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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

#841

Post by eru »

gedy wrote: post #706
eru wrote: post #619

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A third tweet posted by Jeong in 2014 said, “Are white people genetically predisposed to burn faster in the sun, thus logically being only fit to live underground like groveling goblins.” It's not like she's any browner..

Honestly these loudmouths are usually quite privileged themselves. These theatrics are either to deflect from themselves, or they are delusional about how tough their life is.

I agree with your first statement. However I wouldn't dismiss them just because of that: as an analogy, most of the most effective campaigners against slavery were not slaves themselves.

I do agree that in this particular case the lady in question seems rather nasty, and the whole woke movement seems to be quite the circular firing squad.

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

#842

Post by doctorwho42 »

user34283 wrote: post #589
thaumasiotes wrote: post #577

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Bitcoins across old unused wallets worth $30B to $80B depend of how you count it. It's worth considerably less if you make any attempt to count it accurately. The market capitalization reflects the fact that old unused wallets are unused. If they stopped being unused, market capitalization would drop.

In some sense they are even completely worthless - just tokens in a wealth redistribution scheme not connected to notable real value production. If the system does crash, nothing of value would be lost. And we would be rid of ransomware.

Well not nothing, we have already loss an incalculable amount of money, resources, energy and time to generating Bitcoin and any other coin.

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

#843

Post by carefree-bob »

eru wrote: post #837
bfmalky wrote: post #793

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hype would not cause a price increase in this case. The value of bitcoin is partly due to scarcity. 1.1m previously inaccessible bitcoins suddenly becoming liquid would cause a drop in price, even if they were sold slowly. It could also cause panic selling as it might indicate the wallets have been brute force cracked.

> The value of bitcoin is partly due to scarcity. Partially due to scarcity, but also due to hype. As a weaker point: I would expect an increase in the market capitalisation of the bitcoin float. Ie if you multiply the price of bitcoin by the amount of movable bitcoin right now and after the first Satoshi is sold, you compare with the new price of bitcoin multiplied by the newly enlarged amount of movable bitcoin. Th…

> Partially due to scarcity, but also due to hype.

I agree with you, but isn't the value of gold also almost entirely due to hype? Sure, there are some industrial applications, but those are minor components of demand for gold.

Hype is just another way of saying "people obtain pleasure from owning this thing" and that's pretty much what sets demand for most goods. Don't even get me started on diamonds. The whole wedding ring having a diamond is hype.

Bitcoin just makes this explicit and impossible to deny.

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

#844

Post by eru »

carefree-bob wrote: post #843
eru wrote: post #837

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The value of bitcoin is partly due to scarcity. Partially due to scarcity, but also due to hype. As a weaker point: I would expect an increase in the market capitalisation of the bitcoin float. Ie if you multiply the price of bitcoin by the amount of movable bitcoin right now and after the first Satoshi is sold, you compare with the new price of bitcoin multiplied by the newly enlarged amount of movable bitcoin. Th…

> Partially due to scarcity, but also due to hype. I agree with you, but isn't the value of gold also almost entirely due to hype? Sure, there are some industrial applications, but those are minor components of demand for gold. Hype is just another way of saying "people obtain pleasure from owning this thing" and that's pretty much what sets demand for most goods. Don't even get me started on diamonds. The whole wedd…

Well, there's pleasure from directly owning the thing: you can look at gold in your vault and appreciate it for itself.

But a bitcoin in your vault by itself is indistinguishable from a shitcoin I just made by forking bitcoin with the same code but a new genesis block. Or even more pointed: the alternative futures of bitcoins after any route not taken by the community after any hard fork.

In any case, I agree that much of the value of gold comes from social conventions, too, yes.

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

#846

Post by khalic »

prettyblocks wrote: post #811
khalic wrote: post #607

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s not how you use that kind of wealth. You take loans with the fortune as collateral… come on that’s pretty basic stuff

In this case it's not basic stuff. You would need to prove that you own the actual bitcoin or transfer it for it to be collateral on a loan. It's the same as spending it.

Why are you framing this as the only solution? There are many many other ways to secure a guaranty

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

#848

Post by GJim »

Pay08 wrote: post #667
GJim wrote: post #544

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

The point you raise is an amusing one; it will no doubt cause crypto-evangelists to have fits of the vapours.

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

#849

Post by pas »

ifwinterco wrote: post #666
pas wrote: post #634

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 traffic…

Thanks for the details! I assumed he had at least some access, control or leverage.

(But losing keys is very easy, especially if the feds take your devices and your means of buying new ones, and freely accessing potential backups.)

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

#850

Post by Yizahi »

gyomu wrote: post #312

Simple question for anyone who’s familiar with this world of journalism: how does the author and the NYTimes cope with the fact that making such claims paint a huge target on the person they claim to have “unmasked”? Satoshi’s wallets are worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and there have been kidnappings/torture/murders for much less than that. Do they just not care about the ethical implications? And really, for…

While in general you are right, there is a reason why developed countries are usually publicizing information about government officials and private entrepreneurs. This creates sense of accountability and allows for proper oversight by the journalists and law. And among those are plenty of rich or very rich people and no one is kidnapping or shooting them in the streets despite knowing exactly where they live or work.

Arguably a person who can at whim with a single click destabilize half the world economy (simply by moving a single sat from the creator wallet to another, among other things) necessitates such oversight too and can't claim to be a private insignificant individual who is abused by transparency.

PS: even though I'm a lowly QA on a relatively small salary, as an entrepreneur my private info like contact, full address, tax returns and other is completely and legally public for anyone in the world to see on my government portal. And it is a good thing.

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