
Who I think Satoshi Nakamoto is - markessien
https://markessien.com/who-i-think-satoshi-nakamoto-is/
======
fragsworth
I don't buy it. Satoshi Nakamoto was most likely Hal Finney.

1) Finney lived in very close to Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto (who happened to be
unrelated to Bitcoin) - it's possible that he used his name.

2) Finney was the first person to perform a bitcoin transaction with Satoshi
Nakamoto

3) Satoshi Nakamoto stopped writing messages after Finney died

There are a few other reasons I'm forgetting, but the coincidences are too
many.

Interestingly, Hal Finney had himself cryopreserved. He may have invented
Bitcoin, to get resurrected 150 years later...

~~~
Edmond
*Hal Finney had himself cryopreserved.

I read that as: cryptopreserved.

~~~
mongrol
I read it as AL Finney who played a character in Dennis Potter's Cold Lazarus
who had himself cryopreserved.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_Lazarus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_Lazarus)

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Waterluvian
Have we had the conversation yet about the politeness of not trying to hunt
down someone who quite apparently does not want to be found?

I feel that there's no value to trying to figure out his/her identity other
than personal gain at his/her expense. It doesn't help us collectively.

~~~
bb88
> Have we had the conversation yet about the politeness of not trying to hunt
> down someone who quite apparently does not want to be found?

I'm going to take the con or anti position here.

1\. People who commit crimes should be exposed. (Not saying Satoshi has, but
answering your question generally)

2\. People who engage in public discourse, should not be expected to have
their identities remain private.

3\. People who potentially have billions of dollars (whether realized or not)
should also not expect privacy.

> I feel that there's no value to trying to figure out his/her identity other
> than personal gain at his/her expense.

Factually incorrect. If I can find out who Satoshi is, I can create a web page
and sell ad space on the web page. That's value -- in the best kind --
economic value. And economic value can be more than just personal gain, it can
create jobs for others.

> It doesn't help us collectively.

We can ask if he thought about the side effects of Bitcoin while developing
his algorithm. E.g. money laundering, increased energy demand for little
economic gain, etc.

And interestingly, Bram Cohen has also recently came out with another version
of Bitcoin with an algorithm better than PoW.

[Edited to clarify economic value]

~~~
mdekkers
_People who engage in public discourse, should not be expected to have their
identities remain private_

Public Discourse? Like online? Please do tell me the story of how your parents
settled on "bb88" as your name. Very quirky, do tell...

 _People who potentially have billions of dollars_

Why? Yes, I read your argument in the other post that they _may_ have
committed some crime. No. This is why we no longer burn witches, and now have
boring things like judges and courts.

~~~
bb88
> Public Discourse? Like online? Please do tell me the story of how your
> parents settled on "bb88" as your name. Very quirky, do tell...

Wow, you're not snarky at all, are ya bud?

But, uh yeah I do believe that, even for me. I don't expect my identity to
remain private. Someone just needs a lawyer to sue "John Doe" known as "bb88"
and get my IP address from ycombinator.com.

> Yes, I read your argument in the other post that they may have committed
> some crime.

Apparently, not carefully enough. It's not that "may have", it's that they
"might".

E.g. Many states like having concealed gun owners register with the state.
Again, not because they "may have" committed a crime, but because they might.

~~~
mdekkers
_Wow, you 're not snarky at all, are ya bud?_

And? How does your comment contribute to the discussion? Your position that
billionaires are all criminals because you personally cannot conceive of
anybody making that kind of money the legal way is bullshit, however you wish
to dress it up.

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tlb
You shouldn't publish something like that without at least reaching out to the
person for comment.

~~~
jhasse
I doubt he would answer "Yeah I'm Satoshi, please don't publish it."

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emsal
Regarding point A:

How can you really date a person's writing style to be from pre-2010? Is there
really a way to prove this? And why does that necessarily date the person
writing it as a 35-50-year-old?

~~~
bb88
The book "Primary Colors" penned by Anonymous was statistically tied to be Joe
Klein before he admitted to doing it:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_Colors_(novel)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_Colors_\(novel\))

Also, if you're curious about the man you discovered it, he went on to work on
famous cases trying to unmask anonymous writers, including work for the FBI.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Wayne_Foster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Wayne_Foster)

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berberous
I'm not a professional programmer, but I'd imagine the amount of code
available for both BitTorrent and Bitcoin might be enough for someone with a
lot of experience coding to say whether or not this is likely to be true based
on coding style.

My bet is it's not.

Also, agree with the other comments here that these sort of articles are both
dangerous and disrespectful.

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devereaux
What not leave that person alone?

They have not come forward and may dislike the publicity.

Maybe they just want a normal happy life?

They haven't cashed a single bitcoin in almost 10 years. They would have every
right to do that: They gave humanity a wonderful new tool, a technological
solution to a social problem!!

It may also be safer for them to never come forward, even if they destroyed
their own keys and bitcoins. Criminals and government would never believe
that, and still attempt to attack that person.

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Crontab
Is it really so hard to give someone the anonymity they want?

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bratao
This is a very good hypothesis, I only see one big counter-point. He announced
a Bitcoin alternative [https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/08/chia-network-
cryptocurrenc...](https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/08/chia-network-
cryptocurrency/)

~~~
XR0CSWV3h3kZWg
It's pretty clear that bitcoin will only allow very conservative upgrades,
it's entirely possible that the creator of bitcoin isn't interested in the
development of modern bitcoin.

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bitmapbrother
There needs to be a #NotMe movement.

~~~
ixtli
I get that most of the comments here are joking BUT
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_be_forgotten](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_be_forgotten)
is a related and important thing :)

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pbreit
Was this killed because it's dox-ish?

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bb88
Why are the topics critical of bitcoin more likely being flagged than not?

