Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin's fabled inventor, is... Satoshi Nakamoto

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MikeHattsu said:
He lives in California...
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DrFunk said:
dude, he lives in California
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wiz2.jpg
 
OGoofy said:
This whole article just screams unprofessionalism. Ambushing someones house for an interview, using public look up services to find his information, posting pictures of his house and car and harassing him after being told he wont talk about bitcoin by both him and his family. This is grade A scummy "journalism".
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It's investigative journalism - it's not always pretty.

The fact remains that the article's author believes that he's found the creator of the Bitcoin concept, and his personality matches up very closely with the kind of programmer who'd dream up the idea (an isolated libertarian with deep fears of government authority). It's certainly plausible.

The odd thing is him being so secretive but not hiding his name. That is the elephant in the room. Until that question is resolved, I can't buy the author's research.
 
Takuan said:
His wife and other family members confirm that he used different writing styles depending on his audience.

What an interesting character. I do think it's irresponsible of the author to "out" him this way, but I see it as a power play meant to force Nakamoto's hand.
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i change my writing style for gaf and people don't see me as a reclusive genus
 
Huw_Dawson said:
It's investigative journalism - it's not always pretty.

The fact remains that the article's author believes that he's found the creator of the Bitcoin concept, and his personality matches up very closely with the kind of programmer who'd dream up the idea (an isolated libertarian with deep fears of government authority). It's certainly plausible.

The odd thing is him being so secretive but not hiding his name. That is the elephant in the room. Until that question is resolved, I can't buy the author's research.
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Maybe it's just a case of pride getting the better of him.
 
From Hacker News:

Then one day, my wife calls me and informs that there is someone who would like to pay with bitcoins. I got excited and asked her to take a picture of the guy because he is the first one and it's a historic moment for us. He bought 2 crepes and paid using his smartphone and our QR code with btc address. One crepe and a lemonade was 1 bitcoin at that time :)
After he finished his food my wife approached him and asked to take a picture of him for being the first. He blushed and politely declined citing that bitcoin is an anonymous currency. He wished us well, added that bitcoins should already be in our account and left.

My wife called me back and revealed that he refused to take a picture. So I asked her to describe him. She portrayed the guy as a humble polite Japanese man in his 50s. We joked maybe it was Satoshi, but I dismissed the idea. I assumed it was some one from Mt Gox since it was located in Japan.

Today I showed the picture of Satoshi in Newsweek to my wife and she recognized him.
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Link
 
Can someone explain this article to me, the tone of the article specifically?
It's like i'm reading about a serial killer or something... Did he do something wrong or something?

I came to read a clarifying article and i'm just leaving confused.
 
DeaviL said:
Can someone explain this article to me, the tone of the article specifically?
It's like i'm reading about a serial killer or something... Did he do something wrong or something?

I came to read a clarifying article and i'm just leaving confused.
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He created Bitcoin - wrote a paper describing it and then released the first software. He ceased all online activity a few years ago (around the time it started to become huge), and no one ever met him in person. Since Bitcoin is technically quite brilliant, and arguably a huge success until now, he became sort of a legend. And since he created Bitcoin software, he mined the first bitcoins, and since transactions are public, we know that around a million bitcoins mined by him were never transactioned.

It's one of those is Andy Kaufman alive / how did they build the pyramids / who wrote Zodiac letters type mistery. People love those.
 
RJT said:
He created Bitcoin - wrote a paper describing it and then released the first software. He ceased all online activity a few years ago (around the time it started to become huge), and no one ever met him in person. Since Bitcoin is technically quite brilliant, and arguably a huge success until now, he became sort of a legend. And since he created Bitcoin software, he mined the first bitcoins, and since transactions are public, we know that around a million bitcoins mined by him were never transactioned.

It's one of those is Andy Kaufman alive / how did they build the pyramids / who wrote Zodiac letters type mistery. People love those.
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he still has a million bitcoins? i would've thought he would have got out earlier when it was at it's peak since he wasn't part of it anymore. this story is just a big cluster
 
OGoofy said:
he still has a million bitcoins? i would've thought he would have got out earlier when it was at it's peak since he wasn't part of it anymore. this story is just a big cluster
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Here's one source:

In January of 2009, Satoshi started mining the first crop of bitcoin, creating what is known as the “genesis block.” By year-end, over 32,000 blocks had been added to this original block, producing a total of 1,624,250 bitcoins. Since all transactions are public on the blockchain, we know that only a quarter of those bitcoins have ever changed hands, which means Satoshi is believed to be sitting on a stash of roughly one million bitcoins. With Bitcoin surging past $1000, that stash is worth about $1.1 billion.
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Nothing really adds up here... I'm wondering if the guy led this journalist on and when she eventually found out she had been wasting all her time decided to publish the article outing him in spite. Either way, creator of Bitcoin or not, the guy is in real danger, criminals will do a lot of stupid things for $400m.
 
Man, that writer is obnoxious. And what is the point of this article? It details the guy's family, extended family, his entire life history, medical problems, and what exactly does any of that have to do with bitcoins?

Fucking Newsweek. I didn't reach my limit of 5 articles per month, I hadn't visited your site in years until today and now I wish I never had. What a shit publication.
 
The cat's out of the bag, but wow, fuck Newsweek for publishing this. They just took the life of a very private, secretive man and published his identity, family, and where he lives for the whole world to find out.

Yes, investigative journalism is important, but this isn't uncovering some government scandal or corporate scheme or some shit. This is just fucking up a man's life for a story.
 
Didn't read the article but presuming there's actual validity (big leap to be sure), but didn't he publish his own identity on the paper?

@normative
It's not really "outing" when your infamous hacker handle is on your fucking birth certificate, is it?
 
Nakamoto ceased responding to emails I'd sent him immediately after I began asking about Bitcoin. This was in late February. Before that, I'd also asked about his professional background, for which there is very little to be found in the public record. I only received evasive answers. When he asked about my background, I told him I'd be happy to elaborate over the phone and called him to introduce myself. When there was no response, I asked his oldest son, Eric Nakamoto, 31, to reach out and see whether his father would talk about Bitcoin. The message came back he would not. Attempts through other family members also failed.
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Yikes.
 
So some real shit just went down. The account that Satoshi originally used to post for the first time about bitcoin on a P2P message board has just posted this:

"I am not Dorian Nakamoto"

This is the first time since Satoshi went dark in 2011 that anyone has ever heard from him. Either his account was hacked (very real possibility) or I don't know what.

This shit will make a great movie one day though!

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1zrshb/real_satoshi_nakamoto_denies_being_dorian_nakamoto
 
criesofthepast said:
So some real shit just went down. The account that Satoshi originally used to post for the first time about bitcoin on a P2P message board has just posted

"I am not Dorian Satoshi"

This is the first time since Satoshi went dark in 2011 that anyone has ever heard from him. Either his account was hacked (very real possibility) or I don't know what.

This shit will make a great movie one day though!

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1zrshb/real_satoshi_nakamoto_denies_being_dorian_nakamoto
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Just saw that, very interesting
 
Every time I look at the bitcoin price it's at 0.666!
 
The Faceless Master said:
it would be amazingly hilarious if it turns out that he isn't the guy...
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All signs point to that being entirely likely. Although a lot of people now think Dorian IS Satoshi because of this new post by Satoshi saying he isn't Dorian. Like hes trying to get people off his trail. Lol

This isn't the first time people have speculated on who Satoshi really is. There are a good half dozen names out there that people have come up with that could be Satoshi.

So, why would Satoshi choose to come out now with this post on that message board after this Dorian story and not the other half-dozen other times another name has come up? So much mystery.
 
I'm wondering if someone hacked the account. It does appear Satoshi posted there at one point, but he rarely was active. Could have used a weak password.

I don't think Dorian is the guy anyway, but that message would be seen as more credible if it was posted on Bitcointalk... Satoshi was very active there. He also used to PGP sign messages and could verify his identity that way.
 
x3sphere said:
I'm wondering if someone hacked the account. It does appear Satoshi posted there at one point, but he rarely was active. Could have used a weak password.

I don't think Dorian is the guy anyway, but that message would be seen as more credible if it was posted on Bitcointalk... Satoshi was very active there. He also used to PGP sign messages and could verify his identity that way.
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I think there is something shady going on here but its more likely that some admin on that PHP site is playing a joke than Satoshi's account was traditionally hacked. I mean the king of crypto using a weak password? Lol sounds unlikely but who knows. No PGP is a red flag as well. Honestly don't know what to think.
 
Whether it's him or not, his life is going to be seriously destroyed by this article for at least the short to medium term.

Satoshi has 1148800 bitcoins sitting in an account. For an elderly guy living on his own, the thought of bounty hunters looking to get their hands on even a portion of that has to be pretty terrifying.
 
criesofthepast said:
I think there is something shady going on here but its more likely that some admin on that PHP site is playing a joke than Satoshi's account was traditionally hacked. I mean the king of crypto using a weak password? Lol sounds unlikely but who knows. No PGP is a red flag as well. Honestly don't know what to think.
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That's a possibility too. I'm just saying he wasn't too active on there so could have been a throwaway account. I use weak passwords on sites I don't care about all the time.
 
x3sphere said:
That's a possibility too. I'm just saying he wasn't too active on there so could have been a throwaway account. I use weak passwords on sites I don't care about all the time.
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The PHP site is symbolic in that it was were he first shared Bitcoin to the world afaik. But it makes no sense for him not to not also post on bitcointalk the exact same thing. Which leads me to believe this is quite possibly fake. Satoshi would have known people would doubt this if he didn't post his PGP key and also do it on bitcointalk.

What's the point of posting this to clear someone else's name if he doesn't do it at least convincingly?

Someone is having a laugh with all this I think.

Also found this in reddit comments from the owner of bitcointalk, theymos:

Impossible to hack (his bitcointalk account) since I disabled his account after the first forum hack. If you see satoshi posting on the forum, it's because he sent me a valid PGP signed message and I restored his account.
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So yeah the reason he didn't post on bitcointalk could be because it really isn't him and someone has access to post on the other PHP message board. Don't know.
 
kurtrussell said:
Whether it's him or not, his life is going to be seriously destroyed by this article for at least the short to medium term.

Satoshi has 1148800 bitcoins sitting in an account. For an elderly guy living on his own, the thought of bounty hunters looking to get their hands on even a portion of that has to be pretty terrifying.
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???

I mean... Bill Gates has substantially more money, AND his money is real. Somehow the bounty hunters haven't taken him out yet.
 
I feel really fucking sorry for him.

Nakamoto ceased responding to emails I'd sent him immediately after I began asking about Bitcoin.
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When there was no response, I asked his oldest son, Eric Nakamoto, 31, to reach out and see whether his father would talk about Bitcoin. The message came back he would not. Attempts through other family members also failed.
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After that, Nakamoto disregarded my requests to speak by phone and did not return calls. The day I arrived at his modest, single-family home in southern California
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"Journalists" harassing some poor guy and his family that obviously doesn't want to speak about it.
 
After Newsweek posted the story on its website early Thursday, Nakamoto said his home was bombarded by phone calls. By mid-morning, a dozen reporters were waiting outside the modest two-story home on the residential street in Temple City, Calif., where he lives. He emerged shortly after noon saying he wanted to speak with one reporter only and asked for a "free lunch."

During a car ride and then later over sushi lunch at the AP bureau in downtown Los Angeles, Nakamoto spoke at length about his life, career and family, addressing many of the assertions in Newsweek's piece.

He also said a key portion of the piece — where he is quoted telling the reporter on his doorstep before two police officers, "I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it" — was misunderstood.

Nakamoto said he is a native of Beppu, Japan who came to the U.S. when he was 10. He speaks both English and Japanese, but his English isn't flawless. Asked if he said the quote, Nakamoto responded, "no."

"I'm saying I'm no longer in engineering. That's it," he said of the exchange. "And even if I was, when we get hired, you have to sign this document, contract saying you will not reveal anything we divulge during and after employment. So that's what I implied."

"It sounded like I was involved before with bitcoin and looked like I'm not involved now. That's not what I meant. I want to clarify that," he said.
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From the AP. Guy is either masterclass or some random Japanese american who used to be named satoshi nakamoto.

Elfforkusu said:
???

I mean... Bill Gates has substantially more money, AND his money is real. Somehow the bounty hunters haven't taken him out yet.
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There is a key difference between Bill Gates' money and the Real Satoshi's money. Bitcoin wealth is all pure liquid. Within an hour of kidnapping Satoshi, they could have all of the his bitcoins and there is no possible way to ever get them back. One transaction and they are irrevsiblably gone. If someone tried to rob Billy G or Warren Buffet, what are they going to do? Force them to sell billions in stock? The exchanges can be shutdown, trades reversed. Bank withdrawals can be halted. Bitcoin is poof, instantly gone - forever. The pure liquidity of Bitcoin is staggering and scary. 1 billion usd of bitcoin is transferred as easy as 5 usd in bitcoin (even easier due to how the bitcoin protocol is set up).
 
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