Decoding the Enigma of Satoshi Nakamoto 61
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 it was systemd. (Score:5, Funny)
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.
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Re:I think it was systemd. (Score:5, Informative)
Click Score to see the reason. You'll need to be logged in.
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Its possible that its your expectations that are off, rather than the functionality.
You could always take slashcode and make your own site if you arent happy with the service your money gets you here.
It's been that way for years! (Score:1)
Ever since moderation and karma was implemented to discourage "First Post!" posts, Slashdot has been best read at -1.
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GNU doesn't want it.
Intensely private? (Score:5, Insightful)
"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.
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What does that have to do with anything? (Score:1)
What does being the top result on Google for your name/handle have to do with being "intensely private"? Answer: nothing.
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No, I am Spartacus! ...D'oh!
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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.
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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.
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The feds might do better just using the phone book.
That's pretty much what they do now, isn't it ?
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DB Cooper and Jimmy Hoffa (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
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Satoshi has dropped out of sight long enough that statute of limitations laws are going to come into play soon, especially once the seven year mark hits. The only two things that are able to be used in the US are murder or failing to file a tax return, and an anonymous entity has no requirement to file a tax return.
Even if taxes are involved, it would be similar to capital gains. Satoshi would not have to pay taxes until those coins are sold or exchanged. If kept "under the mattress", they can legally st
Wtf (Score:3)
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!"
Great story! (Score:2)
Who's getting the book and movie rights?
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Throw it away (Score:2)
Dear Mr. Nakamoto,
please throw away your Bitcoins at this address, I'll make sure to recycle them properly:
18LQHMjKSCSU3g4f29TfmtfxHXUfnh7juB
Thank you.
"Decoding the Enigma" (Score:5, Insightful)
Nice euphemism for "Looking to ruin someone else's privacy and security in exchange for some journalistic fame".
some poor guy same name hounded last year (Score:4, Interesting)
Nicolas Bourbaki (Score:2)
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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
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Shinichi Mochizuki (Score:2)
So the press ruins another guys life. (Score:2)
Last year they ruined one guys life by claiming he was "the Nakamoto".
Now they want to ruin another.
Reason to remain anonymous (Score:1)
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.
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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.
It is quite literally illegal to say that on slashdot.