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

nytimes.com

91–100 of 905 posts

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

#91
post #67

I found this article about as compelling as all the other attempts at identifying him. Half of the cypherpunks (I was pretty active) had the same set of interests in public key cryptography, libertarianism, anonymity, criticism of copyright, and predecessor systems like Chaum's ecash; we talked about those in virtually every meeting. The most compelling evidence is Adam Back's body language, as subjectively observed…

The body language thing really bothers me. Personally, if someone accuses me of lying, but I am actually telling the truth, I immediately start acting like a liar. It's really embarrassing and hard to explain. I can't believe such a seasoned reporter is leaning so hard on "his face went red."

Yea pretty similar idea to a polygraph test which for years was called a "lie detector."

In reality, they measure a bunch of things that may indicate lying, but they are just as likely to indicate that a person is nervous or reacting to the fact they're being tested at all.

They're typically inadmissible in court these days, however, there is still a pretty solid amount of blind trust in their results.

That part of the article gives a similar "lie detecting" hypothesis, just without the machine.

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

#92

If you've ever seen Back's twitter you would know he's not Satoshi. I'm still firmly in the Finney camp. Every couple years one of these articles shows up focusing on one of the core Satoshi suspects, at least do a Wei Dai one next time.

I’m also in the Finney camp.

The most important bit to me is that doing something like this would be entirely in-line with his personality.

Also, I think he truly believed there was a good chance he’d eventually be brought back. The most likely case in my mind is that he died with the private keys in his head, and that we’ll never get confirmation.

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

#93

I don't believe anyone claiming that Satoshi is still alive. There is zero chance any human who put so much effort into creating something would remain silent while it became a $2 trillion phenomenon that succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Satoshi is certainly dead.

This is a ridiculous argument "zero chance" that completely discounts the possibility (or in all likelyhood, probability) that the creator may be compelled to stay silent, in jail, etc.

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

#94
post #75

> I’d learned enough by then to know that P.G.P. relies on public-key cryptography. > 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 cryptograp…

I don't blame you for this initial reaction, which would have been mine too had I not known who the author was. I don't mean that I automatically trust anything published by the reporter who busted Theranos (and won two Pulitzers for other major investigations). But I do mean that if John Carreyrou and his editors decided to publish something this long, that means they (and they're lawyers) are willing to die on this…

wrt (2) that is if satoshi had the foresight btc would ever blow up in the way it did. obviously, he had some intuition, remaining anonymous, but deliberately creating a fake trail does not seem super plausible to me

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

#96

Why do journalists try to doxx innocent people, putting their personal (and here actual) lives at risk? Bansky, Scott Alexander... Spend this effort investigating corruption.

If this guy was still just a guy on a mailing list and otherwise living a private life, this article would be inappropriate to publish IMO.

However, he's a significant public figure in the Bitcoin world (apparently). Still a gray area I guess but I don't think he's off limits from this kind of scrutiny.

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

#97
post #14

If Satoshi is still alive (I believe it's a single guy), then it's incredible the amount of self-control he has to not reveal his identity after all these years. Not needing the wealth or the fame and ego-stroking that comes with being behind such a revolutionary technology is enviable. Not many people are like that. If he is still alive and just moved on to other things as he said, I can't applaud that kind of perso…

One factor is that it's known that he controls the wallet with many billions of dollars in it. That would make him a target for kidnapping/extortion/etc. He could have easily kept mining under a different address though and become very wealthy aside from the main wallet.

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

#98

I don't believe anyone claiming that Satoshi is still alive. There is zero chance any human who put so much effort into creating something would remain silent while it became a $2 trillion phenomenon that succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Satoshi is certainly dead.

> There is zero chance any human who put so much effort into creating something would remain silent while it became a $2 trillion phenomenon

I'd argue this is the best reason to remain silent as much as one can.

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

#99
what if satoshi is not one person but a phenomenon, a group of minds... the interesting thing about the technology is that it is a public ledger and everything that goes along with that when you tie it to the metadata trails across the networks people use it on... ohh the implications

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

#100
post #93

I don't believe anyone claiming that Satoshi is still alive. There is zero chance any human who put so much effort into creating something would remain silent while it became a $2 trillion phenomenon that succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Satoshi is certainly dead.

This is a ridiculous argument "zero chance" that completely discounts the possibility (or in all likelyhood, probability) that the creator may be compelled to stay silent, in jail, etc.

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