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Pablo Escobar's Brother Says He Met an FBI Agent Posing As Satoshi Nakamoto (vice.com)

Jordan Pearson, writing for Motherboard: Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar's brother, Roberto Escobar, is launching a new cryptocurrency called "Dietbitcoin." It's a clone of Bitcoin of the kind that can take mere minutes to create, with no changes or improvements whatsoever. But Escobar is nonetheless hawking virtual coins for $2 USD each now, and $1,000 in later rounds of the crowd sale. Now here's the good shit. Along with Dietbitcoin's launch came a 280-page book, part memoir and part manifesto, titled "Pablo Escobar's Dietbitcoin: The True Story by Roberto Escobar." Roberto allegedly authored the book -- when I reached Escobar for an interview the company said he was not available, but CEO Olof Gustafsson told me over the phone that Roberto wrote it. In it, Roberto claims that he had a close encounter with a US government agent posing as the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto. This encounter led Roberto to conclude that the US government created Bitcoin and will one day crash the market by selling all of Nakamoto's stashed bitcoins. The veracity of this tale is highly suspect; Roberto Escobar is a well-known eccentric who once claimed to have cured HIV with his knowledge of horses.

38 comments

  1. "Knowledge" of horses by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    By knowledge of horses are we referring to carnal knowledge?

  2. This is on slashdot by fredrated · · Score: 4, Funny

    Why?

    1. Re:This is on slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dude! Juan Jablontski's roommate met with a guy who was totes in the CIA

    2. Re:This is on slashdot by mwfischer · · Score: 1

      My take-aways.

      1. Any crazy can make a crypto.
      2. Crypto is the hot word right now in tech "journalism"
      3. People whom invest in it are most likely dumb and it's like chasing after a penny stock.
      4. It's good for getting your name out like if your company is dying and you need to get in the news somehow
      https://www.usatoday.com/story...

      or for selling a book

    3. Re: This is on slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pablo Escobar was a sick fuck, and apples do not fall far from the tree.

    4. Re:This is on slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because you clicked on it.

    5. Re: This is on slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      so how do you really feel?

    6. Re:This is on slashdot by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      DIGITAL CURRENCY!

    7. Re:This is on slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fake news and conspiracies create clicks.

    8. Re:This is on slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do they know anything about naming something? dietbitcoin? Wrong number of syllables.

  3. Conspiracy Theory! by Zorro · · Score: 1

    Or is that what Satoshi Nakamoto WANTS everyone to think!

    1. Re:Conspiracy Theory! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thing is, the FBI might be able to fool him well enough to get information out of him without actually proving they have Satoshi's private key.

  4. Lose pounds without changing your diet or anything by goombah99 · · Score: 2

    What is it with all these coin and blockchain schemes that seem to ignore the obvious.

    They all seem to be annoyed that a mining epoch is so slow/compute expensive. SO they do something to remove that.

    The fundamental bedrock of any blockchain or coin that allows distributed adversarial authentication is preventing the "double spend". There has to be no way to spend the same "coin" twice.

    and for that there has to be a ledger that can't be re-written after a transaction (with high probability or inexpense)

    Here's the unremovable fact that makes all this rubbish: SO far no one has invented a distributed trust scheme that, while having all the virtues of bit coin, does not involve Proof of Work (or Stake or Resources or something that ain't free).

    that's the barrier to re-writing the ledger.

    If I can marshal enough resources to re-write the ledge for less cost than I could gain from a double spend then no one should trust the ledger.

    Now there is a difference between fast closures on the ledger entries and expensive to compute entries. Litecoin and the alt-coins has a faster closure rate than bitcoins ten minute equlibrium rate. But I'm pretty sure here they mean fast to be low expesne.

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
  5. He cured HIV with his knowledge of horses? by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 1

    I assume it's Horse Investment Disease - the ailment that afflicts people who bet on horse races, that makes them chronically poor. If you have in-depth knowledge of horses, it might just make you rich instead.

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  6. ah, I see by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 2

    Ah, yes, the only thing more trustworthy and reliable than pyramid scheme fake pseudo "currency" is pyramid scheme fake pseudo "currency" created by a Colombian drug lord's brother.

  7. Um... editors please? by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    No cursing in the post. If it's a quote fine. But it makes what's already a questionable blog post read like, well, a random comment on /..

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
    1. Re:Um... editors please? by neo-mkrey · · Score: 1

      Is is OK if I swear in the fucking comments?

    2. Re:Um... editors please? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fuck you.

    3. Re:Um... editors please? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is it okay if I use the african-american vernacular for negro?

    4. Re: Um... editors please? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nigga? Yeah that's ok. You're still gay though, especially because you had to ask.

    5. Re:Um... editors please? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you don't like it, you are free to leave.

  8. Bitcoin ties to crime will kill it ! by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    Bitcoin ties to crime will kill it !

    1. Re: Bitcoin ties to crime will kill it ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bitcoin has no ties to anything. It's not controlled by anyone person. It's a network. Please learn to read.

  9. Psyops campaign by Cyberglich · · Score: 1

    Why dose this and the "Child Porn in bitcoin blockchain" story from earlier this week feel like some government misinformation campaign?

    1. Re: Psyops campaign by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because youre an idiot.

      Feel better. Knowinh is half the battle!

    2. Re:Psyops campaign by DRJlaw · · Score: 1

      Why dose this and the "Child Porn in bitcoin blockchain" story from earlier this week feel like some government misinformation campaign?

      Yes indeed, none of it could be true, because people are unfailingly rational, smart, and civil...

      Which is completely disproven by the existence of 4chan. If it can be done, someone will do it, if just for lulz.

  10. quality writing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    nothing says "this is a quality story" more that writing "Now here's the good shit" in the middle of it.

  11. As reputable as the others by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I see no problem with this.

  12. As we've already seen by DeplorableCodeMonkey · · Score: 1

    They can bring down BTC by just having someone inject a few dozen images of child pornography into the chain. In fact, if they wanted to be truly malicious they could just get an informant to run a script with a well-funded wallet that would periodically dump new images into the chain to make "just beyond repair" in terms of legality.

    1. Re:As we've already seen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't think we've already seen this. BTC has not been "brought down".

  13. What is this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Slashdot repeating fucking nonsense rumors as fact. Where are the one weird trick ads assholes.

    1. Re:What is this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      they are in the middle of the Fox News homepage, among other places. look harder.

    2. Re: What is this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Turn off your ad blocker. Those ads are at the bottom if every page on this site. "Casinos don't expect you to do this!" (It's a slot app oh boy casinos sure as fuck don't have those no siree)

  14. Because your myopic view is your own. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Because your myopic view is your own.

  15. Conspiracies within conspiracies by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

    The veracity of this tale is highly suspect; Roberto Escobar is a well-known eccentric who once claimed to have cured HIV with his knowledge of horses.

    Until the drug companies got to him!!! >:-(

    --
    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  16. I knew Satoshi Nakamoto by neo-mkrey · · Score: 1

    We were in a barber shop quartet in Skokie, IL.

  17. We're ALL Satoshi. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why would Satoshi be impersonating an FBI agent? That doesn't seem very upstanding.

    Also, today I realized that John McAfee is Satoshi Nakamoto.

  18. I think I see another movie here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Or at least another Series.

    Any one interested?