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Man Denies He's Bitcoin Founder

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Re: Man Denies He's Bitcoin Founder

#61

Post by devindotcom »

onewaystreet wrote: post #30

According to the Newsweek article this Satoshi Nakamoto: 1. Dropped all contact with the reporter when the topic of Bitcoin was brought up over email. 2. Called the cops when the reporter went to his house to ask him about Bitcoin. 3. Said to the reporter: "I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it," "It's been turned over to other people. They are in charge of it now. I no longer have any connection."…

Could also be interpreted:

1. Dropped all contact when it was clear the person had misrepresented themselves and thought he was Satoshi.

2. Called the cops when this stranger came to his home to persist in this line of questioning.

3. Reporter says he said this, but also the cop just happens to be familiar with bitcoin and quip something appropriate. It could easily be a paraphrase of this man saying he's no longer involved in the govt projects we know him to be involved in, and he has no connection with them.

Why didn't the reporter record this exchange? Seems elementary when you're ambushing the guy. And has no one contacted the cop involved to see what he said or knows?

Re: Man Denies He's Bitcoin Founder

#62

Post by declan »

gamblor956 wrote: post #48
declan wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't think Leah McGrath Goodman and Newsweek did anything illegal I wouldn't be so sure. Both may be subject to tort liability if Dorian Nakamoto != Satoshi Nakamoto. See my tweet: https://twitter.com/declanm/status/441711365888040960 And a response by an attorney who works on Internet issues: https://twitter.com/SeanFlaim/status/441727448539873281

He has a colorable claim but no chance of winning. The founder of a cryptocurrency which now boasts of a >$1 billion market is legitimately a matter of the public interest, even if it's not the right guy. This principle has been established many times by people who were mistaken for criminal defendants (not always defendants with the same name), including the Boston U student who killed himself shortly before the Bos…

Ah, but how many cases involved that particular California law being invoked by the plaintiff?

Re: Man Denies He's Bitcoin Founder

#63

Post by Aqueous »

bhouston wrote: post #60
Aqueous wrote: post #50

Ok, I'm sorry but there are some serious inconsistencies here. Leah McGrath Goodman said that after she asked him about BitCoin he promptly stopped emailing her. The timeline is unclear, but it seems like this was before Goodman contacted his family members. Why would she contact his family members if she was directly talking to him and they could blow her pretext of wanting to talk about model trains? This strongly…

I agree as much as one can. Unless there are outright fabrications in the Newsweek story, you really can not then start denying his role after he seemed to be admitting it. The chance of a random guy just admitting his role, being eccentric and really smart in this area and then later denying it -- and then not being the guy behind Bitcoin, seems implausible. That said, if the guy wants his privacy, we can afford it…

Absolutely - I think he should be given privacy. Those are his wishes.

Re: Man Denies He's Bitcoin Founder

#64

Post by nikcub »

Zikes wrote: post #33
nthitz wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was not my impression of the HN comments in the least. Most HN commenters seemed to think it was an egregious invasion of his privacy from what I read.

There was a separate post where a small business owner in New York claimed to have met the man in 2011 when he made a purchase at his store. People then started demanding the transaction ID so they could try to track down his wallet. It was filled with claims that it's not doxxing because NewsWeek posted his address already, that Bitcoin users should have no expectation of anonymity, it could have huge ramifications…

> People then started demanding the transaction ID so they could try to track down his wallet.

All of the top comments in that thread[0] specifically asked not to publish the transaction id, but some people just want to interpret things the way they want to interpret things.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7354326

Re: Man Denies He's Bitcoin Founder

#65

Post by nilkn »

Aqueous wrote: post #50

Ok, I'm sorry but there are some serious inconsistencies here. Leah McGrath Goodman said that after she asked him about BitCoin he promptly stopped emailing her. The timeline is unclear, but it seems like this was before Goodman contacted his family members. Why would she contact his family members if she was directly talking to him and they could blow her pretext of wanting to talk about model trains? This strongly…

Those quotes are extremely suggestive that he was indeed involved in Bitcoin--so suggestive that it's clear that either they are fabricated or he is not being truthful in the newer interviews.

Re: Man Denies He's Bitcoin Founder

#66

Post by mortenjorck »

DigitalSea wrote: post #54

Based on other investigative efforts people have undertaken, the kind of level of complexity Bitcoin has in its underlying code-base shows that there might have been more than one person responsible for Bitcoin. It's unfortunate this has happened to a guy who is not related to Bitcoin at all. Pictures of his house, location, his full name and even going as far as documenting that he's between in and out of jobs over…

  NewsWeek either need to put up some conclusive proof or 
  retract everything they've said and give mr Satoshi an apology.
This has been my problem since the story broke. It's just like a good conspiracy theory; the circumstances are all there to make the conclusion possible, even plausible. But there's not enough there that would hold up in a court of law.

Re: Man Denies He's Bitcoin Founder

#67

Post by declan »

bhouston wrote: post #60
Aqueous wrote: post #50

Ok, I'm sorry but there are some serious inconsistencies here. Leah McGrath Goodman said that after she asked him about BitCoin he promptly stopped emailing her. The timeline is unclear, but it seems like this was before Goodman contacted his family members. Why would she contact his family members if she was directly talking to him and they could blow her pretext of wanting to talk about model trains? This strongly…

I agree as much as one can. Unless there are outright fabrications in the Newsweek story, you really can not then start denying his role after he seemed to be admitting it. The chance of a random guy just admitting his role, being eccentric and really smart in this area and then later denying it -- and then not being the guy behind Bitcoin, seems implausible. That said, if the guy wants his privacy, we can afford it…

Another possibility is that the Newsweek reporter was overly convinced she was right, and ignored inconsistencies that disagreed with her premise. We don't have audio of the exchange where Dorian Nakamoto allegedly quasi-admitted to being involved in Bitcoin. I could be wrong, of course, but misquotes do happen.

Re: Man Denies He's Bitcoin Founder

#69

Post by fleitz »

nikcub wrote: post #45
waterlesscloud wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's also the question of obtaining his email address through a merchant he did business with. That seems like it would be borderline illegal.

the entire story relied on pretexting. i'd love to see the email to the merchant, bet she didn't identify as a journalist.

OMG she didn't identify as a journalist?!?1?!?

That's it, it's a slam dunk case Newsweek is liable for bajillions of dollars. He sure didn't act like a secretively paranoid inventor of bitcoin.

I bet newsweek would love to see his entire email history. He should probably sue them so he can see that email to the merchant and newsweek can read his entire email history, as well as subpoena various other people for their private emails with satoshi. This will be a winning legal strategy to protect his privacy.

Re: Man Denies He's Bitcoin Founder

#70

Post by declan »

fatbat wrote: post #15

From article "exclusive two-hour interview" but then no link?

AP almost certainly audio recorded it (at every news organization I've worked for it would be standard practice). But that doesn't mean they'll post the audio, or that there was video.

Also: they'll do a writethru soon enough.

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