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Alleged Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto Denies Bitcoin Involvement

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Re: Alleged Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto Denies Bitcoin Involvement

#111

Post by anigbrowl »

bertil wrote: post #70
anigbrowl wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IT's not trespassing to go up to someone's front door, otherwise the mail wouldn't get delivered. You can step on to the curtilage of someone's property, but you must leave if you are asked to do so - although nothing prevents you hanging around on the street in front of the property in hopes of getting an interview. If this becomes onerous, one can get a restraining order, but courts are cautious about handing them…

I don't think you need to be 150 to “gather information”.

I don't know what you mean.

Re: Alleged Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto Denies Bitcoin Involvement

#112

Post by workhere-io »

meowface wrote: post #107
workhere-io wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

to literally show up on someone's doorstep in mass? Hate to be that guy, but... it's "en masse" :) http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/en%20masse

Is "in mass" completely incorrect? I know "en masse" is the French version and what is usually said (and what I typically say/write, too), but "in mass" sounds syntactically and semantically correct to me.

Sort of depends on how you pronounce it. "En masse" is not pronounced like "in mass" (check http://www.merriam-webster.com/audio.php?file=en_mas02&word=...).

Re: Alleged Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto Denies Bitcoin Involvement

#113

Post by gwern »

VMG wrote: post #91
gamblor956 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The linguistic analysis actually holds up pretty well (both his writing style and his coding style), and the totality of the circumstances wherein Satoshi matches Bitcoin Satoshi makes it very unlikely that this is a "shoddy piece of journalism." Also, you must not have read the part of the article where the journalist runs through and describes why the other Satoshis are not the Bitcoin Satoshi.

If this person is the Real Satoshi, why are all forum posts except the ones bitcointalk.org about model trains and Royal Danish Cookies? Not a single post in any programming forum, not a single stackoverflow question, zero online participation in anything related to cryptography or programming. If we are to believe that the developer of Bitcoin didn't mind using his real name online, what's the explanation for this?

> If this person is the Real Satoshi, why are all forum posts except the ones bitcointalk.org about model trains and Royal Danish Cookies?

Dorian seems to have fragmented his online activity under a variety of nicknames: so far people've found "ShtenDoji", "schten", "Schten Dohkji", "WagumaBher", and "ssshupring" (and I'm not sure if that's a complete collation of Redditor findings). Most of them have been linked either by him forthrightly mentioning Satoshi, or are variants of others. We could easily have missed years of programming activity. So it's not yet a strong argument from silence.

Re: Alleged Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto Denies Bitcoin Involvement

#114

Post by gwern »

georgemcbay wrote: post #92
VMG wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The newsweek article itself claims that Satoshi tried to hide his identity. He never posted any personal information and used an anonymous japanese registration service for the bitcoin.org domain, payment in cash. An unlikely effort for somebody who doesn't care about anonymity.

The article quotes Gavin Andresen as saying "He went to great lengths to protect his anonymity.", but other than that doesn't offer anything to show that he actually was actively trying to hide his identity or was ever using a pseudonym.

If it helps a bit: Satoshi Nakamoto sent all emails over Tor, connected to Bitcointalk over Tor, and paid through the nose for bitcoin.org registrar & hosting services on Anonymousspeech.

Re: Alleged Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto Denies Bitcoin Involvement

#115

Post by MichaelGG »

gamblor956 wrote: post #89
Sambdala wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well the newsweek article also included a back and forth with a police officer that likely never happened, and they also just published an article that "proves" heaven exists because a former scientist went into a coma and saw some pretty things while dreaming. I'm not sure there's a high barrier to meet here, or that we can't assume he was misquoted in the original article.

Uh huh. Sure. An officer isn't aware of a digital currency that has been the topic of dozens of mainstream news reports over the past few months, and which had a strong relationship to drug and property crimes.

And knows the name of the creator of it offhand, and a concept of the creator's holdings?

Re: Alleged Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto Denies Bitcoin Involvement

#116

Post by Steko »

argumentum wrote: post #84
Steko wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"What a shoddy piece of journalism." You base this conclusion on one line of speculation in the article? Did you miss the part where the journalist flew out, went to the person's house and spoke to them to confirm it was really him before running the story? Sounds like excellent journalism to me.

Yeah I did miss that part. From what I read, the journalist spoke to him for about 15 seconds, within which he didn't really say anything at all, and was then shown the metaphorical door.

> didn't really say anything at all

I guess we've reached the point in the argument where you've decided to go Flat Earth Society on us. For the record:

"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."

Re: Alleged Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto Denies Bitcoin Involvement

#117

Post by mahranch »

krick wrote: post #99
Steko wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"What a shoddy piece of journalism." You base this conclusion on one line of speculation in the article? Did you miss the part where the journalist flew out, went to the person's house and spoke to them to confirm it was really him before running the story? Sounds like excellent journalism to me.

That part about "distinctive name" actually sound like shoddy piece of journalism. It's like calling "John Smith" distinctive. But while "John Smith" means nothing for native speaker, Satoshi (if written like 聡) can be interesting pen-name, meaning "wise" (google translate won't help you this time, so check http://jisho.org/kanji/details/%E8%81%A1 ).

That doesn't mean much though. Every Japanese kanji used in a name means something on its own. Since they're used in names, they all are technicially "interesting". When people tell other people their names in Japan, they will often say how it's written in Kanji specifically to point out those distinctive meanings.

Re: Alleged Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto Denies Bitcoin Involvement

#118

Post by gwern »

lucb1e wrote: post #100

I wonder why he doesn't outright deny it all, current and past involvement. He doesn't want to be involved, as far as we know, so why would he care if it's a lie that he has never been involved? Would he not lie out of integrity (assuming it is him)? Or does he have some plan to out himself at some point, and is it just that he hadn't wanted it to happen like this? Hmm. Well this last part is only wild speculation, i…

> I wonder why he doesn't outright deny it all, current and past involvement.

This may well be what he's done in his 2-hour long interview with the AP reporter, an article on which should come out very soon, according to https://twitter.com/JoeBelBruno

Re: Alleged Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto Denies Bitcoin Involvement

#119

Post by wmhtet »

I would like to argue on the possibilities of him not being Satoshi Nakamoto. Other than having the career, which could profile him as the likely Satoshi Nakamoto, the Bitcoin inventor, the article build up him to be one.

I am going to argue against the most convincing statement: "It's been turned over to other people. They are in charge of it now. I no longer have any connection."

As someone who has engineering background in CS field, he will be aware of the Bitcoin and a peculiar case of having similar name (He is Dorian S Nakamoto). Thus, he will be a bit more interested in it(People with unique name can share that sentiment) and know enough about the Myth of the disappearance of the Satoshi Nakamoto, the Bitcoin inventor. We(including him) all know the kind of disturbance we will face if we were identified as mysterious Bitcoin Inventor. There is also a cloud of uncertainty over legality of Bitcoin. I don't think the news about Silk Road with Bitcoin and the FBI issue will help either. For him, he has to be more weary since he shares part of the name. So when this privacy invading journalist come knocking on his door, he pull the Bitcoin inventor act saying that he relegate the task to other to shoo her away thinking it will be over. An easy way out, he might have thought. The fact that he cannot disappear like the Bitcoin inventor did not register in his mind at that time. He could have been pestered by people about Bitcoin before, just like the journalist started asking him about Bitcoin in the middle of model train email exchanges. He is the real Dorian S Nakamoto. He cannot deny his name but he is not a mythical Satoshi Nakamoto. If you were an introvert, how would you react in that situation? You most likely shut up just like he did. Around these assumption the journalist build up the theory that Dorian is the Bitcoin Inventor.

Anyway, I am pissed at the NewsWeek on violating the privacy of individuals(Dorian S Nakamoto and Satoshi Nakamoto) who wants to be left alone.

Re: Alleged Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto Denies Bitcoin Involvement

#120

Post by InclinedPlane »

georgemcbay wrote: post #31

While I do feel bad for this guy's current situation (he clearly doesn't want any attention... sort of like the bitcoin Satoshi...hmm!), I really don't understand why so many people are jumping to the conclusion that this story is wrong/fake/some sort of conspiracy or whatever. If there were a reasonable way to settle it for sure, I'd bet a substantial amount of money that this is the bitcoin Satoshi Nakamoto. The pi…

This right here is like a case study in why a "Computer Science" education doesn't make one a "scientist".

The only thing here is coincidence, allegation, and innuendo: There's not the slightest hint of proof. This is shitty journalism and shitty investigative rigor. What it comes down to is a name and being smart.

Maybe he is the actual bitcoin Satoshi. But there is not one piece of positive evidence that is the case. Everything is circumstancial to the highest degree. Personally I think the standard of evidence for something this important should be higher.

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