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Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto Denies All Bitcoin Ties in Verified Letter Via Lawyer

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Re: Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto Denies All Bitcoin Ties in Verified Letter Via Lawyer

#81

Post by eatitraw »

blhack wrote: post #35

Here is what doesn't make sense about Dorian Nakamoto being the Satoshi behind bitcoin: Here's a guy who code switches during conversations and emails to maintain either the secret identity of an old Japanese man living in CA and playing with model trains, or to maintain the secret identity of a sophisticated programmer who created a proof-of-work system called bitcoin. But then this advanced guy maintaining a secret…

Many people like to picture the bitcoin inventor as some sort of god who knew everything in advance. The truth is in 2008/2009 (almost?) nobody was sure that bitcoin will succeed. Even Hal Finney(famous cypherpunk, who actively participated in the developing of the idea of the bitgold by creating RPOW: http://www.finney.org/~hal/rpow/ ), even Hal Finney was sceptical: "turned [bitcoin] off because it made my computer run hot" and "was surprised to find that it was not only still going, bitcoins actually had monetary value.[late 2010]"

It is probably that not only cypherpunks thought that bitcoin is nice but weird idea, but also Satoshi Nakamoto himself. True, if it takes off, Satoshi will change the world and make some money, but what if it doesn't? Then bitcoin is like bit gold or b-money -- cool theoretical concept, and Satoshi want some recognition for his work(just like Nick Szabo or Wei Dai who used their real names).

Of course there is some chance that bitcoin will succeed, so Satoshi wants to protect himself from government hostility. He knows about Liberty Dollar(don't confuse with Liberty Reserve), he knows about e-gold, and he knows about Phil Zimmermann(criminal investigation related to PGP).

So why does Satoshi need anonymity? Well, he doesn't. All he needs is _plausible deniability_, and he maintains it pretty well.

Re: Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto Denies All Bitcoin Ties in Verified Letter Via Lawyer

#83

Post by gwern »

VMG wrote: post #40
blhack wrote: post #35

Here is what doesn't make sense about Dorian Nakamoto being the Satoshi behind bitcoin: Here's a guy who code switches during conversations and emails to maintain either the secret identity of an old Japanese man living in CA and playing with model trains, or to maintain the secret identity of a sophisticated programmer who created a proof-of-work system called bitcoin. But then this advanced guy maintaining a secret…

This whole thing reminded me of the lesswrong.com post on Amanda Knox [1] Even the initial assumption that the creator of Bitcoin used his real name, contained in the headline, was extremely unlikely, and all other evidence was completely circumstantial. In my mind, it was nearly obvious that Dorian is not Satoshi after a few hours and was shocked to see that many believed the news story. I'm still not sure if this w…

Actually, speaking of Amanda Knox & LW... http://lesswrong.com/lw/ju0/amanda_knox_redux_is_satoshi_nak...

Re: Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto Denies All Bitcoin Ties in Verified Letter Via Lawyer

#84

Post by jcomis »

Borogove wrote: post #76
drcode wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, Leigh claims that Satoshi unambiguously admitted to her his involvement with bitcoin, and she was supposed to be a reputable journalist. This gave some justification for initially accepting the story at face value.

Untrue. Leigh claims that Satoshi "tacitly" admitted his involvement, in the most ambiguous part of an extremely ambiguous writeup.

This is hardly stated "tacitly":

  "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: Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto Denies All Bitcoin Ties in Verified Letter Via Lawyer

#85

Post by orn »

blhack wrote: post #35

Here is what doesn't make sense about Dorian Nakamoto being the Satoshi behind bitcoin: Here's a guy who code switches during conversations and emails to maintain either the secret identity of an old Japanese man living in CA and playing with model trains, or to maintain the secret identity of a sophisticated programmer who created a proof-of-work system called bitcoin. But then this advanced guy maintaining a secret…

We should support him, who cares who the founder is

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1ztjmg/andreas_im_f...

Re: Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto Denies All Bitcoin Ties in Verified Letter Via Lawyer

#86

Post by blhack »

jcomis wrote: post #84
Borogove wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Untrue. Leigh claims that Satoshi "tacitly" admitted his involvement, in the most ambiguous part of an extremely ambiguous writeup.

This is hardly stated "tacitly": "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."

Your comment is very difficult to read.

>this is hardly state "tacitly":

>>"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."

>>-Dorian S. Nakamoto

Re: Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto Denies All Bitcoin Ties in Verified Letter Via Lawyer

#87

Post by quanticle »

jcomis wrote: post #84
Borogove wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Untrue. Leigh claims that Satoshi "tacitly" admitted his involvement, in the most ambiguous part of an extremely ambiguous writeup.

This is hardly stated "tacitly": "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."

"In that," he says. Not "in Bitcoin". Not even "in cryptocurrency." As Dorian claims in his letter, he thought Leah was asking about his classified work for the federal government, and he was merely saying that his years of doing classified work were behind him.

Are we somehow to believe that someone who can't even get the name of the currency right (he called it "Bitcom" repeatedly), is the inventor? Nothing in Leah McGrath's articles or the follow up interviews with the AP or in this letter suggests to me that Dorian Nakamoto is anything more than who he says he is: just an old engineer looking for work.

The Newsweek article, in my view, is a disgusting piece of yellow journalism produced by a hack journalist who was doing whatever it took to get a flashy cover story for Newsweek's inaugural issue. In that, it succeeded. But in establishing Newsweek's journalistic bona-fides or establishing Leah McGrath as a decent human being, it failed utterly.

Re: Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto Denies All Bitcoin Ties in Verified Letter Via Lawyer

#88

Post by kaishiro »

michaelt wrote: post #58
declan wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Um, remember Newsweek's under different management. See my other post nearby. And it's not "guilty of" libel; it's more like "liable for defamation."

Both 'libel' and 'liable' are real legal words. Libel refers to written/printed/online defamatory statements [1] - as opposed to slander, which is spoken defamation. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libel#Libel

I believe declan is referring to the fact that libel, being a civil tort, exposes one to be liable for defamation, not guilty of it (being that it's not criminal).

Re: Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto Denies All Bitcoin Ties in Verified Letter Via Lawyer

#89

Post by jacalata »

mik3y wrote: post #78
dsil wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One was started 10 days ago, almost at $30,000 USD: http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1ztjmg/andreas_im_f...

Oh, awesome!

I hope they have the decency to convert it to usd and not send it as a puzzle to an old man with enough hassles in his life already.

Re: Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto Denies All Bitcoin Ties in Verified Letter Via Lawyer

#90

Post by wpietri »

blhack wrote: post #35

Here is what doesn't make sense about Dorian Nakamoto being the Satoshi behind bitcoin: Here's a guy who code switches during conversations and emails to maintain either the secret identity of an old Japanese man living in CA and playing with model trains, or to maintain the secret identity of a sophisticated programmer who created a proof-of-work system called bitcoin. But then this advanced guy maintaining a secret…

Depends on how good he was at opsec and how seriously he was trying to be secret. If he had started it as a lark and only gotten worried about secrecy after thinking further, it wouldn't have been crazy to have used an obscured identity, one that would only be available to people searching obscure public records.
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