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The Face Behind Bitcoin?

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Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#451

Post by prostoalex »

cairnsh wrote: post #360
Houshalter wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Yes, but this is not really related to what I said. Ayn Rand, and any other person who has become independently wealthy in a way that has nothing to do with the government, can despise looters and be consistent. Government workers in particular cannot.

What if they're highly employable in private industry anyways, and choose a government job not out of fear of dying of hunger, but for better paycheck, closer commute, or work environment?

Or someone like John Kerry - both independently wealthy and a government worker?

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#452

Post by npizzolato »

mike_hearn wrote: post #75
watty wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are you so certain he will get robbed, kidnapped, or killed? There are many many people with $400M+ and their information is freely available online and in the media as well.

Their money is in banks. The existing financial system is much better at protecting peoples money from extortion and kidnapping than Bitcoin is: you can either request money in cash (and get arrested the moment you try and pick it up), or you can request a wire transfer to an account you had to give a passport to open up and where the transactions can be rolled back at any time. The fear is that it's not actually saf…

You made your bed. Now lie in it.

You can't hold all your wealth in a currency that is built to avoid government regulation and to send transactions around the world instantly (both of which would help in the event someone tried to rob/extort you) and then cry foul when you don't have any recourse for someone robbing or extorting you.

I'll never wish Satoshi (or anyone else) is robbed or extorted for his wealth. But just like you shouldn't keep millions of dollars under your mattress, maybe you should diversify your (considerable) funds to better protect yourself from single points of failure.

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#453

Post by anigbrowl »

3pt14159 wrote: post #324
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…

Well bane let me, a libertarian, explain to you why I worked for the government while I was a libertarian. Sometimes the solutions that are government mandated or subsidized would appear in a different form if the government didn't run them. So, for example, mass transit, like subways would still exist if the government didn't use coercion to fund and run it, it would just be owned by private individuals. Just becaus…

So, for example, mass transit, like subways would still exist if the government didn't use coercion to fund and run it, it would just be owned by private individuals.

Given the dearth of private subway companies, I question this claim. There are lots of places where a subway would be highly desirable but doesn't exist, why hasn't some entrepreneurial soul built one already?

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#454

Post by prostoalex »

dba7dba wrote: post #364
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…

I knew a guy who used to work for a city govt and he was pretty open about his anti-tax. He complained how he saw so much waste in the govt. And guess what? He was also working hard to switch his job into a department that had more pay/benefit to increase his pay.

If the system is inefficient and wasteful, it should be exploited to the maximum level, otherwise it will stay inefficient and wasteful forever.

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#455

Post by bmelton »

dragonwriter wrote: post #427
bmelton wrote: post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> I did not believe that TSA contractors swore such an oath. Contractors don't. > 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. Its not necessarily incoherent (but, still, IMO, somewhat odd) to argue that it is immoral to choose to benefit from violations of the Constitution only if you have sworn a special oath.…

It's just on the topic of hypocrisy. Feeling one way and doing another is kind of a default in the human condition, and is often required for success.

The oath of office is perhaps a thinner line than I'm making it out to be, but there's a larger point to be made there about the role of the federal government, the incentives of office, etc.

That said, I'm high (low?) on Valium at the moment, so I'm in no shape to argue it at the moment.

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#456

Post by prostoalex »

dagw wrote: post #74
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…

Not that I think publishing his name and address was in any way a good idea, but how many US citizens from this list: http://www.forbes.com/billionaires/list/#tab:overall get "robbed, kidnapped or killed" each year?

Their personal security spending runs millions of dollars a year.

For example: http://gizmodo.com/5517656/amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos-has-17m-wor...

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#457

Post by mzs »

Myrmornis wrote: post #417

Well it's too late to get any points for this inference now, but I'm going to claim that there was a strong clue that the author of the PDF was old: the bitcoin paper cites "An Introduction to Probability Theory and Its Applications" by William Feller. This is a classic, from the 1960s, but I don't think it's very well known among people under 40 (correct me if I'm wrong).

It's also a classic, I used it as text in a course back in '98 or so. Also it's more widely used outside of USA, personally I believe that is because it is inexpensively reprinted and because Feller was Croatian. I believe it has been translated to a number of languages including Chinese and notably Japanese.

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#458

Post by nathanvanfleet »

bane wrote: post #366
omegaham wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh god yes. I'm currently a relatively junior flunky in the Marine Corps, and the GS civilians who work here are hilarious. "We need to cut the fat!" We work at a minor airbase in the middle of nowhere... oh. Oops. Whatever we are, it sure as hell ain't muscle. "Government spending is out of control" while talking about how they exploit the DTS system to get as much per diem as possible. "Those lazy people who expect…

One of the things I find curious is the dichotomy between rhetoric and intent. "We need to shrink the government!" Sequestration happens "Well not those specific things I like!" Doesn't that imply then that those bits that shouldn't have been shrunk are therefore not part of what they think is "the government"? Considering that the list of things that usually people who want to shrink the government think should be e…

People rail against things they don't see, be it identified as anything. "I don't like immigrants, except you, you're one of the 'good ones' " etc. Maybe the fact that there are so many "good ones" in that classification you hate would make you realize that you're hating on the wrong thing. But it seems like that's not always the realization.

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#459

Post by arrrg »

sounds wrote: post #98
arrrg wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doxxing? That is such a stupid term. It’s called journalism. Reporting on people with a huge impact on the world is sort of what journalists do. Of course that includes identifying information. Sure, publishing identifying information of people who did nothing special is unethical but that can hardly be said about Satoshi. If the story is correct then this is some insanely rich dude who got rich by inventing Bitcoin…

If you're so comfortable with journalism, I'd like to interview you. But first please provide: • Full names and home towns of your children and your wife • Picture of your house – include a clear photo of your car's license plate • Your home town, so anyone can locate you on Google Maps • Your work history • Your net worth • Your health history • Any notable personality traits you have, so the whole world can comment…

Yo, demo9898, that was hilarious. I sadly can’t respond directly to you since your haphazard summary of what I said in the past on this site is marked dead.

Most of the stuff you list that I explicitly said about myself is spot-on (mostly because I explicitly said it) or at most slightly out of date, but all the inferred stuff is garbage. I’m pretty sure I could be identified with what I said here. Maybe. Probably. You, however, were running down all the wrong paths. Doing it properly would require some more amount of work.

I guess that shows there is more to investigative journalism than reading a bunch of stuff someone wrote somewhere pseudonymously. And I’m still not sure why anyone would actually be interested in me and would want to publish anything about me. It’s not like I invented Bitcoin.

(Also, man did I say some aggressive bullshit in the past. Sorry about that. People change, you know, or at least recognise that their past opinions were bullshit. I think that would be about the worst thing: Pointing out dumb things I said in the past. That really stings. But it’s all public anyway, so I don’t care too much. Humans aren’t perfect.)

You can keep it up if you want to.

Re: The Face Behind Bitcoin?

#460

Post by gms7777 »

m_myers wrote: post #359

> You have reached the limit of 5 free articles a month. I haven't read any Newsweek articles this month. And it appears I'm not going to, either. Google cache link for anyone else who gets the same message: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?output=search&s...

Switching to incognito usually works too.
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