Alleged Bitcoin Creator Raided By Australian Authorities (arstechnica.com)

wbr1 writes: As reported yesterday, Wired and Gizmodo think Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto is actually Australian businessman Craig Wright

Now, Craig Wright has been raided by Australian police. Curiously, a statement from the Australian federal police said that the raids were not related to the recent Bitcoin revelation. "The AFP can confirm it has conducted search warrants to assist the Australian Taxation Office at a residence in Gordon and a business premises in Ryde, Sydney. This matter is unrelated to recent media reporting regarding the digital currency bitcoin." Supposedly not related, but interesting nonetheless.

Reuters adds,"At Wright's rented home, a modest brick house in the leafy middle class suburb of Gordon, three police workers wearing white gloves could be seen searching the garage, which contained gym equipment. A man who identified himself as the owner of the house, Garry Hayres, told Reuters that Wright and his family had lived there for a year, and were due to move out on Dec. 22 to move to Britain. Hayres said that Wright had a 'substantial computer system set-up' and had attached a 'three-phase' power system to the back of the house for extra power."

Comments

You'd be raided too

[Anonymous Coward]

Imagine if the IRS suddenly found out you had four hundred million dollars' worth of undeclared capital gains.

Re:You'd be raided too

[PPH]

I thought Bitcoin was a commodity. Capital gains aren't realized until you sell them for actual money.

Re:You'd be raided too

[Big Hairy Ian]

If he's convicted and he still emigrates to the UK wont that be history in reverse?

Re:You'd be raided too

[Anonymous Coward]

It wouldn't be capital gains until the assets are converted back to currency?

(Depending on the legal status on cryptocurrency in the relevant state as either a currency or an asset).

But yes, it does sound like the tax folks went, "Sniff sniff... is that money we can smell? Quick! Get a warrant!"

Re:You'd be raided too

[prunus.avium]

Supposedly unrelated. He was already having tax problems before the story broke...at least, that's what the authorities are saying.

Re: You'd be raided too

[Anonymous Coward]

It may have been that the raid is unrelated but the timing was related. Maybe they felt he might flee after being "outed" and moved up their time table for the raid?

Re:You'd be raided too

[Anonymous Coward]

Contrary to popular belief, Australia is not part of the United States.

Re:You'd be raided too

[Archangel Michael]

So, when I say "Under threat of government guns", you know what I mean.

Re:You'd be raided too

[Archangel Michael]

OT :

Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

Having been "on fire" literally, and being perpetually cold when the weather Temp is below 75 F .. I can assure you that your statement is not accurate. ;)

Re:You'd be raided too

[Big Hairy Ian]

Having been "on fire" literally, and being perpetually cold when the weather Temp is below 75 F .. I can assure you that your statement is not accurate. ;)

I'm sorry your argument cannot be accepted until you define what warm is in SI units this is slashdot after all

Re:You'd be raided too

[spacepimp]

A bitcoin has no value that the IRS can do anything about until it is sold or traded for a service or good. Unrealized value until it has a value.

Re:You'd be raided too

[thegarbz]

You think the IRS would show up within hours of the event being reported? You give your government agencies way too much credit.

Re: You'd be raided too

[thegarbz]

but the timing was related

Could not possibly be. There's a lot of words used to describe the federal police, but fast is not one of them. Raiding a house literally hours after news broke on some internet magazine? If the government actually possessed that kind of efficiency we would have solved all the world's problems by now.

Re:You'd be raided too

[Anonymous Coward]

Should we amend the quip to accommodate the existence of a table named "Fire"? It surely does, in some irrelevant corner of the world that has no real bearing on the now.

Should I keep dragging out contingencies or was one enough to make the point? With enough obnoxious creativity, they might be infinite.

This nonsense did actually effect something of consequence - I'll be mulling the possible roots of social bugs. And the various symptoms listed bundled in those roots. Things like pedantry and nitpicking, obviously, but maybe unexpected, useful patterns will emerge.

Re:You'd be raided too

[Anonymous Coward]

You only have to declare capital gains when you sell.

Re: You'd be raided too

[Anonymous Coward]

However the reverse of the GP's point could be true.

The raid my have been unrelated to the news, but related to the determination that he was dodging taxes by not declairing bitcoin sales as income.

Re: You'd be raided too

[fafaforza]

Well, governments are good at moving when it involves money coming their way. Witness red light cameras, how quickly meter maids spawn out of thin air, and how fast they garnish your wages. But you try to get money out of them, or another private citizen, and all of a sudden it's like trying to squeeze water out of a brick.

Re:You'd be raided too

[Anonymous Coward]

In the Netherlands capital gains tax needs to be payed on property based on the current sales value.

So when you hold stock they look at the virtual profit/loss you have on your stock that year and you pay taxes/deduct taxes based on this unrealised (I watched farscape) profit/loss.

Re:You'd be raided too

[Anonymous Coward]

You have to sell the capital to realize capital gains. The BTC in question has never moved, so we know it hasn't been sold. Until then it's just like a stock with unrealized value. When you CREATE the bitcoin you have to declare it, but in this case when it was originally created the value was essentially zero.

The IRS has declared bitcoin to be treated as subject to capital gains, and not as a currency. What the AU tax man says about BTC I have no idea.

Re: You'd be raided too

[truck_soccer]

but the timing was related

If the government actually possessed that kind of efficiency we would have solved all the world's problems by now.

That's cute. But why would they solve the problems that wouldn't make them any money?

Re: You'd be raided too

[TWX]

Kinda makes me wonder about that initial founding block of bitcoins that has never been used, and if this person has necessary information to actually access that block, what the legal issues for that would be for both him and for that initial unused block. Some have cited that block as part of the reason why bitcoin is reasonably stable, but if that block now somehow became Australia's property and if they chose to start spending it, what that would do to the scrip.

Re: You'd be raided too

[pla]

Kinda makes me wonder about that initial founding block of bitcoins that has never been used

BTC clients don't allow transactions against the genesis block (#0). Originally this resulted naturally from the the way the client inserted transactions into the local database (often called a bug, but possible done by design to address exactly what you ask); Newer versions handle it as an explicitly disallowed transaction (and even if you rolled your own version that allowed it, no other clients would honor it).

So no, gaining control of Satoshi's private keys couldn't compromise the blockchain; they could at best spend his BTC starting from block #1.

Re: You'd be raided too

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not a profit until you sell.

Re:You'd be raided too

[Anonymous Coward]

That's absurd IMHO.

Re: You'd be raided too

[NostalgiaForInfinity]

Kinda makes me wonder about that initial founding block of bitcoins that has never been used, and if this person has necessary information to actually access that block, what the legal issues for that would be for both him and for that initial unused block.

What possible legal justification would the Australian government have to force someone to release information about someone else's legal private property?

Re:You'd be raided too

[Immerman]

Ah, but clearly you weren't *set* on fire, or the job was incompetently done. After all you managed to put it out...

Re: You'd be raided too

[PRMan]

Yeah! They're not America!

Re: You'd be raided too

[cant_get_a_good_nick]

If the government actually possessed that kind of efficiency we would have solved all the world's problems by now.

Err, not likely. The US government at least was made to be inefficient. Because they had a taste of how efficiently the king could levy taxes against them. Slowness in a 3 branch government is a designed in feature, not a bug.

Re: You'd be raided too

[supremebob]

They might have already been keeping an eye on the guy. If so, they might have had to raid his house quickly before he had a chance to flee the country after getting outed.

Re:You'd be raided too

[nanoflower]

Indeed that is absurd since the value can easily go to zero the next year. Is the government going to give you back all the taxes that you have paid in over the previous years of owning a stock that had gone up in value before dropping to zero. (Think Enron as a perfect example of what can happen with stocks that you own and haven't sold.)

Re:You'd be raided too

[ackthpt]

Supposedly unrelated. He was already having tax problems before the story broke...at least, that's what the authorities are saying.

What? They don't take Bitcoin payments at the revenue office?

Re: You'd be raided too

[ackthpt]

Yeah! They're not America!

In America you're supposed to be protected from this approach "We'll look around and then use what we find to prosecute you for something, whatever seems to fit." Though the media, interwebs and presidential candidates will destroy you at will, simply because they can.

Re: You'd be raided too

[Anonymous Coward]

The general guideline is that the status quo is at least tolerable, deviation should be complicated.

Re: You'd be raided too

[sexconker]

The state always acts quickly to seize a citizen's money.

Re:You'd be raided too

[horza]

You are confused between wealth tax and capital gains tax.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_tax

Capital gains is only due when you sell something for more than you bought it. Wealth tax is an annual tax paid on your net worth, including property, shares, and potentially Bitcoin. Australia does not have a wealth tax.

Phillip.

Re:You'd be raided too

[PPH]

Imagine if some pissed off neighbor or asshole co-worker reported to the IRS that you had four hundred million dollars' worth of undeclared capital gains.

FTFY.

Even boards like 4chan will respond to random requests to dox or raid someone with "Not your personal army." It's a shame the IRS (and other countries' revenue departments) can't rise to their standards of ethics.

Re: You'd be raided too

[thegarbz]

Witness red light cameras, how quickly meter maids spawn out of thin air, and how fast they garnish your wages.

Don't confuse systems to take money with manual government action.

Installing a red light camera? 10s of thousands of dollars more expensive and slower for a government to do than a private person.
Employing a meter reader? That can be a 6 month HR exercise.
Garnishing your wages? Typically done through courts or another long drawn out project.

This was quite a manual response to sudden news. I don't think for a moment even with money motive that the government could mobilize that quickly.

Re:You'd be raided too

[Cederic]

Competently set him on fire, assure an adequate supply of oxygen, shortage of flame repellants and other extinguishing devices or materials, prevent him jumping in a lake, restrict others from providing aid or other assistance and he'll be warm for the rest of his short, painful, miserable life.

More accurate but I feel it loses the humour.

Re: You'd be raided too

[Anonymous Coward]

Allegedly he is already living in the UK

Re: You'd be raided too

[Anonymous Coward]

Australia has signed a treaty with the US ( a defence treaty ) that strips any Australians accused of crimed in the US of Australian rights so that they can be extradited outside of the normal process to the US to face trial.

If the US was involved, then the AFP could move without impediment.

Re: You'd be raided too

[Anonymous Coward]

Australia has signed a treaty with the US ( a defence treaty ) that strips any Australians accused of crimed in the US of Australian rights so that they can be extradited outside of the normal process to the US to face trial.

Australia has an extradition treaty with the US, and the obligations are reciprocal and symmetrical.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

But given the rising ignorance and idiocy in Australia, maybe the next US president should throw his weight around and force a unilateral treaty on Australia. After all, evidently, you already hate us, so why not live up to your false beliefs about us?

Re:You'd be raided too

[Cito]

hrmm

Undeclared CG
or
Undeclared CP

Re: You'd be raided too

[Anonymous Coward]

No it wasn't. It was made to be difficult to centralise to much power in one office.

That should not make government service inefficient.

Re: You'd be raided too

[Anonymous Coward]

Not true. Its easy to get them to attack someone. You can't outright ask them, but impersonate someone and annoy them enough and they will be quite useful.

Re: You'd be raided too

[Anonymous Coward]

Jack Bauer and the CTU from 24 seemed to do a while lot of crime-busting in a single season-long day. :)

Re: You'd be raided too

[Anonymous Coward]

The Blockchain is just a public list of transactions, once a block is created it never changes ever (Well after it gets buried deep enough not to get discarded), there is no key to unlock it.

Each Bitcoin isn't addressed individually, they exist more like a Bank balance exists, its just a number against an account. So the Australian Govt. may have access to these accounts (Private crypto keys), and the moment they use it, those transactions will go into a new block in the chain, and the whole world will know, and we can geek out.

Wonder if this guy is enroute to give the keys to Julian Assange instead?

Re: You'd be raided too

[jbmartin6]

Reckless disregard for due process isn't the same thing as efficiency.

Re:You'd be raided too

[Anonymous Coward]

this is slashdot, i expect it to be defined using standard klingon units.

Re: You'd be raided too

[thegarbz]

Australia and America are also two different places.
Assumptions and fact are also two different statements though on slashdot we often just merge them together.

Re: You'd be raided too

[jbmartin6]

Clever. Your implication that due process doesn't exist in Australia is false.

Re: You'd be raided too

[david_thornley]

Was there a reckless disregard for due process? TFS mentions warrants. Assuming those were issued correctly, it seems to me due process is satisfied.

Re:You'd be raided too

[Anonymous Coward]

Supposedly unrelated. He was already having tax problems before the story broke...at least, that's what the authorities are saying.

Because there is no history of authorities trying to steal bitcoins from their owners. Oh wait... I guess there is 3 massive examples.

Re: You'd be raided too

[jbmartin6]

Fair. I was thinking that if the police showed up quickly it might not be due to a sudden change in efficiency, it might be because they just disregarded procedure due to a string pulled from above.

I think I've missed something

[Rik Sweeney]

Why are the authorities after the creator of Bitcoin?

Re:I think I've missed something

[rebelwarlock]

The cops won't say, according to the article.

Re:I think I've missed something

[Richard_at_work]

They are after him for unrelated tax issues, not because he is the creator of Bitcoin.

Re: I think I've missed something

[ArmoredDragon]

It's simple; some drugs mysteriously showed up in his house after he raped a teenager. You know, the usual life sentence type stuff.

Re:I think I've missed something

[squiggleslash]

The raid came the day after the Wired/Gizmodo revelations and the cops don't move that fast, so it's more likely we've heard of this guy because of the investigation, not vice versa.

Supposedly it's tax related.

I'd be wary of assuming he is Nakamoto for now, the Wired article raised a number of flags (notably that while much of the evidence tying Wright to Nakamoto is datestamped 2009, there's no evidence much of it actually existed until much later - ie it might have been planted in 2013/2014 with 2009 datestamps. Hard to tell, largely because of the number of websites that have undergone massive redesigns over the last few years.)

Re:I think I've missed something

[wonkey_monkey]

His tax affairs (whether that's directly related to his bitcoin activities or not, I don't know) are under investigation.

Re:I think I've missed something

[Big Hairy Ian]

They think he might be the real Julian Assange

Re:I think I've missed something

[Tailhook]

Because there are a lot of zeros involved. The creator supposedly holds a large amount of bitcoin mined early on and now it's worth a fortune; $400-$1000 million, depending on who you believe.

Authorities see all those zeros and all precedent and due process go straight out the window; instant door kicking time. You could offer them proof positive of an ISIS cell with a chemical weapon in a Sydney residence and they wouldn't move this fast.

Re:I think I've missed something

[Sarten-X]

Because that furthers the narrative that Bitcoins are a disruptive anti-entablishment technology that will free us from the oppressive tyranny of government, so that's what Bitcoin-loving sites like Slashdot will emphasize.

Really, it's because the authorities are going after anyone who is breaking the law. The Bitcoin creator is believed to have a few hundred million dollars' worth of coins, and converting that to a taxable asset without paying taxes is one form of unlawful tax evasion. If someone legitimately deals in large quantities of commodity goods, they should be maintaining a complete record of every transaction made with that commodity, and paying taxes appropriately.

Re:I think I've missed something

[Anonymous Coward]

That's impossible, because I am the real Julian Assange.
 

Re:I think I've missed something

[Anonymous Coward]

What a COINCIDENCE.

Re: I think I've missed something

[PRMan]

Oh, so the Julian Assange thing....

Re:I think I've missed something

[PRMan]

You have to admit the timing is unbelievably coincidental...

Re:I think I've missed something

[Anonymous Coward]

Bitcoin is a potentially disruptive technology that the United States doesn't "own". That's why he's been raided, the tax thing is something tangential that gives them a means to pressure Wright much as Assange's "rape" charges provide leverage over him. The idea is to force him to hand over his "keys to the kingdom" with minimum fuss or go to jail.

Re:I think I've missed something

[MrL0G1C]

He's obviously not the creator of bitcoin, he's not very rich, he's renting his home and he's got tax problems which means he is likely in financial difficulty.

Re:I think I've missed something

[Anonymous Coward]

Spoken like a true citizen of a Western nation, who's had his eyes closed.

One of the interesting things about where I grew up (there aren't many) is seeing what Western nations do when the status quo is threatened, and they have an existential threat wrt even a small territory.

Rights go out the window, and they move fast - real fast like.

A very good education, early on, about the true nature of power.

Re:I think I've missed something

[squiggleslash]

Sometimes a coincidence isn't A causing B, it's B causing A.

Re:I think I've missed something

[Jack Griffin]

Authorities see all those zeros and all precedent and due process go straight out the window; instant door kicking time.

I think you've been watching too many movies. I'd be waiting til some real information came out before casting judgement. Or if trial by tabloid headlines works for you, see where that gets you.

sick, mad world

[Thud457]

Is it too late for him to get refugee tax status in Switzerland?

Re:sick, mad world

[Z00L00K]

Yes, because these days there are no safe havens when it comes to taxes.

Switzerland are now cooperating with authorities on bank account data.

Re: sick, mad world

[Anonymous Coward]

Except for North Korea and Iran. However as those two are the strongest members of the anti bitcoin lobby, going there is probably a bad idea.

heh

[Anonymous Coward]

they should have moved last month...to Iceland

Not Satoshi

[Canth7]

This is not Satoshi and he was not arrested for bitcoin related tax problems. Until someone wants to sign a message with Satoshi's PGP key or his well known private BTC key, then there's no reason to believe this is anything more than a hoax/prank.

Re:Not Satoshi

[PRMan]

They already have his PGP key, as the post above you points out.

Getting "outed" as Satoshi Nakamoto is new SWATing

[sinij]

Getting "outed" as Satoshi Nakamoto is the new SWATing, I suggest we call it IRSing and it is much, much worse.

Why?

[midifarm]

Why is Bitcoin anything?

Re:Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

I think it's because of 3d printers?

Re:Why?

[silas_moeckel]

Because it make a bunch of early adopters rich. Crypto Mining tends to be a ponzi ish scheme you mine the first realy easy ones then get people to spread the word as it gets harder. It is successful as people have been using it where CC are no longer taken (or they incorrectly think it can not be traced back to them when using a CC to purchase BC) so internet gambling sites, the silk road / it's successors, and the sex trade (advertising) seem to be the primary users.

I made a decent amount from early sites giving out 1 BC for signing up/GPU mining one a card I already hard and when not paying incrementally for power and cashing out when a BC was over 1k. Right now mining your have to have very cheap power and dedicated hardware to hope to make money at it. I know a few people throwing ASIC rigs into section 8 housing since they get power at a flat rate around here in exchange for putting in a big AC unit and paying the AC upcharge to the occupants.

Re:Why?

[Errol backfiring]

For the same reason that an arbitrary number in a bank's computer is thought of as "money". As soon as people start to believe in it, it is worth something.

Re:Why?

[UnknownSoldier]

Why does *anything* have 'value' ?

It can be either:

- intrinsic (like metals or silicon because of how they can be used)
- extrinsic (because of greed of an artificial market, like diamonds)

The medium is irrelevant -- be it physical or digital. Why do you think some people pay hundreds of dollars for a digital weapon? Because they have more money then time and want it "now."

Never underestimate the price some people put on greed.

--
~2022 The greatest discovery: First Contact
~2024 The greatest tragedy: World War 3

Re:Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

I can't say how it works where you are but in the US money has value because if you don't accept it as payment you'll find yourself in legal trouble. The government swinging its hammer is a persuasive force.

Re:Why?

[Solandri]

The value of anything is how much other people think it's worth. A friend made a fortune importing Pokemon cards for sale to retailers even though he (and I) thought they were the stupidest things. They are just a few cents of cardboard with ink printed on them. But arrange that ink in a certain way so a bunch of people (rightly or wrongly) think it's valuable, and suddenly they're worth several dollars.

So even if you think bitcoins are stupid (I do), that doesn't mean they're worthless. They're worth what someone else is willing to pay for them, which is quite a lot.

On a more abstract level, that enough people value bitcoins enough to raise it to its current price does indicate substantial discontent with traditional financial systems. That's a real problem irrespective of whether or not bitcoins make sense.

Re:Why?

[PRMan]

And anonymous VPNs, and donations to unpopular political entities like Wikileaks.

Re:Why?

[PRMan]

I think they have value for EXACTLY the reason of your last statement. They solve a real problem, that of who can control your money.

Re:Why?

[silas_moeckel]

I'm not sure either amounts to much, guess can go look at the block chain and find out. Wikileaks looks like a few k but I've not analyzed the 1k or so transactions to their donation address. Picking one random gambling site looks like more than a half million BTC have gone through at .5% in favor of the house that's sill 2.5k or so.

Re:Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you think that the people who control the financial system can't also control bitcoin then you are crazy. I am not really sure what problems people have with the current financial system but I can tell you that if you are trying to complete meaningful transactions that the government doesn't want you to complete, then Bitcoin is not really going to save you in the long run. The government will still end up capturing you and beating you with a pipe wrench until you give up or die.

P.S. What problem do people think bitcoin solves?

Re:Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

That sounds like an illegal development Re: Sec 8.

Re:Why?

[AthanasiusKircher]

I can't say how it works where you are but in the US money has value because if you don't accept it as payment you'll find yourself in legal trouble. The government swinging its hammer is a persuasive force.

That's not quite true. The US government does not force anyone to accept dollars as payments. If you want to open a barter shop and trade goats as your only form of "payment," you can do so.

What the government does say is the following:

(1) US money (dollars) is "legal tender" for all debts. That means if you already owe something to someone, legally you can repay that debt in dollars, and they must accept it. If you go to a store, you generally don't "owe debt" in advance. If you want to acquire goods from the store, you'll have to agree to the terms of their payment contract, whatever they are. Most contracts are implicitly created by exchange of dollars, but if your store has a contract that says, "I'll give you this slaughtered and processed cow in exchange for five goats," that's perfectly valid. If you don't show up with the goats, and the guy gives you the cow anyway, then you now are "in debt," and legally the guy must accept a dollar valuation of his payment if he sues you in court.

But you can't compel him to give you the cow in the first place just by offering the amount of dollars that "five goats" should be worth.

(2) Taxation laws still apply, though. If you start entering into such contracts on a large scale and making "profits" (even in goats), you'll still owe the government taxes on your gains. And the government generally doesn't accept goats as payment for taxes. So the real reason most businesses are forced to deal in cash is because they ultimately must pay taxes in cash. Even if they wanted to use a barter system to deal with everyday transactions, eventually they need to get their hands on some significant dollars to pay the taxes.

From a practical standpoint, any large-scale business that tried to operate without cash transactions would be flagged for close monitoring by the IRS, and unless you had detailed documentation of the valuation of assets you were trading in lieu of cash, you'd end up with tax penalties or in prison for tax fraud.

That's the real reason most businesses deal in cash in the US. And thus the real reason the US currency has (a certain minimum) value has fundamentally to do with taxation policies.

Re:Why?

[Baron_Yam]

To start: Fun. Then ease of use with the Silk Road. Now greed and willful ignorance.

Because honestly, Bitcoin doesn't work on any useful scale (3 transactions per second, maximum, globally!). And it doesn't do anything that needs doing - we have gift cards and wiring money. And what it does do, it does in such a difficult manner the average person could never use it, so it's easy to send your bitcoins to the wrong address and never see them again, or lose your 'wallet' and never see them again, or put them in an exchange and never see them again (non reversible transactions)...

But if you're stupid (or at least greedier than you are smart), or you're a scam artist looking to take advantage of those who are... it's still a pretty neat tool.

Re:Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

This sounds like typical computer nerd huff puffery
"i made a decent amount"....aka,......$500.
"i know a few people throwing ASIC rigs...blah blah blah...section 8...blah"....aka....i'm a blow hard and i heard some people mention this idea.

and yes, i'm posting annon....

Re:Why?

[anjrober]

and how is this different from the value of a specific green piece of paper we all agree has Value.
but is basically just fancy paper?
paper a bunch of people this is valuable.

that said, i hate buying pokemon cards for my son. he gets so excited about them and thinks they are so valuable because this one is a Mega or this one is an Ultra. Its just ink saying that. how does that provide value.

same can be said though for baseball cards, stamps, ART!, really so much in our economy.....

Re:Why?

[fatwilbur]

The value of anything is how much other people think it's worth.

Wrong - you are conflating the ideas of value and price. Many people pay exorbitant prices for things with little value, or very little for things of high value. Toilet paper for example really doesn't cost that much but it sure has a huge value for you.

Value varies across people. Perhaps the pokemon cards enable one person to enjoy their time and be part of a certain social group, to another their just pieces of cardboard. Price can change due to a multitude of factors, and the value to a person is just one of those factors.

Re:Getting "outed" as Satoshi Nakamoto is new SWAT

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually I thought Satoshi was Chris Dibona.

Let's get on the hype train!

[Anonymous Coward]

Je suis Satoshi Nakamoto!

Only if AUS gov declare it so

[aepervius]

If the AUS gov does not declare it as a commodity but a currency, then it is a different picture.

Re:Only if AUS gov declare it so

[Anonymous Coward]

If it's a currency, then every miner is a branch of the central bank of that currency. What the AUS police did is equivalent to raiding the US Federal Reserve for undeclared gains because they print money.

Re:Only if AUS gov declare it so

[mspohr]

The Australian government has already declared it an "asset", not a currency. It's subject to capital gains tax (on sale).

Re:Only if AUS gov declare it so

[TWX]

On the other hand, in the United States, the people in charge of each Federal Reserve branch are government-appointed, and they are supposed to, in part, work toward the interests of the United States.

Persons in charge of a scrip like Bitcoin are not working in the interests of a national government to our knowledge, nor are they government appointed. If anything, they are working for themselves. They may have an altruistic streak about them, but they do not answer to anyone, nor are there even so much as terms in office that force them to stop working with the scrip at some point.

Re:Only if AUS gov declare it so

[Holi]

The US Federal Reserve does not print money, the US Mint (the Treasury Dept) prints money.

Re:Only if AUS gov declare it so

[Anonymous Coward]

On the other hand, in the United States, the people in charge of each Federal Reserve branch are government-appointed, and they are supposed to, in part, work toward the interests of the United States.

You're pretty gullible, aren't you?

Re:Only if AUS gov declare it so

[moeinvt]

It can be a little confusing considering the fact that the paper money is clearly marked "Federal Reserve Note".
Even if the Federal Reserve bankers don't physically print money, they definitely "create" money. The physical cash is only a small percentage of the total money in circulation.
When the Fed buys interest-bearing treasury securities from the U.S. government, the money is literally conjured from nothing. Pure profit for the banking cartel.

Re:Only if AUS gov declare it so

[Anonymous Coward]

Strictly speaking, the mint(s) make coins; the Bureau of Printing and Engraving prints money.

Re:Only if AUS gov declare it so

[moeinvt]

"...the people in charge of each Federal Reserve branch are government-appointed..."

Appointed from a short list of banker-approved candidates.

"...they are supposed to, in part, work toward the interests of the United States."

LOL
A bunch of central bankers operating in secret, beyond the reach of the sovereign government are only going to further the interests of themselves and their banker buddies.

Re:Only if AUS gov declare it so

[Anonymous Coward]

Wrong.

The US Mint produces coins.

The Bureau of Printing and Engraving produces paper notes.

Re:Only if AUS gov declare it so

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't it actually the "Bureau of Engraving and Printing" ..."US Mint" and "USA Mint" are organizations attempting to capitalize on the name association by offering a variety of products unrelated to the government of the United States of America.

Re:Only if AUS gov declare it so

[Holi]

Yes yes. Ok I'll fix it and cover both. The Treasury Dept. prints money and mints coins. But now that everyone is done being pedantic I stand by my assertion that the Fed manages our banking system, it does not print money.

Completely unrelated

[thegarbz]

Even if the government did want that desperately to raid the creator of bitcoin does anyone here believe they have the capability to organise, assemble and conduct a raid only a matter of hours after the creator of the bitcoins was supposedly "outed" in some obscure magazine? (And by obscure I mean not sanctioned by the Murdoch press).

The timing in this case clearly shows the matter is not related. There's a lot of ways to describe government agencies, police, taxation offices, and the feds in general but none of those ways include the words fast or efficient.

Re:Completely unrelated

[Anonymous Coward]

True.

Except when they care.
When it's about money, lots of money, then suddenly things that are normally impossible are possible.

Re:That's because he used LUDDITE Bitcoins!

[Anonymous Coward]

COWS are LUDDITES. LUDDITES use Bitcoins. Therefore, Bitcoins are for COWS.

Keep calm and Moo on, and don't forget to edit your hosts file.

Parallel Construction

[Anonymous Coward]

Well either its an ex-employee whose a master hacker... or its a parallel construction thing.

NSA will have grabbed satoshi@vistomail.com emails, the email associated with Satoshi Nakamoto.
It hands the emails to the Aussies (remember the illegal spook surveillance of Kim Dotcom of MegaUpload?).
Now how do you explain how the Aussie police have private emails from a server of an unrelated person who has committed no determinable crime? This Satoshi Nakamoto figure?..... you leak the same emails to Gizmodo and Wired anonymously, and claim you received an anonymous tipoff.

It's likely this part (From Gizmodo):

"The hacker also provided a PDF file of what appears to be an unfinished draft of a legal contract between Wright and Kleiman forming a secret Bitcoin trust in the Seychelles, a notorious tax haven in the Indian Ocean. The contract shows Dave Kleiman in receipt of 1,100,111 bitcoin, to be repaid to Craig Wright on January 1, 2020. Several reports, including an oft-cited technical analysis by Bitcoin expert Sergio Demian Lerner, estimate Satoshi Nakamoto’s legendary Bitcoin fortune at around 1 million BTC — a figure that nearly matches the amount in the Seychelles trust. It also lists five PGP keys — files that are used to establish encrypted lines of communication over email — that will be used to manage the trust. Searching for those keys in a public database reveals that one belongs to Wright, one belongs to Kleiman, and two belong to Satoshi Nakamoto."

Re:Parallel Construction

[DoctorBit]

Interesting, but it still doesn't clarify any tax implications. Under U.S. law (not applicable in Australia, of course) bitcoin is taxable under capital gains law only when it's exchanged for something else of value. That doesn't appear to have happened in this case. Newly-mined bitcoin is also treatable as business revenue based on *bitcoin's price at the time the bitcoin was mined* which until Mt. Gox opened in July 2010, was measurable only at fixed-rate bitcoin exchanges such as New Liberty Standard that set their prices equal to estimated mining cost. So revenue - mining cost = taxable profit = zero. Bitcoin mined after Mt. Gox opened may have been deemed profitable, depending on difficulty and mining expense. I haven't seen any analysis of any immediate profitability of Nakamoto's likely mining rewards. I suppose it's doubtful that anyone involved with bitcoin mining filed relevant information in their tax returns in bitcoin's early days. Perhaps the home invasion is just a fishing expedition.

Re:Parallel Construction

[aaarrrgggh]

In the us, failure to declare foreign assets is tax evasion.

Re:Parallel Construction

[Anonymous Coward]

binary 1100111 translates as 'g'

Mining

[Dan East]

The potential mining aspect doesn't make much sense. Why would you go to great expense to try and mine bitcoins if you already have over a million of them? Or is anonymity that important to him that he doesn't dare spend the bitcoins associated with Satoshi Nakamoto?

Re:Mining

[thoromyr]

That's one of the things that make the recent "leak" appear to be a hoax. It was suggested in comments for the previous story that his new found fame may protect him. I think not, but that hope is a possible motivation for perpetrating a hoax. And, by being a "leak" without any absolute statements, it gives him plausible deniability. Of course, it could also have been "leaked" by someone wishing to harm his reputation.

Regardless, he has every appearance of being a well-financed early adopter rather than the founder.

Re:Mining

[PRMan]

After reading through all the evidence, if even half of it is true, it's him. And I think you overestimate how many people own 1 million bitcoins. The answer is: Satoshi.

Re:Mining

[amicusNYCL]

The potential mining aspect doesn't make much sense. Why would you go to great expense to try and mine bitcoins if you already have over a million of them?

If this is true, I doubt he's mining much of anything. The Wired article contains a video which appears to be from a Bitcoin conference in October of this year where Wright appeared via Skype. He mentions that he currently has a computer in Iceland that is the 15th most powerful supercomputer in the world. He's not using that to mine bitcoins, he's using it to model the scalability of bitcoin. So, he's not going through the great expense to try and mine bitcoins, he's going through the great expense to model the system and see what's ahead. Maybe that is a direct result of the recent debate over the size of blocks. The additional power coming to his home could also be used for modeling, or it could be used for additional research or work unrelated to bitcoin. If this is a man with the kind of resources to set up a major supercomputer in Iceland to take advantage of the cheap electricity, I don't see any reason for him to run additional power to his house in Sydney for the purpose of mining bitcoins. That doesn't make sense. If mining was his goal then he would do it in Iceland, not metro Sydney.

Three-phase power

[Ly4]

and had attached a 'three-phase' power system to the back of the house for extra power.

In the US, three-phase electric service would be very unusual in a residence. Is this something Australian, or did some details get mixed up along the way?

Re:Three-phase power

[Anonymous Coward]

cmon the very sentence you quote implies it is unusual, why would they mention it otherwise - imagine "he had an AC connection to his garage" why the fuck would they bother mentioning that... else what is the purpose of your rhetoric.

Re:Three-phase power

[bobbied]

The only reason I can figure you'd want/need to go 3 phase is if you are trying to run an 3 phase motor, or really needed lots of power for something like a server farm... Maybe he purchased a huge air compressor or arc welder? Obviously there was something industrial going on.

I'm not sure how you would be able to use enough power in your average residence to make 3 phase power desirable over the normal 2 phase. Even a modest server farm doesn't require it...

Re:Three-phase power

[rahvin112]

I can't comment on how normal it is but in Australia according to google the power is 240volt like Europe. I doubt they run power like they do in the US with 2 120 volt lines providing that 240 volts so I would wager that 3 phase is very very unlikely at a residence.

Re: Three-phase power

[Anonymous Coward]

I think it's power that can come from 3 sources. Probably a local solar system is one of them to hide power usage from the authorities

Re:Three-phase power

[Anonymous Coward]

It's actually not as unusual as you might think. There are low-cost DIY rotary 3 phase switchers but doing it 'permitted' is another story.

Re:Three-phase power

[Anonymous Coward]

over the normal 2 phase

normal power is single phase.

Re:Three-phase power

[JustNiz]

what? every house I've ever seen in the US has it for the tumble drier at least.

Re:Three-phase power

[JustNiz]

Its no wonder to me that he was using 3 phase. I got into bitcoin mining back in the day when the value of the bitcoins you could mine was more than the cost of electrictiy needed to do so.
I bought a miner that has 2 power inputs that use about 1200 watts each. It draws so much power you can;t even run it in your average US house without splitting it over two different power circuits, or using 3 phase. Thats for just a single mining rig, so yeah I'd be more surprised if he wasn't on 3 phase.

Re:Three-phase power

[Z00L00K]

3-phase is pretty much standard in residential in Sweden. Stoves, washers and driers are usually 3-phase 400V. There are 1-phase 230V appliances as well, but the number of variants is lower and often limited to the cheaper variants.

Re:Three-phase power

[Anonymous Coward]

Probably three-phase as in one neutral, one ground and two 230/240V wires, with the phase angles off-set between them. Such 380/400V allows one to use a large arc welder or an industrial grade lathe or a large stationary circular saw, for example. Used to be, probably still is, popular in Europe.

Re:Three-phase power

[Z00L00K]

3-phase is a lot more common outside the US than in the US.

When you run 3-phase you have 230-240 V to ground, but about 400V between the phases. If it had been a 2-phase system then it would be almost 500V.

Many residential dwellings in Scandinavia actually runs 3-phase 400V, even 2 and 3 room apartments. And many appliances are available in more variants in 3-phase than in 1-phase.

Another reason for running 3-phase is that you will lower the current through the neutral wire causing less problems with ground currents.

And then we have the Norwegian 3-phase system with 230V between the phases and no neutral. But there's a historical reason for that - Norway have a lot of ground with high resistance where a neutral/ground wire don't work well.

Re:Three-phase power

[Anonymous Coward]

You're thinking of split-phase.

Re:Three-phase power

[quenda]

3-phase is not unusual, especially in older houses. Garden bores with 3-phase pump motors used to be common.

Re:Three-phase power

[garinh]

In the US, three phase power comes into a residential neighborhood or a large building (apartment complex, industrial site, etc.) and typically two of the three are distributed to individual residences -- giving you your regular mains and a high-voltage for a dryer and/or stove. The phases are rotated between the different residences -- so one unit gets A and B, the next B and C, the next C and A, the next A and B, etc. The purpose of doing this is to balance out usage on average.

Industrial sites may use all three phases for large equipment such as motors to run machinery, and will also break off each phase similarly to residential use to run office equipment, etc.

Re:Three-phase power

[bobbied]

I'm pretty sure that even in Sweden you only get 2 phase power by default, you just get it at twice the voltage and at 50 cycles. Truly 3-phase power is unnecessary unless you are running industrial machines with highly reactive loads and adds significant logistical issues because you have to keep the 3 phases in order or that motor will turn the wrong way. Don't be fooled by the number of conductors in the wall outlet, because usually they throw in a couple of extra wires for "common" and "Safety ground". Here in the states, modern dryer receptacles have 4 contacts (Phase 1, Phase 2, common and ground) while many older receptacles have three (Phase 1, Phase 2, Common/Ground). Both are two phase, not three. Technically though, the device just runs on 1 phase by combining the two which are 180 degrees out of phase.

I seriously doubt three phase is common in a residence and that they use 2 phase (at most) even in Sweden. The logistics of keeping three wires in the right order would be just too expensive and having three phase doesn't buy you anything but complexity and having to pull one more wire to a lot of places. I could be wrong, but if I am there is something seriously wrong with Sweden's electrical engineering experts...

Re: Three-phase power

[hesiod]

I can only think of one solar system I would consider "local", though opinions of astronomical distances can be relative.

Re:Three-phase power

[bobbied]

Seriously, 3 phase is useless in a home unless you wish to run "industrial" equipment which is wired to accept it. If you are running industrial equipment in your house and think it's worth the cost of buying three phase electrical service over renting/buying/building actual industrial space, power to you... Quite literally... In the long term it seems better to just go get some industrial space and pass on rewiring your house, but that's just me I guess.

On your situation, there was a reason your device came with two power plugs.... 1200 VA is 10+ amps and most house wiring is breakered at 15 amps. What you really needed was a 15A 220 connection, especially if pulling one plug was enough to shut down the mining operation.

Re:Three-phase power

[Anonymous Coward]

You are kind of right, however, technically (and it is technically) it is just single phase 240 volts with a center tap going to ground. This results in the two waveforms being 180 degrees apart. Two phase power is 90 degrees apart. This changes the maximum voltage differential between phases and thus two phase power (which is outmoded now) cannot really be substituted for single phase center tapped as it would not properly power single phase 240 volt appliances, though it could provide power to two separate 120 volt legs.

At least in North America (I know, this article is about Australia), that is how things are done. These are the typical transformers you will find here for a residence:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distribution_transformer#Secondary

Your description is more fitting of European power distribution.

Re:Three-phase power

[LordKronos]

In the US, three phase power comes into a residential neighborhood or a large building (apartment complex, industrial site, etc.) and typically two of the three are distributed to individual residences -- giving you your regular mains and a high-voltage for a dryer and/or stove. The phases are rotated between the different residences -- so one unit gets A and B, the next B and C, the next C and A, the next A and B, etc.

I don't know much about how power is distributed, but the way you explain it doesn't sound exactly right to me. Homes get their power in the form of a 2-phase 120v system where the phases are 180 degrees apart. The two 120v circuits are split between the two phases. Any 240 volt appliances bridge the two 120v phases to generate the 240v needed.

The way you explain it, the power in homes would be 120 degrees apart, not 180 degrees, thus you wouldn't be able to generate the required 240 volts. What am I missing here? Do they do some sort of phase adjustment in the neighborhood? I was under the impression that wasn't a minor thing to do.

Re:Three-phase power

[Z00L00K]

No, you are definitely wrong on that account. Since the mid 70's most installations in residential have been 3-phase using a 5-wire system, 3 wires for each phase, 1 for neutral and 1 for protective ground. You can't even get 2-phase system here, and if you were to ask for it you would be seen as being nuts. Only if you have a small studio apartment you may get 1-phase, but the power companies prefers to offer 3-phase to avoid balance problems in the net.

And if you want 115V then you need a transformer to step down from 230V.

A long time ago there were some DC system instead of the 50Hz AC system that is standard today. The railroad still uses 16 2/3 Hz for the overhead lines both due to historical reasons and because the inductance in the wires aren't causing as much voltage drop over longer distances as if 50Hz were to be used.

Unfortunately I live in an apartment built in the 60's where there's only 1-phase service with a combined ground/neutral wire, and that causes some annoyances with ground currents through the central antenna that caused my TV to go blank when I turned on the stove in the kitchen until I installed a separation transformer on the antenna wire. The ground current was bad enough to cause sparks between the antenna connector and TV if I disconnected it.

Re:Three-phase power

[Anonymous Coward]

[lots of ignorant bullshit]

I'm pretty sure that you're a USian.
230/400 3-phase is standard pretty much all across continental Europe.
Go educate yourself before showing off your ignorance on the internet.

Re:Three-phase power

[Anonymous Coward]

You are wrong and there is nothing wrong with Sweden's electrical engineers. I as many swedes have 3-phase power to my premise. Your comments regarding keeping the wires in order doesn't make any sense. The point of 3-phase power is that you can transfer 3 x energy with, at most, 2 times the wires. How the wires are ordered 'during transit' is of no concern. If that motor rotates the wrong way, then switch two phase wires, if you don't know how and why, call an electrician, simple!

Now I admit that most people don't need 3-phase in their home, however, it is very convenient for us who do, and the cost of cabling (see above) often comes out as cheaper. Everyone wins, no one loses.

Re:Three-phase power

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't it obvious? The news told me Bitcoins fund terrorism, and you know what else funds terrorism? Marijuana. The guy is clearly running a huge grow op. Bitcoins and marijuana? This guy is bad news, Australia has just uncovered the world's biggest sleeper terrorist!

Re:Three-phase power

[aaarrrgggh]

I thought British standards frowned on three phase power panels for anything but three phase (and maybe 400V) loads.

In the US it is common if you need more than 400A 120/240V single phase, although getting a 480V residential service would be very unusual, unless you have acreage.

Re:Three-phase power

[jonwil]

3-phase isn't as uncommon in Australia as you might think.
Higher power air-conditioning units might need 3-phase power.
Pumps (for swimming pools, bore water, rainwater tanks or other things) might need 3-phase power.
Large power tools (welder, lathe etc) might need 3-phase power.

Re:Three-phase power

[Z00L00K]

Well, that's British, but look at other European countries that actually have modern standards you will see a difference. The UK is some 30 to 40 years behind on building standards where double-glazed windows are an add-on option in many buildings except the newest and many faucets still don't mix hot and cold water.

So why should they have a modern electric system? The British go their own way.

Re:Three-phase power

[bobbied]

No, I'm still not convinced that 3 phase is that common in single family residences in Sweden. Certainly the available appliances are two phase based on a quick online survey and don't require 3 phase power to run and all the residential power panels I could find pictures of from Sweden where decidedly 2 phase configurations. I couldn't find any 3 phase residential appliances on sale in Sweden or any indication that they are available.

What may be true is that most people live in high density residential buildings where three phase power makes a bit more sense, but what they would be seeing at the wall would be essentially the same as what's provided by a simple 2 phase system. So you may be using 2 of 3 phases in some apartment building, but a single family residence is likely going to be 2 phase, if that.

Balancing power between the phases is indeed an issue, but one that is easily managed by the power company by simply rotating which phase they use when wiring up various locations and get things mostly in balance. This is what they do in the states and it works fairly well.

However, if the power company is worried about costs, 3 phase is a LOT more expensive to provide, especially in remote locations. 3 Phase takes 4 wires, where two phase only requires 2 and wire costs money. Then there is the cost of a power meter. Two phase meters are fairly simple affairs to install and use where three phase metering is a lot more expensive. 3 phase service is expensive to provide and has no value in a residential setting and despite what you are claiming, I'm not convinced yet you are correct..

However, I'd love to see a picture of the breaker box you have if you really think it's 3 phase...

Re:Three-phase power

[bruce_the_loon]

Both of you are incorrect. The 120v system in the US isn't a 2-phase system, it is a 3 wire split single phase system. The two 120v lines are in phase, not 180 degrees out of phase, otherwise the two 120v lines would cancel each other out and you'd get 0V, not 240V.

Three-phase runs along the HV circuits and is stepped down by the pole-mounted distribution transformers. Each transformer is usually fed by one phase from the three and steps down from 13.8kV to 240V with a center tap, so you actually get 120V-0V-120V. Sometimes the HV side of the transformer is wired phase-to-phase across two of the phases instead of one phase and neutral, but the output is still split single phase.

All the houses fed by a lateral circuit from a single distribution transformer get the same single phase (A). The next transformer along the poles will provide power from B phase, the next one C phase and then back to A phase. If a house was fed by A + B, then you would get major problems as the 120 degree phase angles would interact differently to the in-phase 120V wires in the split-phase system and would produce 180V-200V instead.

Rest-of-world 220V/240V systems use two wire, pure single phase to the house from the distribution transformers. Everything operates on a single voltage, not like the US where low power runs on 120V and higher power on 240V. Makes it simpler to wire and control.

3-phase to a residential premises is very rare and would have to be specially requested from the power utility. You would bring it in only if you are using machinery that requires 3-phase (large machine tools etc) or need more power than a single phase circuit can safely provide. A heavy computer farm would probably have that sort of requirement.

Re:Three-phase power

[Anonymous Coward]

Poster was American, at 110V the current is beyond spec and totally useless....fucking retards.

Re:Three-phase power

[Anonymous Coward]

It's uncommon in Australia.

Re:Three-phase power

[Anonymous Coward]

Three phase is used on the power grid/distribution. All household appliances that you buy n regular stores are single phase (phase, neural and ground, e.g. Plug Type F). Ground can be left out (e.g. Plug Type C) for things like desk lamps. 3 phase to the house in residential is only available in special cases, e.g. when the apartment building has common laundry services. Maybe that's where you saw these?

Re:Three-phase power

[Anonymous Coward]

Three-Phase is very common now in Australia if you build a house and want a powerful central air conditioning system : remember how stinking hot it gets here in the summer. Some properties in the more rural areas have huge sheds or barns and want to run 3 phase welders and equipment.

I can think of a number of friends living locally here in Oz in residential areas who have 3-phase to the house, mainly for the AC.

Re:Three-phase power

[Jack Griffin]

I would put it somewhere between usual and unusual. It's a little unusual in the inner city suburbs, which are populated by office types, but further out where working class guys have workshops in their garages, they are more common.

Re:Three-phase power

[Anonymous Coward]

In Finland I have never seen house without three phase current. Perhaps there has been some, but at least from 1960s it always has been 3-phase. Even in our 40m2 summer cottage in the middle of forest we have 3-phase. I think it is not possible to get electrical connection without 3-phase.

Each home needs it at least for the stove, so at least in the kitchen you have 3-phase connector. All the hot plates & oven when used the same time need it.
In our garage we have also one connector, to be used with electrical welder or large electrical saw. At our cottage the 3-phase plug is outside, to be used for larger machines (needed at least when you repair something and some company come with their large equipments, large professional tools normally always need 3-phase. At least when I installed extra insulation the machine for plowing the stuff needed 3-phase/400V).

Many homes have electrical water circulated heating, at least at my parents home each of three heating resistors were connected to one phase. The 3 main fuses were 100A, in my home we just have the more normal 3*35A (nowadays yoy must pay more to have 63A or 100A at home). It used to be 220V one phase and 360V 3-phase, but after they harmonised voltages in EU 10-20 years ago it is now 230V & 400V. It is 120 degree difference between phases.

Single apartments do not necessarily have 3-phase (exect for kitchen), but every house has it

Re:Three-phase power

[Anonymous Coward]

The only reason I can figure you'd want/need to go 3 phase is if you are trying to run an 3 phase motor, or really needed lots of power for something like a server farm...

An electric stove usually requires 3 phases, making it quite common in places where electric stoves are common. Having 3 phases in a house is not proof of it being unusual. In fact I think all houses have that on the road where I live.

Since ground is mandatory (at least here), single phase use 3 wires while 3 phase use 5 wires.
230V (single) * 10 A = 2300 W or 766 W/wire
400V (3 phase) * 10 A = 6928 W or 1385 W/wire
400V (3 phase) * 16 A = 11085 W or 2217 W/wire
The last one uses thicker wires, which makes them more expensive. I still included it as it is more commonly used than 3 phase @ 10 A.

Commercial electric car recharge stations use 400 V with a 16 A fuse. It serves 2 cars each, meaning they provides 7.5 A or 5200 W for each car.

The power grid is 3 phased, regardless of number of phases into each house. Power loss in the grid increases if the load is unbalanced meaning the powerplants have to work harder if people don't use the 3 phases evenly. It will not affect the meter at home directly, but a loss for the power company and the environment ends up affecting the user anyway.

Higher voltage mean lower current. I got involved with an electric water heater. It's single phased and connecting it to 230 V will provide 1000 W@4.35A. Connecting it to single phased 400V will provide 3000 W@ 7.5A. The loss in the power grid depends on the current and the same argument as balanced load.

Single phase is a sine, which mean it turns the power transfer on and off. 3 phase is spaced in a way that when one phase is off, the other two applies power. The result is that the combined power delivery from the 3 phases resembles DC, which makes it constant. Some applications are sensitive to the power loss and while AC->DC with capacitors can somewhat compensate for it, the result usually of a lower quality than if 3 phases were used.

3 phased engines are more efficient than single phased ones and they can handle a greater load at the same power usage. This mean some types of power tools requires 3 phases. Cement mixers is a good example of this. While single phased versions do exist, they absolutely sucks compared to the 3 phased ones. The problem is not that they are a bit smaller (natural due to lower power usage). The problem is reliability and durability. While using equipment like cement mixers isn't something you do every day at home, it happens occasionally and having access to 3 phases in such a case is worth quite a lot. Sure noisy and smelly gas powered versions also exist, but electric is to be preferred if the power is available.

I see plenty of reasons for people to use 3 phases. Stating that using a 3 phase system is "suspect" is a questionable statement and shows lack of insights. I would compare it to stating that owning a car is suspect because it can be used for hit and run accidents. While it's true that it would be possible to use it like that, there are nearly endless legit reasons for owning a car and likewise there are plenty of legit reasons for having 3 phased power.

However the issue stated in the article is not that he had 3 phased power. It is that he actively paid the power company to change the house connection to 3 phases. Installing 3 phases while you replace wires or similar is reasonably priced and generally a good idea for "just in case I need in the future". Changing existing wires to supply 3 phases and/or higher current is not cheap and is usually only done if you have a specific need here and now or the old wires have defects. The landlord says Wright set up the new wires. If the old wires were defective, the landlord would likely be the one to set up new wires, indicating the existing wires were fine. The active action of getting 3 phased power is what should be questioned, not having 3 phased power.

Re:Three-phase power

[Anonymous Coward]

Yep parents did this.

Moved into house almost 90 years old. Wanted to move the meter box to the front so they did the whole upgrade in one go and changed to 3 phase including 2 AC units in the house and 2x solar setups which are on a detached shed so 3 phase underground cable to that too.

Did this last year, in the long run it will be worth it till a battery system and total independence takes over if power gets any more expensive.

Re:Three-phase power

[cwsumner]

The Austrailian police probably did not bring an Electrician with them. It was probably just normal 120-240 split phase.
Maybe the police didn't expect 240 to a shed, and the Media was the ignorant ones?

Re:Three-phase power

[neerolyte]

In the US it is common if you need more than 400A 120/240V single phase...

400A!?!?!? Surely you mean 40A?

Be told by the Reps to leave em alone?

[Anonymous Coward]

Republicans only intent is to prevent the IRS from doing its job, because that way they can keep "their" money and funnel bribes through PACs that won't get investigated to see if they're legally charitable orgs so are tax free....

So, in answer to your question, yes, I imagine the IRS would do nothing because the republicans have insisted they do nothing.

Oh, PS, if he hasn't sold them, there's no CAPITAL gains to declare.

Re: Be told by the Reps to leave em alone?

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, they're doing a shitty job of it, because the IRS is still threatening to put a lein on my house for taxes that have been already paid.

Re:Getting "outed" as Satoshi Nakamoto is new SWAT

[Anonymous Coward]

In the US, if the IRS decides you owe more than $50,000 in taxes, it can have your passport revoked.

"three phase"

[Anonymous Coward]

haha yea..."three phase" not a term thats used often, better put it in quotes..

"Journalism"

[gatfirls]

= "three-phase".

Most likely it was just some sort of backup power system like a NOC battery bank and/or generator.

There's really no explanation as it applies to bitcoin that makes sense for the literal use.

Ransomware victims rejoice, your files liberated!

[Anonymous Coward]

> Alleged Bitcoin Creator Raided By Australian Authorities

This is very good news for all ransomware computer malware victims, whose precious data files were encrypted!

The Bitcoin source code can now go to the FBI and hopefully to anti-virus vendors like F-Secure or Kaspersky Lab. They will find out the backdoor which the altruistic inventor hid elliptically. This will make it possible to immediately short-circuit the entire Bitcoin economy by procedurally generating and disclosing all the possible bitcoins (including already mined and unmined coins) without burning GP-GPU cards and possibly even generate 137 valid, yet hither-to unknown isomers for each possible coin. Thus, the hacker gang criminals will be remotely stripped of their ill-gotten spoils.

Furthermore, the backdoor will allow easier tracing of online bitcoin transactions. This will lead police to the hacker gangs' doors, so their computers can be seized and the plethora of ransomware cipher keypairs recovered. This will give renewed access to previously unrecoverable files of Cryptowall, etc. ransomware victims. There will be street parades with floats and people will admit again that gold is valuable - just as Jesus taught that people sell everything to buy the parcel where they found a pot with non-bit coins hidden inside.

Amazing coincidence...

[denzacar]

...that a person who might be paranoid or greedy enough to try to cut the government out of his money, enough to try to invent a currency of his own, would also have tax issues with the government.
I'm shocked, shocked to find that out!

Re: Amazing coincidence...

[Anonymous Coward]

There are far easier ways to evade taxes than using the fully traceable bitcoin.

Re: Getting "outed" as Satoshi Nakamoto is new SWA

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm pretty sure he's CowboyNeal.

He's a really nice guy.

[Anonymous Coward]

Dr Wright ran a CSU course which gave us access to what was at the time the #15 on the top500.org. I was awarded a High Distinction (100%) and a Xeon Phi as a result of the course (1 of 10 Phi recipients out of a thousand students) the next course I only got 83%. Oh and by the way I have an ancient antique hypercube based super computer at home. I live in the next suburb from where he was renting. And yes I have 240V, 3 phase power to my house. 3 Phase is not immoral, or illegal. I just means you want to give lots of money to the electricity company.

During the course Dr Wright was nothing short of inspiring. And if you didn't take that course you really missed out.

From my observations on the course, Dr Wright is incredibly smart. Could he have invented bitcoin, yes probably. Would he have gotten caught. I doubt it.

imagine if the IRS

[Anonymous Coward]

imagine if the IRS didn't exist, like it didn't before 1913 when Woodrow wilson sold us out to the central banks aka rothschilds.

but he lives in austrailia

[Anonymous Coward]

so??

Dood has a supercomputer ranked in top 20

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't think this was about tax. Source. I live just round corner from this guy.

entered a house registered on the electoral roll

[Anonymous Coward]

Feeling even better about not being registered!

Re:Ransomware victims rejoice, your files liberate

[Anonymous Coward]

do you have any idea what your talking about.. bitcoin code has nothing to do with crypto ransom ware.. backdoors in bitcoin.. omg you really have no idea what your talking about!

Re:Getting "outed" as Satoshi Nakamoto is new SWAT

[Anonymous Coward]

No, I'm Satoshi Nakamoto!

Re:That's because he used LUDDITE Bitcoins!

[cbiltcliffe]

I have a Bitcoin App! Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Hopefully it will make your head explode.