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Decoding the Enigma of Satoshi Nakamoto
HughPickens.com writes: For the past year Nathaniel Popper has been working on a book about the history of Bitcoin and writes in the NYT that it is hard to avoid being drawn in by the almost mystical riddle of Satoshi Nakamoto's identity. Popper has his own candidate for founder of Bitcoin, a reclusive American man of Hungarian descent named Nick Szabo. Szabo worked in a loosely organized group of digital privacy activists who over decades laid the foundation for Bitcoin and created many parts that later went into the virtual currency. Bitcoin was not a bolt out of the blue, as is sometimes assumed, but was instead built on the ideas of multiple people over several decades. Several experiments in digital cash circulated on the Cypherpunk lists in the 1990s. Adam Back, a British researcher, created an algorithm called hashcash that later became a central component of Bitcoin. Another, called b money, was designed by an intensely private computer engineer named Wei Dai.
It may be impossible to prove Satoshi's identity until the person or people behind Bitcoin's curtain decide to come forward and prove ownership of Satoshi's old electronic accounts and at this point, the creator's identity is no longer important to Bitcoin's future. Since Satoshi stopped contributing to the project in 2011, most of the open-source code has been rewritten by a group of programmers whose identities are known. According to Popper whoever it is, the real Satoshi Nakamoto has many good reasons for wanting to stay anonymous. Perhaps the most obvious is potential danger. Satoshi Nakamoto most likely collected nearly a million Bitcoins during the system's first year. Given that each Bitcoin is now worth about $240, the stash could be worth more than $200 million. That could make Satoshi a target. "With his modest clothes and unassuming manner, Mr. Szabo could be the kind of person who could have a fortune and not spend any of it," concludes Popper, "or even throw away the keys to the bank."
It may be impossible to prove Satoshi's identity until the person or people behind Bitcoin's curtain decide to come forward and prove ownership of Satoshi's old electronic accounts and at this point, the creator's identity is no longer important to Bitcoin's future. Since Satoshi stopped contributing to the project in 2011, most of the open-source code has been rewritten by a group of programmers whose identities are known. According to Popper whoever it is, the real Satoshi Nakamoto has many good reasons for wanting to stay anonymous. Perhaps the most obvious is potential danger. Satoshi Nakamoto most likely collected nearly a million Bitcoins during the system's first year. Given that each Bitcoin is now worth about $240, the stash could be worth more than $200 million. That could make Satoshi a target. "With his modest clothes and unassuming manner, Mr. Szabo could be the kind of person who could have a fortune and not spend any of it," concludes Popper, "or even throw away the keys to the bank."
I think that systemd created Bitcoin as a distraction while systemd takes over GNU/Linux and turns it into systemd/Linux, which will eventually just become systemd when the Linux kernel (now just a boot loader for systemd) is rendered obsolete.
"an intensely private computer engineer named Wei Dai"
Intensely private? The first hit on Google is for www.weidai.com, his own homepage where he has uploaded pretty much all of his code and publications. He lists contact info and offers to anwser questions on an "Ask Me Anything" website. That's not what I, Anonymous Coward, would consider intensely private behaviour.
He's out of the Bitcoin loop now, so it matters less and less as time passes...
unless you're a taxing entity that wants a cut of his Bit-income.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
Why are we continuing to post articles about this conspiracy theory? Listen to it, "The more average and unassuming the guy seems, the more likely he is the Bitcoin founder!"
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
Who's getting the book and movie rights?
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Dear Mr. Nakamoto,
please throw away your Bitcoins at this address, I'll make sure to recycle them properly:
18LQHMjKSCSU3g4f29TfmtfxHXUfnh7juB
Thank you.
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
No, I am Spartacus! ...D'oh!
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
I don't know. Why don't you ask John Hancock?
If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
Whoever used bitcoin is on a watch list.
Would you like some Taco Bell to go with your paranoia?
FWIW, that'd make for a preeety long list at this point... The feds might do better just using the phone book.
Nice euphemism for "Looking to ruin someone else's privacy and security in exchange for some journalistic fame".
Some clueless Newsweek reporter thought this was the inventors real name and started cheacking out all the namesakes in world. Outed some unfortuned southern California guy.
It's obvious. Satoshi Nakamoto is a pseudonym of Nicolas Bourbaki.
n/t
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
The feds might do better just using the phone book.
That's pretty much what they do now, isn't it ?
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
I've mentioned this before... but times have changed. For better or for worse, BitCoin is the currency that people have latched onto, similar to how Facebook is the social network of choice these days.
Even though there are details that the currency is fraught with, it is becoming stable and accepted by the mainstream, where it is becoming trusted enough for people to actually not just use it for a means of exchange (quickly changing from their preferred unit of stored value to BTC, then the seller quickly changing from BTC to their favorite unit), but as a means of holding wealth, since it is a deflationary currency.
Last year they ruined one guys life by claiming he was "the Nakamoto".
Now they want to ruin another.
Ever since moderation and karma was implemented to discourage "First Post!" posts, Slashdot has been best read at -1.
-=/\- Jizzbug -/\=-
yeah 80% lost value from peak, relatively illiquid, potentially illegal, and relatively volatile. What a great hedge against inflation.
What does being the top result on Google for your name/handle have to do with being "intensely private"? Answer: nothing.
-=/\- Jizzbug -/\=-
It's not Souza it's Sose. The Hungarian S is pronounced like the English SH - so SHO-SHE(R). Sose means never as in never existed. It's a hidden punchline in the movie.
The Hungarian SZ is a straight S sound in English. So SZABO sounds like SABO.
The most plausible reason for the inventor to remain anonymous: it's a Ponzi scheme.
You can only get prosecuted for that if you can be identified.
I'm Brian and so's my wife.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
Perhaps a more pertinent question is, why are you such a spineless string of piss? ;)
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.