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The Face Behind Bitcoin?

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Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#401

Post by mattgibson »

theorique wrote: post #325
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…

My government job is cool, because I do work and stuff. Other people, of course, suck at the government teat, and drive welfare Cadillacs to the welfare office to pick up their food stamps and welfare check to pay for their 15 kids by different fathers. In other words, if you do it, it's wrong and you need to change. If I do it, it's because you just don't understand. (Edit: Do we need an irony tag? This is a humorou…

This is called the fundamental attribution error: If I do it, I know the circumstances so it's understandable, whereas if you do it, the circumstances are unclear so I blame your (assumed to be unpleasant) personality.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_attribution_error

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#402

Post by jxf »

dabernathy89 wrote: post #384
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…

Can you even call it "outing" when he didn't bother to hide his identity?

There's a huge difference between knowing:

* your name is Alice Smith

and knowing:

* your name is Alice Smith

* your age

* your car's license plate

* the street address of where you live and work

* the names and identities of your close family members

* the fact that you are worth ~$400M

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#403

Post by bane »

ctdonath wrote: post #368
bane wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess everything is outrageous then so nothing is?

Who said everything is outrageous? That X is not uncommon doesn't mean everything is X.

Your claim is that my examples are "outrageous", which implies they are unusual or uncommon. But they aren't uncommon and therefore can't be outrageous. If my examples of common behavior is outrageous, then every behavior, from common to rare must be outrageous by the definition of the word.

In fact my original post is questioning why examples like this are so common.

If really pressed, I suppose I could go through my FB friend's walls anonymize and take screenshots of the thousands upon thousands of posts by Government workers and contractors I know who endlessly post things similar to my example. But I'm not sure I should spend my time trying to make you aware of a phenomenon that's plainly obvious for anybody to see.

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#404

Post by crazy1van »

potatoman2 wrote: post #265

"This man is Satoshi Nakamoto." "What?" The police officer balks. "This is the guy who created Bitcoin? It looks like he's living a pretty humble life." - I do not believe this exchange took place. The police would've had his name from his initial call to them, and a random officer from the Sheriff's department would not likely recognize that name as the creator of Bitcoin. Just saying.

> "What?" The police officer balks. "This is the guy who created Bitcoin? It looks like he's living a pretty humble life."

Wow. Bitcoin is pretty mainstream if a random police officer knows the name of the guy who invented it.

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#405

Post by masmullin »

seanalltogether wrote: post #389
argumentum wrote: post #82

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 signific…

"I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it," he says, dismissing all further queries with a swat of his left hand. "It's been turned over to other people. They are in charge of it now. I no longer have any connection." Seems like a confirmation?

or false confirmation. He might not have invented bitcoin but know all about it (because of his name). He would know that acting all shadowy and evasive would make him seem more like the real Satoshi.

tl;dr - Give me proof, not vague "seems like he confirmed it."

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#406

Post by bmelton »

dragonwriter wrote: post #399
bmelton wrote: post #369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not necessarily. If I worked for the TSA or something, because that was the best paying job that was available, I wouldn't see it as remotely hypocritical to be concerned with politicians, who swore an oath to the Constitution, specifically passing bills to line their pockets. It's easy to say that a truly just person would not work in an industry that benefitted from tax dollars they would rather not have paid, but…

> Not necessarily. If I worked for the TSA or something, because that was the best paying job that was available, I wouldn't see it as remotely hypocritical to be concerned with politicians, who swore an oath to the Constitution, specifically passing bills to line their pockets. If you worked for the TSA, you would also have sworn an oath to the Constitution. > It's easy to say that a truly just person would not work…

Bad example on my part, perhaps. I did not believe that TSA contractors swore such an oath. I agree that in the example I gave, that would be hypocritical.

I believe my point still stands for all those federal contractors who have not sworn such an oath, but are similarly suckling off of the federal teat.

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#407

Post by JonnieCache »

droopybuns wrote: post #347
mseebach wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First, "deeply conservative" and "libertarian" aren't freely interchangeable. Second, it's a quite small branch of libertarianism that doesn't recognise any role for the state (and thus, taxation) at all - and the one they do recognise is mostly concerned with security.

These kinds of discussions highlight an annoying defect in the human condition. We adore taxonomies. From Music to Painting to Architecture to Biology to Software Engineering to Mathematics. Every single discipline depends taxonomies. It's even part of our social foundation. Conversationally, it is critical for many people to map their peers, friends & families to these taxonomies. They seem to need to be able to def…

As a side point, that fundamental urge to taxonomize is a large part of what zen seeks to overcome. Satori (enlightenment) can be seen as the ultimate discarding of categories: where all distinctions are removed, between the self and others, between the self and the universe, etc. Thus, the self is in fact annihilated altogether.

This is one interpretation of the oft-used phrase "one with the universe."

Doubtless I've mangled some of the concepts as bit, for which I apologise, but it's unavoidable when discussing zen.

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#408

Post by mzs »

rtpg wrote: post #41
ewoodrich wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

One thing that someone noted is that for a seller of illicit goods, bitcoin is better than paper in that with dollar bills you have to physically pick them up at one point. With bitcoin, sure you can trace coins, but laundering services (namely things like exchanges) can make you disappear a bit quicker. Overall, though, bitcoin is the IRS' dream.

Alternatively a seller gets paid in something else relatively valuable that they sell or trade later such as liquid laundry detergent.

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#409

Post by milesskorpen »

droopybuns wrote: post #356
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.

I'm sorry, but the journalists I have met do not do A. They conceive of a narrative and find totems that can support their position. You are espousing ideals that are taught in school, but rarely achieved in the real world. That whole theme of unethical in B happens most of the time.

... but they clearly did A in this case. That's why we're having this conversation.

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#410

Post by fedups »

enraged_camel wrote: post #390
wpietri wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think what your proposed cognitive model of anti-government government workers is missing is something Upton Sinclair pointed at: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." I've worked for financial trading companies and for advertisers before, but I can't do that work anymore because I think those industries mainly make the world worse. Not won't d…

>>And I think that would be especially true of the libertarians I have known. If I were to generalize about them, I'd say that on average they're unusually thoughtful and unusually principled. Most people don't even try for a coherent political philosophy. Libertarianism will look like a "coherent political philosophy" only if you're a young white kid from an affluent family.

This is the most original and convincing argument against libertarianism that I've heard.
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