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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

#121

Post by VMG »

Steko wrote: post #116
argumentum wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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."

Some more records:

In an exclusive two-hour interview with The Associated Press Dorian S. Nakamoto, 64, said he had never heard of Bitcoin until his son told him he had been contacted by a reporter three weeks ago.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_BITCOIN_FOUNDER_DE...

Re: Alleged Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto Denies Bitcoin Involvement

#122

Post by [deleted] »

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 ).

[deleted]

Re: Alleged Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto Denies Bitcoin Involvement

#123

Post by krick »

mahranch wrote: post #117
krick wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I know every kanji means something ("meaning something" is something kanji are made for, you know) and Satoshi (the Satoshi, I mean) never wrote his name in kanji by the way. But 中本聡 is something more "bitcoin-ish" than some 山本ヒロト, don't you think? So that name isn't really something unlikely to make up. I'd say randomly making it up is really really more likely than being the Satoshi's real name.

Re: Alleged Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto Denies Bitcoin Involvement

#124

Post by ck2 »

anigbrowl wrote: post #110
ck2 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, serious argument: What if you purposely did not have a mailbox on your home but at the edge of your property (like much of rural America vs suburban) and you had no obvious front-door. Would a person then be entitled to wander around your property looking for you? I would hope not. So by having a front-door you are suggesting people are allowed to just walk onto your property, up to the door, anytime they feel li…

You're conflating two different things - walking onto your property, and harassment. In general trespass to land - meaning to enter onto someone's property without a valid excuse, although the range of acceptable excuses can be very broad - is a tort, although it can also be a criminal offense in most US states. If someone refuses to leave or keeps coming back, then are of course within your rights to eject them,sue…

So, next time I want to walk across town, I am just going to put a reporter's notebook in my pocket and just skip walking on the roads.

Instead I will walk across everyone's property and if the police eventually stop me, I will say I intended to interview the homeowners but changed my mind.

I will occasionally walk up to people's doors and knock on them just to be plausible but since the law cannot read my mind or intent, they have to accept I am a journalist and have free speech rights to walk across anyone's property.

Obviously this is an absurd extreme example but it follows your basic rules. And shows why they fail. You cannot just walk across town, across everyone's property. Yet do it on a small scale to harass a single person and it is okay?

Re: Alleged Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto Denies Bitcoin Involvement

#125

Post by gamblor956 »

MichaelGG wrote: post #115
gamblor956 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

The name Satoshi Nakamoto has appeared in The Good Wife, CSI, CSI NY, NCIS, NCIS LA, Big Bang Theory, Blue Bloods, Almost Human, and Scandal at some point in the last year.

So I'm pretty sure the name is no longer a tech community secret.

Re: Alleged Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto Denies Bitcoin Involvement

#126

Post by dllthomas »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #103
bcoates wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lottery winners should be but they aren't, here's a pretty good article: http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/03/a-financial-plan-f...

I dislike people who conflate the median with the average ( "It’s just not possible for 60 percent of the men in a room to be above-average drivers, unless you’re at a Nascar convention." -- it is certainly possible, its not possible for 60% to be better than the median driver, even if you are at a NASCAR convention.)

Depending on the number of people in the room, it might not be that unlikely for 60% to be above the global median, either. If there are three people, 100% are going to be above the median, 66% are going to be above the median, 66% are going to be below the median, or 100% are going to be below the median... All of those is more "dramatic" an outcome than 60%.

Re: Alleged Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto Denies Bitcoin Involvement

#127

Post by dllthomas »

ssprang wrote: post #41
dllthomas wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lottery winners usually don't have millions in hard-to-trace cash sitting around.

Sure, but his bitcoins probably aren't just sitting around either. The fear was that he'd be kidnapped/tortured in order to acquire them. If we're allowing for that, it seems like anyone with sufficient wealth would be a target.

It's still easier to un-reversibly steal large $X in BTC than in USD, in most of the ways people store large amounts of the respective currencies. Stealing from your bank acount involves more people and more moving parts and thus more risk (and large transfers are watched).

I agree there's (hopefully) a good chance his BTC are in cold storage in a safety deposit box, or something. People fail to do that with BTC more often than people fail to put millions of USD in the bank, though.

Actually, I've been wondering if he didn't withdraw from BTC because he was embarrassed about having lost the private keys to his early accounts... :-P Not that I really think that likely, either.

Re: Alleged Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto Denies Bitcoin Involvement

#128

Post by dllthomas »

Amezarak wrote: post #34
dllthomas wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lottery winners usually don't have millions in hard-to-trace cash sitting around.

I'd think Bitcoins would be a whole lot easier to trace than dollar bills. The real reason behind this fear is that some consider Satoshi their hero and icon. Anything, therefore, that he doesn't or wouldn't (if you maintain this isn't the real Satoshi) approve of especially as it relates to himself inspires strong feelings and irrational justifications like "he could be kidnapped and tortured." Or at least that's th…

Bitcoin is certainly easier to trace than dollar bills - I'm not confident about "a whole lot easier". But few people have the kinds of sums Satoshi purportedly has in BTC sitting around in any liquid asset in their home. I certainly hope Satoshi doesn't, either, but it's significantly more likely that he can move tremendous amounts of value without involving intermediaries (and thus more risk) than it would be for really any other individual.

Of course, in this case, I hope the bitcoin network would resign itself to coloring those coins, if Satoshi was extorted out of his coins.

Re: Alleged Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto Denies Bitcoin Involvement

#129

Post by wpietri »

argumentum wrote: post #74
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…

How can I take you up on that bet? This is the first time I've seen reddit (since it's become a mainstream phenomenon) be more reasonable than hacker news. http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1zpuer/the_newsweek... > The pieces laid out fit pretty well. What pieces? That he's kind of odd, according to his family ? (if you were to take my family, which is fairly normal, 1/2 of us think the other 1/2 are odd). Who…

> How can I take you up on that bet?

Might I suggest http://longbets.org/ for this? To make it legal in the US, the money ends up going to a charity of your choice, but it's a great way to put something on the record.

Note: Shameless promotion for something I wrote code for.

Re: Alleged Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto Denies Bitcoin Involvement

#130

Post by wpietri »

ck2 wrote: post #124
anigbrowl wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're conflating two different things - walking onto your property, and harassment. In general trespass to land - meaning to enter onto someone's property without a valid excuse, although the range of acceptable excuses can be very broad - is a tort, although it can also be a criminal offense in most US states. If someone refuses to leave or keeps coming back, then are of course within your rights to eject them,sue…

So, next time I want to walk across town, I am just going to put a reporter's notebook in my pocket and just skip walking on the roads. Instead I will walk across everyone's property and if the police eventually stop me, I will say I intended to interview the homeowners but changed my mind. I will occasionally walk up to people's doors and knock on them just to be plausible but since the law cannot read my mind or in…

The law is not executed on some sort of Turing engine. It is guidelines for humans to interpret real-world situations.

I encourage you to post what happens when you do this and explain your theory here to a judge. Having seen what happens when somebody tries to outsmart a judge in his own courtroom, I promise it will be memorable.

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