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Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? My quest to unmask Bitcoin's creator

nytimes.com

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Re: Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? My quest to unmask Bitcoin's creator

#661

Post by decimalenough »

dncornholio wrote: post #584
nekitamo wrote: post #466

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of their journalists also doxxed Naomi Wu, intruding on her personal life, making her lose her income, and possibly getting her in trouble with Chinese authorities: https://x.com/RealSexyCyborg/status/1209815150376574976 The journalist themselves is a real piece of work: https://thehill.com/homenews/media/463503-sarah-jeong-out-at... Kinda goes to show you the kind of people who write these stories. Ethics haven'…

Are you able to explain in 1 short sentence what Vice did wrong to her? Because I can't. I remember reading Wu's explanation and couldn't find anything in there, like at all. It was filled with prejudice.

They outed her as lesbian, in a country where this is increasingly unacceptable.

Re: Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? My quest to unmask Bitcoin's creator

#662

Post by briandw »

This dude can seem to tell the difference between Newsgroups and Mailing Lists. Also described Newsgroups as being displayed in a particular font. What a weird mistake. It's almost like he doesn't care about the details.

The article claims Adam Back "disappeared" on the cryptography mailing lists exactly when Satoshi Nakamoto became active (late 2008) and only "reappeared" around the time Satoshi stopped posting in 2011.

Back's rebuttal: He was highly active, "a lot of yakking" on the relevant lists and forums during Bitcoin's early years. He points out that his high volume of posts on electronic cash and cryptography topics naturally makes him visible in searches, creating confirmation bias when filtering for "Satoshi-like" activity.

The NYT analysis apparently missed or underweighted his continued contributions in developer chats, Bitcoin-related discussions, and other lists/forums.

The stylistic argument is weak. In 1990s technical mailing lists and Usenet, Many cypherpunks showed similar inconsistencies. The article treats these as highly distinctive "fingerprints" rather than common artifacts of the era's informal technical writing.

Re: Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? My quest to unmask Bitcoin's creator

#663

Post by ctippett »

alexjurkiewicz wrote: post #546
ctippett wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(part or all of) Your aside suggests you might already have considered what I'm about propose, but why not Finney and Back both as Satoshi? The reporting already establishes all three parties (Satoshi being the third) were familiar/friendly with one another. The reporting says that Finney was the recipient of the first ever Bitcoin transaction, which seems like a completely natural thing to do if the two of you are w…

If Finney and Back were working together, why does Finney post a lot as himself through Satoshi's existence while Back does not? That implies it's just Back who was the Satoshi poster. And if so, you don't have any evidence Finney is a technical co-founder.

No evidence, just imagination. Reading the article was my first time learning about these people, so I'm unlikely to contribute anything new to the discourse that hasn't already been debated and scrutinised ad infinitum. I did find this person's post[1] to be the most compatible with what I had in mind when I made my original comment, in case you're looking for a more substantive viewpoint.

I do think there's something to my idea that the reason we haven't seen any activity from Satoshi's wallet is because it's being held in some sort of trust. An individual might not go to the trouble of setting something like that up, but a collective might be more inclined to do so. I haven't seen anyone else float this line of reasoning before and it seems to make more sense than the prevailing theories.

[1] https://xcancel.com/Brand/status/2041892664954818788

Re: Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? My quest to unmask Bitcoin's creator

#664

Post by [deleted] »

Lio wrote: post #520
johnfn wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The NYTimes infamously doxxed Slate Star Codex[1], despite him basically begging them not to because it would upend his psychiatry practice, back in 2020 for no reason other than because they could. [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23610416

It's the use of the word "quest" here that really bothers me. It seems ignoble. Much like the "unmasking" of Banksy or Belle de Jour. Why do it other than nosiness? Is the person committing a crime? No? Then leave them in peace. This is just a journalist using the resources of NYTimes to show off that they can exert control over someone else.

[deleted]

Re: Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? My quest to unmask Bitcoin's creator

#665

Post by [deleted] »

hcknwscommenter wrote: post #236
wjessup wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% of people who've ever had DHMO have died. This is scientifically verified and yet nobody does anything about it.

I know this is a joke, but you did it wrong. There are obviously people (like me) who have had DHMO and are not dead. 100% of the people who have died have been exposed to DHMO.

[deleted]

Re: Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? My quest to unmask Bitcoin's creator

#666

Post by ifwinterco »

pas wrote: post #634
ifwinterco wrote: post #444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a silly topic to spend (waste) time on, but I can't help it, I just find it sort of fascinating. It's a mystery where you have to try and put together different pieces of evidence, match things up, try and look for hidden connections - a certain type of human mind (mine, I guess) just finds that process rewarding. I've gone down most of these rabbit holes and my 2c is it's one of these two people, not any of the…

Le Roux was not in prison before 2020, it makes no sense to me that he was spending his time trafficking drugs when he was sitting on billions. Of course at this point the only "sane" reasons for someone to not touch the wallet is that they are sitting on so much BTC anyway, they don't want to cause the price to drop, or the keys are lost (but the person is alive), or the person is dead. If someone has access they ca…

Your timeline is a bit off - he got arrested on 26 September 2012 (around the time Satoshi disappeared), and he became a DEA informant after his arrest which is why he didn't finally get sentenced for 8 years.

So at the time of his arrest (after which he was in federal custody and the DEA were monitoring all his use of electronic devices) Bitcoin had only been in existence for three and a half years.

The drug trafficking and Le Roux's various other criminal enterprises all started happened in the mid-late 2000s, before Bitcoin was worth anything

Re: Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? My quest to unmask Bitcoin's creator

#667

Post by Pay08 »

GJim wrote: post #544
tavavex wrote: post #301

Can I just ask why people are so fixated on revealing Satoshi's identity? This article phrases it as some pure, innocent and almost academic pursuit, driven by curiosity and the mystique itself. But the amount of effort spent on trying to find Satoshi is immense. He must be the internet's most doxxed person by now. Is it just because of his wealth? Is someone trying to exact revenge on him? Or is he wanted by the aut…

> Can I just ask why people are so fixated on revealing Satoshi's identity? Probably the same reason people remain interested in the identity of Jack the Ripper , despite over 130 years having passed. See also, DB Cooper and who stole the FIFA World Cup. Nothing wrong with a good mystery.

Those people are all criminals, though.

Re: Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? My quest to unmask Bitcoin's creator

#668

Post by morgoo »

Lerc wrote: post #112

I found this amusing. >P.G.P., a free encryption program used by antinuclear activists and human rights groups to shield their files and emails from government surveillance. I find it fascinating to see how the users of a program change, based on how a reporter wants to build or diminish. At least it's going in a positive direction today.

I found that entire section amusing. Some choice quotes:

> So does Bitcoin. A Bitcoin user has two keys: a public key, from which an address is derived that acts as a digital safe deposit box; and a private key, which is the secret combination used to unlock that box and spend the coins it contains.

> How interesting, I thought, that Mr. Back’s grad-school hobby involved the same cryptographic technique that Satoshi had repurposed.

> And Mr. Back’s thesis project focused on C++ — the same programming language Satoshi used to code the first version of the Bitcoin software.

public key encryption and c++! It must be him.

Re: Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? My quest to unmask Bitcoin's creator

#669

Post by [deleted] »

silisili wrote: post #448
adastra22 wrote: post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I founded a company with Adam. He is not Satoshi. Neither is Szabo. Best not to speculate publicly as no good comes from it - not least of which there are organized crime rings targeting potential suspects for violent kidnapping or home invasion.

Not to be a jerk, but it'd be helpful for a reader to know how and why you came to that conclusion.

[deleted]

Re: Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? My quest to unmask Bitcoin's creator

#670

Post by [deleted] »

csa wrote: post #469
raincole wrote: post #447

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the "evidence" they presented includes things like, body language . > I presented my evidence piece by piece. In his soft British lilt, Mr. Back insisted he wasn’t Satoshi and chalked it all up to a series of coincidences. But at times, his body language told a different story. His face reddened and he shifted uncomfortably in his seat when confronted with things that were harder to explain away. Yes, they uniron…

> this is unashamedly published on a so-called credible journalism outlet There may be credible journalists at some major print newspapers, but I don’t think there are many people who actually believe that any major US-based journalism outlet defaults to credible any more.

[deleted]
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