nothing would stop you from selling stolen money on LocalBitcoins. All outsiders will see is money moving from wallet A to wallet B and no way to find out who the owner is.

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#316

Post by MSM »

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.

> Publishing identifying information on someone hugely influential is very much ethical.

How can you even say that? It's easy to say that if (assumption) you haven't done anything "hugely influential", but I think the feeling would be different if this article was about you.

It's plain disrespectful. The guy obviously wants to be left alone or he wouldn't have stopped emailing, stopped answering the phone or called police when the reporter showed up.

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#317

Post by FatalLogic »

joncrocks wrote: post #88
watty wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Obviously the conversation has been heavily edited. Nobody really speaks so clearly and succinctly.

To me, it looks probable that she really said something like "I would like to ask him about Bitcoin. This man is Satoshi Nakamoto. I think he's the man who created Bitcoin"

So she prepped the police officer to deliver the quote that she wanted "This is the guy who created Bitcoin?", by planting the suggestion first.

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#318

Post by mbillie1 »

howeyc wrote: post #226
arrrg wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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"

The number of page hits the article gets? Come on - Bitcoin is news, and it's been made news by people like us. Don't be too surprised or appalled when the general media tries to latch on to the publicity train.

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#319

Post by bane »

cgore wrote: post #302
spindritf wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the paradox of the deeply conservative anti-federal government types who work for the government - directly or as a fed contractor Those are the people who have a realistic, first hand understanding of the government innerworkings. Also, a contradiction between believing that allocation of capital would be more efficient under a less centrally-influenced system, and being willing to accept higher pay and benefits fro…

I think a lot of people seem to be confusing Libertarianism with Anarchism. Libertarians typically do see roles for SOME government, and those roles are typically the military, judges, roads, police, and the like. Not other things though, so no Social Security, no Obamacare, no National Endowment for the Arts, and no space program (other than for space weapons, so get rid of NASA and establish some sort of "US Star F…

My understanding from my Libertarian Ron/Rand Paul friends is that they believe the Federal government should not have a single program that's not explicitly specified in the U.S. Constitution.

It's not really a viewpoint I totally agree with, but people who are really deep students of the philosophy come across as pretty internally consistent in their viewpoint.

I think their's a good place for this type of politic. But I'm afraid far too many people who self-identify with it, don't understand it deeply enough or the implications of the ideas.

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#320

Post by whyenot »

sounds wrote: post #54
brunoqc wrote: post #25

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

Ironically, the officers didn't know it was _Satoshi_ _Nakamoto_ until she said so. They're just helping the guy remove a trespasser, which is well within their line of duty. Oh, and the homeowner who called them is named "Satoshi Nakamoto." What do you want to bet they don't really know/care who that is? Especially if he is cleared for classified work, he will know exactly who to call to get some law enforcement bac…

> Seriously, don't try to break into a guy's house who is employed by the U.S. Government and has access to that kind of stuff.

I'm sure he has Fox Mulder's number.

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