Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? My quest to unmask Bitcoin's creator • Hacker News Board

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

#871

Post by surianfb » Sat, Apr 11, 2026, 5:31 PM UTC

ctippett wrote: post #278

philistine wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why does everybody assume that whoever is Satoshi still has access to their wallet? It's absolutely possible whoever is Satoshi has simply lost the key. We're talking new technology where you're running fast and loose. It's absolutely possible, and I'd say a big reason why someone would not want to admit to being Satoshi. I'm Satoshi, but I also lost billions because I messed up a Debian upgrade .

I commented elsewhere in this thread theorising that Satoshi could be the work of both Finney and Back. If that has any basis in reality, then it stands to reason that perhaps the wallet is locked away in a trust or at least legally unobtainable until certain conditions are met (e.g. Adam Back's passing). I can imagine a scenario in the future where a law firm makes a press release confirming they're in possession of…

I think this is plausible as well. One of the emails used by Satoshi was tracked to CA (where Finney lived), the original paper talks in plural "we" (fwiw), and the Dorian Satoshi person lived in CA and could have been an inspiration for the name (if Finney had come across him somehow) since he was a very private, anti gov person (not saying he had anything to do with BTC)

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

#872

Post by surianfb » Sat, Apr 11, 2026, 5:36 PM UTC

ozten wrote: post #123

danso wrote: post #79

Pretty compelling story. Not necessarily for its revelations, but for the fact that John Carreyrou and the NYT decided to publish it at all. If it were by anyone else, I would have stopped reading after the first thousand words of meandering narrative, but Carreyrou is staking his massive and impeccable investigative journalistic reputation on this mountain of circumstantial evidence and statistical analysis. Him tor…

Does Carreyrou give reasons for eliminating Hal Finney from being (part or all of) Satoshi?

He died before Satoshi last posted. He could have been a joint creator though

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

#873

Post by surianfb » Sat, Apr 11, 2026, 5:40 PM UTC

jmkni wrote: post #472

cloche wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you believe that Satoshi's email wasn't hacked then his last emails came after Finney had passed away.

I remember at the time the consensus was that the email host itself had been hacked It was running on outdated software with known vulnerabilities

Seems like a hacker would then use the email for more nefarious goals like manipulating price...

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

#874

Post by toby- » Sun, Apr 12, 2026, 12:04 AM UTC

ninjagoo wrote: post #638

Science is hard. This reporter is no scientist, and not very good with logic, or managing context. The article feels like an amateur in a fever dream, whose conclusion is ultimately wrong. Two of the problems with this article, among others: > we identified 325 distinct errors in Satoshi’s use of hyphens. > Mr. Back was a clear outlier. He shared 67 of Satoshi’s exact hyphenation errors. The person with the second-mo…

> I wonder, based on the large number of distinct hyphenation errors, whether Satoshi is even from the UK or the US.

How many native English speakers are truly familiar with hyphenating compound nouns and adjectives? I'd say a majority don't know how to consistently hyphenate correctly.

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

#875

Post by toby- » Sun, Apr 12, 2026, 12:11 AM UTC

bnjemian wrote: post #74

It's funny because the author notes a prior attempt to uncover Satoshi's identity and giving up because an implied lack of technical depth. I guess this time they were undaunted. Perhaps they received an AI assist and felt validated by AI sycophancy. Much of the technical evidence cited is weak (e.g. strong knowledge of public-key cryptography, both used C++, etc.). Still, the (somewhat lazy) forensic linguistics is…

The hyphenating patterns are particularly curious, to me.

Some supposed idiosyncrasies ('bugfix', for example) are just standard renderings amongst programmers/tech types; using those as evidence somewhat betrays the author's lack of familiarity with the field/community (as if the C++ and public-key cryptography 'evidence' didn't make that plain enough...).

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

#876

Post by toby- » Sun, Apr 12, 2026, 12:51 AM UTC

random2026 wrote: post #443

hombre_fatal wrote: post #284

The simplest filter to exclude potential Satoshi candidates is to read Satoshi's early posts discussing bitcoin which never seems to come up in these convos. He had a calm, cool, consistent, professional demeanor. Always worlds different than the people people claim him to be. You'd have to believe these public figures were playing 4D chess where they invented a persona and spent a couple years impeccably roleplaying…

This comment rings true to me as someone who contemporaneously read Satoshi's posts (not from the very beginning but on bitcointalk.org). People are underestimating how difficult (and probably pointless) it is to create and maintain a whole personality in aid of subterfuge. There are so many other easier and less risky ways to achieve the same goal than to adopt a consistent persona that's far from your own; you coul…

> Among people who try to guess Satoshi's identity, there is also a surprising bias toward fame or at least well-known people.

Very true. Every time I see people seriously propose Elon Musk or Paul Le Roux or some other flashy/cool celebrity figure, I'm reminded that people are just attracted to spectacular stories and theories. Similar to how every missing persons case eventually has "trafficked by millionaires for sick satanic rituals" proposed as a theory.

I think Satoshi was probably a regular, older IT professional who developed an interest in digital cash, did some research, and familiarised himself (somewhat) with earlier proposals and discussions. People suggest he was a seasoned cypherpunk, but when he first began posting about Bitcoin to mailing lists, I seem to recall someone having to correct his formatting (I don't remember the specifics, and I wish I could find it, but it stood out to me at the time as suggesting unfamiliarity with mailing lists generally).

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

#877

Post by toby- » Sun, Apr 12, 2026, 1:04 AM UTC

jl6 wrote: post #538

I just don’t find it plausible that there is a living human being who is capable of turning down a $70bn+ payday, hence Satoshi must be dead, hence it was probably Finney, and all the counter-evidence is easier to explain than a superhuman act of restraint.

Or he just lost the keys. Or the analysis is wrong and those aren't his wallets; it was never definitive.

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

#878

Post by toby- » Sun, Apr 12, 2026, 1:06 AM UTC

rurban wrote: post #328

Aba wouldn't have said: "Send X bitcoins to my priority hotline at this IP and I’ll read the message personally." Because aba knew about how email worked, unlike Satoshi. A hotline is not at in IP, it is at a domain with an MX record. Satoshi was a Windows guy.

The early Bitcoin client could send Bitcoins to an IP address. That's all he meant, no?

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

#879

Post by toby- » Sun, Apr 12, 2026, 1:22 AM UTC

ChaitanyaSai wrote: post #304

Here's my armchair two cents: Whoever it is, has to be British. The language is unmistakeably British or Commonwealth. It's likely him. I'd wager if there was a polymarket bet. But I also feel for him. Does this make him a target for both half-wit criminials and rogue nation states?

The British English could be a misdirection. Satoshi was always quite inconsistent, sometimes using US spellings ('color', 'check', 'optimize'). One that always stood out to me was his use of 'gotten' – we don't typically use that word in British English, but an American English speaker attempting to disguise themselves as a Brit most likely wouldn't be aware of that fact.

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

#880

Post by toby- » Sun, Apr 12, 2026, 1:26 AM UTC

Simulacra wrote: post #103

Every time I see one of these articles about "unmasking" Nakamoto, I always wonder the same thing: why? I don't really see a compelling reason to unmask this person. Surely there are other more important things a journalist can spend their time looking into. It's the same with Banksy: why?

People love a mystery. And people love to solve mysteries. Don't look for any deeper motivation than that.