
The Face Behind Bitcoin? - warrenmiller
http://mag.newsweek.com/2014/03/14/bitcoin-satoshi-nakamoto.html
======
nwh
Being labeled Satoshi regardless of truth is pretty much going to get you
robbed, kidnapped or killed. This dude lives in this town and has $400M of
untraceable currency? The article gives his name, face, address and relatives.
You can be sure as hell that somebody will do something stupid to try and get
to it.

I wouldn't wish this label upon anybody, it's exactly why the community tries
to avoid speculating about it. It's extremely irresponsible of the newspaper
to publish this — truth or otherwise — especially in such vivid detail.

⁢

Article sans paywall — [http://archive.is/wbw97](http://archive.is/wbw97)

Gavin seems to acknowledge the article —
[https://twitter.com/gavinandresen/status/441547758827474946](https://twitter.com/gavinandresen/status/441547758827474946)

~~~
ewoodrich
It is hardly untraceable.

I hear Bitcoin advocates frequently claim that government has an interest in
"shutting down Bitcoin", but compared to the all-cash industry of most
organized crime, Bitcoin's pseudonymity is law enforcement's dream come true.
A state actor would merely have to obtain the identity of one key in a series
of transactions on the blockchain, and would gain far more information than
any informant could provide. Sure, mixers and other methods could obfuscate
this, but it's not like 7/11 tracks serials of hundred dollar bills, so the
blockchain by definition is richer source of transaction data.

Full disclosure: I believe strongly in the concept of crypto currencies and
Bitcoin, but do not own any coins/alt at the moment.

(Modified repost from dead original thread)

~~~
rtpg
One thing that someone noted is that for a seller of illicit goods, bitcoin is
better than paper in that with dollar bills you have to physically pick them
up at one point.

With bitcoin, sure you can trace coins, but laundering services (namely things
like exchanges) can make you disappear a bit quicker.

Overall, though, bitcoin is the IRS' dream.

~~~
mzs
Alternatively a seller gets paid in something else relatively valuable that
they sell or trade later such as liquid laundry detergent.

------
bane
Topic other than discussing the irresponsibility of "outing" a guy using the
clever tricks of using his name and public records look ups.

> A libertarian, Nakamoto encouraged his daughter to be independent, start her
> own business and "not be under the government's thumb," she says. "He was
> very wary of the government, taxes and people in charge."

> What you don't know about him is that he's worked on classified stuff. His
> life was a complete blank for a while. You're not going to be able to get to
> him.

Growing up and living in the D.C. area, I'm constantly surprised at the
paradox of the deeply conservative anti-federal government types who work for
the government - directly or as a fed contractor. Who'll rattle off about
privacy issues before hopping on the bus to their job working on an NSA
contract at a Fed contractor...that sort of thing.

I've even pointed out point-blank that their salaries are paid for by the same
taxes they rail against incessantly and are met with blank stares or wry
grimaces before they launch into an extended soliloquy about "values" or
personal responsibility or some such. I've even had folks in the military
swear up and down that some military benefit program isn't a result of tax
payer dollars but mysteriously appears out of some kind of pay differential
sacrifice they've made instead of working in the private sector.

It's rather bizarre and I guess to Nakamoto's credit, he actually did
something about it in a sense.

 _edit_ meta-response to the replies indicating that perhaps his close contact
with the government is what motivated him to develop bitcoin, I think that's
plausible. What we don't know is if he developed this philosophy before or
after working with the government.

I'm curious though, in the general sense about people who have a fundamentally
anti-government philosophy, then take roles supporting and building up the
same government they clog their facebook feeds rallying against.

~~~
omegaham
Oh god yes.

I'm currently a relatively junior flunky in the Marine Corps, and the GS
civilians who work here are hilarious. "We need to cut the fat!" We work at a
minor airbase in the middle of nowhere... oh. Oops. Whatever we are, it sure
as hell ain't muscle.

"Government spending is out of control" while talking about how they exploit
the DTS system to get as much per diem as possible.

"Those lazy people who expect everything to be handed to them, and that Muslim
in charge is just giving it all away" while sitting in their chair bitching
whenever a Marine disrupts their Freecell session to ask about equipment
repair.

I don't even talk to them about it, mostly because the fact that they are
capable of this caliber of doublethink indicates that they're beyond saving.

~~~
MadManE
Taking advantage of the existing situation for maximum personal gain doesn't
indicate doublethink. It only indicates that they care more about themselves
than they care about "the greater good" \- which, in my opinion is how it
should be.

Somebody's going to be getting paid for doing nothing - it might as well be
me.

~~~
Jtsummers
It's doublethink or hypocrisy to complain about people getting fat off the
government dole while getting fat off the government dole.

~~~
prostoalex
How does one gain a first-hand knowledge of a corrupt system unless one has
experienced it himself?

It's quite possible to be the user of the system due to the lack of other
alternatives and oppose it in principle. People with mortgages or shares do
not necessarily support corrupt Wall Street practices and financial
institutions getting "too big to fail", yet benefit from low mortgage rates or
bullish runs in the stock market.

~~~
bane
It turns out experiential knowledge is not the only way we can learn things.

~~~
prostoalex
Why have the silly laws protecting the whistle-blowers then?

------
jxf
So Newsweek outed a guy who allegedly owns half a billion dollars in pseudo-
untraceable, digital cash? I hope they're also going to chip in for a
permanent security detail...

More seriously, I think they could have done a better job reporting on the
identity without giving so much away:

* A picture of his house is posted, identical to the one in Google Street View

* The license plate is relatively clear in the high-resolution image

* His exact address has more or less already been discovered using only the information in the article

* Full names of family members were used

It's a legitimate story -- understanding Nakomoto's motivations for creating
Bitcoin as discovered from his past is a worthwhile topic. (For example, would
your feelings about cryptocurrency change if it turned out Nakomoto was a
high-level NSA operative?) But, again, it could have been reported in a way
that didn't compromise his identity so thoroughly.

~~~
Tyrannosaurs
I agree with you, but would temper it very slightly by saying that a man with
a $400m fortune has some options here.

That doesn't make it right and his wealth doesn't make him free game but it
does mean that he's not completely been hung out to dry.

~~~
fnordfnordfnord
They haven't presented any evidence. The Satoshi they found sounds like a
plausible Satoshi but is it really him?

If he _is_ the real Satoshi he may have lost or discarded his private keys.

Some snarky comment about how this is why bloggers aren't journalists because
a "real" news organization has ethics or something.

~~~
TeMPOraL
> _Some snarky comment about how this is why bloggers aren 't journalists
> because a "real" news organization has ethics or something._

Honestly, I always thought it was the other way around. This situation only
confirms that.

~~~
fnordfnordfnord
I should have said snarky and ironic.

------
blakesterz
"What?" The police officer balks. "This is the guy who created Bitcoin? It
looks like he's living a pretty humble life."

That quote smells totally fake to me. There's just no way some random office
would know what Bitcoin is, and even if he did, that's not something a police
officer would say. I don't know what that says about the rest of the article,
but that quote doesn't read very factual to me.

~~~
watty
Why couldn't a random officer know what Bitcoin is? My father heard of it and
knows nothing about technology. It's no longer a secretive online currency,
it's everywhere.

~~~
joncrocks
If you read the article, it suggests that the police officer is told that the
person is Satoshi Nakamoto and the officer exclaims:

"What?" The police officer balks. "This is the guy who created Bitcoin?"

I can accept that the man on the street would have heard about bitcoin, but to
know the name of the person who did the original work on the currency? That
just seems a bit unlikely.

~~~
FatalLogic
Obviously the conversation has been heavily edited. Nobody really speaks so
clearly and succinctly.

To me, it looks probable that she really said something like "I would like to
ask him about Bitcoin. This man is Satoshi Nakamoto. I think he's the man who
created Bitcoin"

So she prepped the police officer to deliver the quote that she wanted "This
is the guy who created Bitcoin?", by planting the suggestion first.

------
Blahah
The author of the piece can be reached in these ways:

[http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1zpmo8/the_face_beh...](http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1zpmo8/the_face_behind_bitcoin_satoshi_nakamoto_is/cfvsa91)

If you think this article is a dangerous invasion of privacy, tell her and her
employers (Newsweek).

~~~
noir_lord
Forget Dangerous... it's down right irresponsible They list the guys entire
family including kids and where they work etc.

Beside that the article has very little content other than "he's a little bit
weird" an observation that is not exactly original, it's almost a stereotype
that really smart people are often a "little bit weird" .

~~~
Blahah
That's exactly my point. It's dangerous because she's made his address, car
registration and all his family's details public. I'm saying we should raise
it with the people responsible if we think it's a problem.

edit: now you've edited for clarity, it's clear we're saying the same thing.

~~~
noir_lord
Yeah sorry about that, original wording looked like I was questioning your
comment where I intended to whole-heartedly agree with it.

They just put a 400 million dollar bounty on this guy and his entire family
for no apparent reason.

------
dTal
Wait, it was just a single smart dude whose actual _real name_ is Satoshi
Nakamoto, and here we've been theorizing shadowy pseudonymous cabals of
libertarian cryptographers?

I feel very silly.

~~~
jessaustin
I always assumed it was a real dude, since only a certain type of westerner
would use a Japanese pseudonym, and that type of westerner would have chosen
"Kenichi Kusanagi" or something similarly ridiculous.

[To be clear, I had also assumed that a Japanese crypto person who _wanted_
privacy would have used a western pseudonym.]

But yeah, it almost seems like the crypto community didn't really _want_ to
dox Nakamoto, even if many of them could have.

------
argumentum
Quite an odd article for such an important (if true) expose. The only reason I
think its _possibly_ true is Gavin's vague tweet.

50% of the article deals with material about bitcoin that is redundant to
anyone whose been following it for more than a day (like most here).

45% deals with "Dorian S. Nakamoto"'s family, personal background and that
he's a libertarian oddball, with a penchant for math (but no other significant
accomplishment within it or CS) who (other than possible being _the_ Satoshi)
has led a fairly normal, middle class southern california lifestyle.

The remaining 5% or so details a brief encounter with the man, in which he
neither confirms or denies it.

I'm skeptical.

~~~
dTal
To be honest I agree with you that there quite a few red flags about this
article. However, short of Newsweek outright making everything up, isn't the
lack of a denial in this instance tantamount to an admission? I mean, if it
were me, and I valued my privacy that much, I would a) have used an actual
pseudonym, b) responded to questions about Bitcoin with "bit-what-now"?

~~~
michaelt

      isn't the lack of a denial in this instance tantamount to 
      an admission? I mean, if it were me, [...] responded to 
      questions about Bitcoin with "bit-what-now"?
    

If all his friends and family know he shares his name with the creator of
bitcoin, he might have already heard all the jokes and think "not this shit
again" as well as not being able to credibly deny knowing about it.

There's a british general who goes by Mike Jackson when his real name is
Michael Jackson [1]. If someone asked him to moonwalk I'd expect the resigned
frustration of someone who has heard that lame joke a thousand times before -
rather than him denying having heard of the pop singer of the same name.

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Jackson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Jackson)

~~~
BillyMaize
As someone with the name Paul Brown in the Cincinnati area (where the Paul
Brown stadium is) I deal with this almost daily. I'm sick of meeting someone
and about 75% of the time they go "oh, do you own the stadium?". I'm seriously
starting to think about moving far away so I don't have to hear it anymore. I
don't even like football!

I also went to high school with a guy named John Conner and everyone use to
thank him for some day saving the human race from the machines.

~~~
rzt
People also probably give you immense grief over the ridiculous tax deal the
stadium has with Hamilton County. :p

~~~
BillyMaize
I wish, most people don't seem to care. I for one would rather see my tax
dollars go to something useful like education.

------
acjohnson55
I'll probably be slammed for this, but I actually think it's a pretty good
piece. Maybe it could do without the picture of Satoshi's house, but it
probably wouldn't be so hard to find the house anyway if you know you're
looking for an actual "Satoshi Nakamoto in Temple City".

If the dude hadn't used his real name, we'd probably still be wondering who he
is. So I think the indignation is a bit misplaced. It's not at all uncommon or
nefarious for news reports to be written about people who don't particularly
want the coverage.

------
frogpelt
This is Newsweek's watershed. They're laying Satoshi Nakamoto on the line to
recreate their brand as a hard-hitting journalism publication.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newsweek](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newsweek)

EDIT: The relevant parts of the wiki article are at the end of the first
section.

1\. Newsweek merged with The Daily Beast.

2\. Newsweek ceased print publication and transitioned to an all-digital
format.

3\. IBT Media acquired Newsweek. IBT Media plans to relaunch a print edition
of Newsweek on March 7, 2014. (Guess what today is!)

~~~
rhizome
Nice catch!

------
lucb1e
> "Dorian can just be paranoid," says Tokuo. "I cannot get through to him. I
> don't think he will answer any of these questions to his family truthfully."

What the hell, if many family members are so eager to forward questions from
the press to him and spill anything they know, I can totally understand
Satoshi doesn't answer them truthfully. I also feel very sorry for Satoshi's
position in which he doesn't seem to have _anyone_ to talk to truthfully :/

> Of course, none of this puts to rest the biggest question of all - the one
> that only Satoshi Nakamoto himself can answer: What has kept him from
> spending his hundreds of millions of dollars of Bitcoin

Isn't it obvious? It would destabilize the market and begin a huge frenzy to
find out who he is, and he knows it. Now the latter is a moot point, but I can
totally understand he doesn't want to backstab his brainchild.

Besides, who says he didn't mine other coins early on anonymously for his own
use? Wasn't the point of Bitcoin that you can't know who's who? If he did this
and got some money, he totally deserved it.

~~~
Jach
The article says he lives with his mother, and since the article said nothing
else about her, I suspect she may be the one person he can talk to
truthfully...

------
cyphunk
> "For anyone who's tried to wire money overseas, you can see how much easier
> an international Bitcoin transaction is. It's just as easy as sending an
> email." \-- Bitcoin's chief scientist, Gavin Andresen

No actually it's only as easy as Western Union is. You either have to take a
huge cut due to localbitcoin or other markups for markets that avoid the
normal route of... registering at an exchange, giving them all your details
which will take weeks to months, whom will then place major limits on what you
can transfer (no more than a $2k-$10k) and potentially crash burn and be
robbed while you wait for your FIAT.

So actually it's like transferring money between two Western Union branches
that are both in war zones and staffed with employees taken from the DMV.

------
potatoman2
"This man is Satoshi Nakamoto."

"What?" The police officer balks. "This is the guy who created Bitcoin? It
looks like he's living a pretty humble life."

\- I do not believe this exchange took place. The police would've had his name
from his initial call to them, and a random officer from the Sheriff's
department would not likely recognize that name as the creator of Bitcoin.
Just saying.

~~~
robotcookies
He did change his name from Satoshi to Dorian and maybe that's what the
officer had.

------
sktrdie
Here's a comment left on a forum by this Dorian person: [https://www.national-
preservation.com/threads/preserved-bars...](https://www.national-
preservation.com/threads/preserved-barsi-light-railway-india-
kitson.38359/#post-702441)

Satoshi's punctuation style with the double-space after the dot is a
distinctive feature of his writing, used in both the official Bitcoin
publication and on forum posts.

Looking at the HTML source of that review, you can notice this exact
punctuation style.

~~~
citricsquid
This is a very common Americanism, double spacing after periods is something I
see _more_ than single spacing. I would be more surprised if a 50s American
didn't double space after periods.
[http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2011/01/...](http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2011/01/space_invaders.html)

~~~
BU_student
You should read this comment:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2103480](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2103480)

Manjoo was wrong.

------
act9
Gavin Andresen: "I'm disappointed Newsweek decided to dox the Nakamoto family,
and regret talking to Leah."

[https://twitter.com/gavinandresen/status/441547758827474946](https://twitter.com/gavinandresen/status/441547758827474946)

------
efuquen
I'm going to skirt the ethical questions being asked, assuming everything done
to get this information was legal and such and the accuracy of it lives within
the bounds of journalistic integrity (of course none of that necessarily makes
it ethical, but like I said, circumventing that question for now).

All that said, by the number of reactions I'm reading here I get the
impression that in the Bitcoin world someone with a significant amount of
wealth has to fear for their life? What is the difference between Satoshi
Nakamoto and any other individual of significant wealth, i.e. Bill Gates,
Warren Buffet, Rupert Murdoch, etc. While I don't have any exact addresses or
other information about these people on hand, I'm sure I could get it rather
easily.

The emphasis I keep seeing is on how he has $400 M of "pseudo-untraceable,
digital cash" and assume the concern is something along the lines of it would
be more difficult to extract that much from Bill Gates if you
attacked/kidnapped him and get away with it vs Bitcoin, which you could
theoretically extract the keys guarding the coin from the victim and quickly
transfer out to other wallets without much issue.

So, the gist I'm getting, is that in the world of crypto-currency if you get
wealthy ... man you better watch out because people are going to be gunning
for you to steal your coin by force if they ever find out where you live. Live
In Fear. If this is the great future of finance you all envision, then I
really wouldn't want any part of it.

*Side note, I really don't believe any of the above but given some of the responses I've seen I think we need to take a step back and examine the conclusions that would result from some of the statements being made.

------
4dl0v3-p34c3
Isn't this entire article illegal?

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personally_identifiable_informa...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personally_identifiable_information#United_States_of_America)

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_privacy_law#Califor...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_privacy_law#California_Right_to_Know_Act)

Whatever. Satoshi-san can sue if he likes. The damage done in the article
alone is devastating for even persecution charges.

~~~
stan_rogers
No. Those laws only make it illegal to release information, or insufficiently
protect it, in a legal relationship of trust and guardianship (and to gather
such information by pretending to be party to such a relationship). No such
relationship exists here, and unless a SSN (or equivalent protected
identifier) was released, it's merely ethically questionable, not illegal.

~~~
ufmace
Even if it was, lawsuits are entirely public, and filing and litigating one
would result in exponentially more publicity than this article has already
given him.

------
m_myers
> You have reached the limit of 5 free articles a month.

I haven't read any Newsweek articles this month. And it appears I'm not going
to, either.

Google cache link for anyone else who gets the same message:
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?output=search&s...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?output=search&sclient=psy-
ab&q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fmag.newsweek.com%2F2014%2F03%2F14%2Fbitcoin-satoshi-
nakamoto.html&oq=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fmag.newsweek.com%2F2014%2F03%2F14%2Fbitcoin-
satoshi-
nakamoto.html&gs_l=hp.3..0l4.439.2188.0.2536.7.7.0.0.0.0.221.871.0j3j2.5.0....2...1c.1.37.psy-
ab..2.5.845.ObjcYtgqMr0&pbx=1)

~~~
gms7777
Switching to incognito usually works too.

------
bachback
Can this be real? a guy calls the cops, but admits he was involved?

"Tacitly acknowledging his role in the Bitcoin project, he looks down, staring
at the pavement and categorically refuses to answer questions."

"I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it," he says, dismissing
all further queries with a swat of his left hand. "It's been turned over to
other people. They are in charge of it now. I no longer have any connection."

~~~
topynate
It _sounds_ like he's 'on the spectrum' \- very strong commitment to the
literal truth goes with the territory. As does desire for privacy, tendency to
work alone obsessively on unusual projects, lack of interest in money (or in
being rich, rather)...

~~~
rthomas6
That's an interesting observation and now that you pointed it out, I think I
agree with you. However, I think that more than autistic people lack interest
in "being rich". If I had $400m, I'd buy a house and pay off our car. The
remaining $399.5m would be invested. I'd take out $40-50k per year for
spending. Extravagant lifestyles are overrated, I think.

~~~
Yorn
Speaking as a sometimes paranoid libertarian with a reasonable amount of
Bitcoin, myself, I can say the two things preventing me from cashing out of
any portion of it is the likelihood I would be identified and the fact that
any sales of it I have to pay taxes on. I purchased a house this year that I
could have afforded several times over in Bitcoin, but instead took out a loan
just like anyone else.

~~~
anigbrowl
I don't understand this. the amount you'd pay in capital gains is probably
less than what you're going to pay out in interest, notwithstanding the
mortgage interest deduction to your taxes (in which the government subsidizes
you at the expense of other taxpayers).

I mean, perhaps you ran the numbers and it works out better financially, but I
get the impression from your post that you don't want to pay any taxes on it
on principle, which seems economically irrational.

~~~
Yorn
My accountant did not think it qualified as capital gains. I guess the IRS has
a specific designation for what can be considered for that.

------
Steko
Shorter HN:

 _Would you all just think of the poor superrich for a minute? Clearly they
are the ones in our society who need special protections and immunities from
journalism._

~~~
lukifer
We have no strong evidence that is he is super-rich, even if it is likely. And
outing his personal details would be just as wrong if he had kept none of the
coins.

------
cyanbane
I am not a big fan of the way the article was written, but I can definitely
see how some may decry it as being news worthy.

I think the author should be ashamed for posting a picture of this man's
house. No need for that and it doesn't add to the story after the description.

~~~
junto
I think I can see the thieves lining up to break in to his house to steal his
bitcoins already.

Whether he is the Nakamoto behind Bitcoin or not, I think Newsweek have
basically made him a target.

Let's put this another way. I see him as a potential target worth $400
million, and I'm not even inclined to partake in breaking and entering. So,
what about the uncrupulous people who don't know much about bitcoin. Oh yeah,
let's steal the guys computer. It is worth $400 million dollars.

Newsweek just lined this poor guy up as a target for every crook in LA.

I feel really sorry for the guy.

------
tomasien
A lot of people are calling this "doxxing" which it isn't - identifying
someone based on their ACTUAL NAME and profession isn't doxxing. It may be
horrible, irresponsible, dangerous, I don't know - still forming an opinion
about that, but that's not doxxing as I know it or see it defined anywhere.

~~~
xg15
I actually don't care if it matches the strict definition of doxxing - it's
enough that it was horrible, irresponsible and dangerous.

~~~
tomasien
Definitions matter, words matter. That is all.

------
atmosx
Cool article but says virtually nothing. We have:

* A smart man, according to the article * Who worked for the government at some point in time (according to the article) * Who's name is Satoshi Nakamoto * Who values privacy (so much that he used his real name LOL)

So apart from the stalking and extremely irritating privacy breach this
article shows about Newsweek's[1] journalists and chosen course of action,
proves or states nothing.

He didn't _admit_ anything, but seriously... Even he did, why do we care at
this point?

[1] I was holding NS in low regard anyway. Now it's as low as it gets in my
eyes.

------
shawabawa3
Not sure why this keeps getting deleted.

Newsweek have already made it public, no point trying to protect his identity
now

~~~
maxerickson
One poster chose to delete his (I saw his comment to this effect). I imagine
users flagged the second one dead.

------
jbondeson
I'm torn about the article. On one hand this seems like a horrid breach of
privacy and a terribly dangerous thing to do. On the other, even if they just
said he lives in his family home in California, people were going to find out
all this information.

Half of me thinks it's better everyone knows they were doxed all at once.

~~~
GuiA
> On the other, even if they just said he lives in his family home in
> California, people were going to find out all this information.

How is the argument "X was going to happen anyway so it's fine if it happens
now" ever right?

~~~
jbondeson
If the objection is privacy it's not right.

However if it's safety, it's better to know up front than to think you're
anonymous.

------
markbao
Honest question: it seems like Nakamoto wanted to keep his identity secret. If
that's true, then why did he reveal so much information (by implying that he
was part of Bitcoin) _and_ allow a photo of him to be taken, instead of saying
"I have no relation to Bitcoin"? It doesn't add up.

~~~
km3k
I don't think he allowed that photo to be taken. The reporter probably got it
from a family member or friend.

------
lucb1e
> "He was the kind of person who, if you made an honest mistake, he might call
> you an idiot and never speak to you again," Andresen says. "Back then, it
> was not clear that creating Bitcoin might be a legal thing to do. He went to
> great lengths to protect his anonymity."

Except that he used his full, real name. That is what seems so odd to me.

If it really is him though, I'm very much afraid this article just destroyed
his life...

------
hiroaki
References to Dorian Nakamoto on the web:

Amazon:
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/ATILATX3PEXZ4/ref=cm_cr...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/ATILATX3PEXZ4/ref=cm_cr_rdp_pdp/175-5058784-6633341)

Letter voting for an art rail project (search for "nakamoto"):
[http://media.metro.net/projects_studies/connector/images/Fin...](http://media.metro.net/projects_studies/connector/images/Final_EIR/appendix_i_agency_coordination_and_public_involvement_part_20_of_23.pdf)

Google cache of a recent event where he was at (look for the guy in the yellow
baseball cap):
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Awww.m...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Awww.mylargescale.com%2Ftabid%2F56%2Faft%2F131386%2FDefault.aspx&oq=cache%3Awww.mylargescale.com%2Ftabid%2F56%2Faft%2F131386%2FDefault.aspx&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i58.1385j0j1&sourceid=chrome&espv=2&es_sm=91&ie=UTF-8)

------
bachback
worst reporting I've seen. it implies this person has admitted working on
bitcoin. actually that's not even true, if you read the words.

why on earth all this work, just to chose a real name? this does not make any
sense. as if SN could not haven chosen a name to deflect his identity.

~~~
cpwright
This quote tells you how sloppy the journalism is: "Even so, Bitcoin is
vulnerable to massive theft, fraud and scandal, which has seen the price of
Bitcoins whipsaw from more than $1,200 each last year to as little as $130 in
late February." The MtGox price in February was meaningless, a more accurate
representation would have been $1,200 to somewhere around $500 that reputable
exchanges were selling for (I don't know the actual price, just enough to know
that his figures are misleading).

~~~
edraferi
The Mt Gox price divergence actually makes her point stronger. she's
highlighting the volatility, and the failure of a major exchange is pretty
volatile.

------
alasdair_
"I obtained Nakamoto's email through a company he buys model trains from."

In Europe, this would be completely illegal. I'd suspect that in the US this
at least breaks the privacy policy of whatever site Nakamoto was using.

"Two weeks before our meeting in Temple City, I struck up an email
correspondence with Satoshi Nakamoto, mostly discussing his interest in
upgrading and modifying model steam trains with computer-aided design
technologies. "

I understand that this is sometimes how journalism is "done" but the
sneakiness of it all seems pretty low.

~~~
anigbrowl
A lot of journalism is just plain old social engineering.

------
bambax
> _There are several Satoshi Nakamotos living in North America and beyond -
> both dead and alive_

I too would like to be living in North America when I'm dead.

~~~
smsm42
You'd like to be a zombie in North America? You know North Americans don't
like zombies - just watch their constant anti-zombie propaganda, it's
disgusting. And all for a bunch of folks whose only fault is a high
appreciation one's brain.

------
stefanve
So Newsweek hires paparazzo's now? The need to disclose everything about the
guy and call several family members etc is really wrong. Which I could undo my
click...., no need to invade his privacy so much, "fun to know because
interesting" is not a good enough reason to write the article...

~~~
bruceb
Call his family, that is what reporters do to confirm a story. The man created
a currency that is used world wide, is talked about every day on HN. Can you
imagine if facebook was created and we didn't know who did it?

~~~
marvy
Sure, why not?

------
emin-gun-sirer
No culture deserves to have its creation myths exposed or destroyed.
Ironically, Newsweek's behavior makes a strong case for anonymous
communication and payment systems.

------
treebridge
Goodman writes: "Two weeks before our meeting in Temple City, I struck up an
email correspondence with Satoshi Nakamoto, mostly discussing his interest in
upgrading and modifying model steam trains with computer-aided design
technologies. I obtained Nakamoto's email through a company he buys model
trains from." This is so sneaky and sad.

------
continuations
Does the concept of privacy mean anything to Newsweek?

~~~
uptown
I see it as good investigative journalism. You don't think the single person
that potentially originated a new form of global currency that's dominating
headlines, and receiving the attention of world leaders is newsworthy? I'm a
firm believer in privacy - but when something one has put into the world
stands to have a massively disruptive force, it's worth exploring who that
person is, and what their motivations are.

~~~
dagw
And they could have done all of that without revealing his identity.

~~~
girvo
His identity was revealed the moment he put his actual full name to the paper
though :/ I would has sympathy if he actually did use a pseudonym, but
assuming this is true then what did he really expect would happen?

~~~
john_b
I agree that it's harder to have sympathy for him as a result. However, nobody
deserves to have their rights violated* because they made a simple mistake. If
you forget to lock your house or car, you don't deserve to have it broken
into. If you drop your wallet for a moment, you don't deserve to have it
stolen.

*If you don't believe in a right to privacy, substitute "be harassed by strangers" or "have their and their family's safety compromised". Even outside a framework of rights, some things remain inappropriate and wrong.

------
vezzy-fnord
Very few people here seem to be discussing the fact that the article offers
little real evidence that this is _the_ Satoshi Nakamoto of Bitcoin, and that
most likely they just set up an eccentric old man with an unfortunate name
collision to end up getting mobbed by the public.

~~~
anigbrowl
Apart from the guy not saying 'no, I am not the inventor of Bitcoin, you have
the wrong Satoshi Nakamoto.'

~~~
davesque
Assuming that he actually said that, of which the author of the article has no
proof.

~~~
anigbrowl
Most journalists carry handheld audio recorders for this very purpose.

------
nmeofthestate
I'm wondering how many of the commenters that are equating holding BTC with a
death sentence by violent criminals would consider themselves pro-BTC.

------
jmnicolas
From the article :

"He is the only person I have ever known to show up for a job interview and
tell the interviewer he's an idiot - and then prove it."

Priceless.

------
olalonde
Meta: this submission has 811 point and was posted only 5 hours, yet it is at
#11 position. Is this the regular HN algorithm at work or is it weighted down
due to its controversial nature? (I'm not trying to imply there is any
conspiracy... I actually remember reading that submissions with a high vote to
comment ratio are weighted down but I'm not completely sure)

~~~
gasull
Probably it has been flagged because it's full of speculation.

~~~
rhizome
It's also full of bitcoin, which has been crapping all over HN for weeks now.

------
brunoqc
It's weird that some police officers would know who Satoshi Nakamoto is.

~~~
sounds
Ironically, the officers didn't know it was _Satoshi_ _Nakamoto_ until she
said so.

They're just helping the guy remove a trespasser, which is well within their
line of duty. Oh, and the homeowner who called them is named "Satoshi
Nakamoto." What do you want to bet they don't really know/care who that is?

Especially if he is cleared for classified work, he will know exactly who to
call to get some law enforcement backup. Seriously, don't try to break into a
guy's house who is employed by the U.S. Government and has access to that kind
of stuff. (I know she didn't break in, but she's definitely invading.)

~~~
edraferi
Sadly, government contract work doesn't usually include your own personal
drone army. our the authority to mobilize national law enforcement assets.
they're just jobs.

------
liopleurodon
"The punctuation in the proposal is also consistent with how Dorian S.
Nakamoto writes, with double spaces after periods and other format quirks."

wtf!! That's how you're supposed to write!!

~~~
smacktoward
Actually, no. Double spaces after periods are an artifact of the formatting
limitations of typewriters (see
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentence_spacing#Mechanical_typ...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentence_spacing#Mechanical_type_and_the_advent_of_the_typewriter)).
In an age of properly kerned digital type, there's no reason to use more than
one space.

As a result of this, you can get a rough sense of a person's age by looking at
how they handle sentence spacing. People old enough to have learned how to
type on an actual typewriter (like, um, me) will very frequently use two
spaces; people younger than that, less so. (Except on the web, of course,
where browsers enforce the proper usage for you and collapse multiple spaces
after a period into one no matter what you type.)

~~~
wpietri
Exactly. In high school I took a typing class, and there, two spaces after the
period was the rule. I switched to one space later on, probably because early
word processing and desktop publishing tech produced over-spaced results if
you used two spaces.

------
adamzerner
How hasn't anyone guessed that the math wiz named Satoshi Nakamoto is indeed
Satoshi Nakamoto of Bitcoin?

Also, being that he's so secretive, why on earth would he use his real name?

------
repatDE
[http://www.file-
upload.net/download-8686500/satoshi.pdf.html](http://www.file-
upload.net/download-8686500/satoshi.pdf.html)

stupid paywall.

------
sarreph
I'm not up-voting this because Leah Goodman has violated even the most simple
of journalistic integrity that should be afforded to such a sensitive topic.

Firstly, she very dubiously breached Nakamoto's trust by attempting to get
through to him by talking about his passions. Then, when she didn't get the
response she wanted, she posted this article that lists multiple family
members' full names, most of Nakamoto's (if this is even the _real_ Nakamoto)
personal and employment history, and then has the audacity to post a photo of
Nakamoto's house that is close enough to a google street view photo, enabling
others to pinpoint his location.

If something bad happens to Nakamoto as a result of the personal information
disclosed in this report, it will be a great shame for Newsweek.

------
fiatpandas
_Completely irresponsible_ to put a picture of his house in the article. I
mean, she didn't even blur out his house number. It took me a single google
search to find his full address with that number (matching street view).

It's been taken out of the article now, but the damage has been done.

------
michaelbuddy
that is the most genius newsweek cover image. I'm stunned by how smart it was
to create that artwork.

~~~
atom-morgan
I'm surprised nobody else has brought this up. It's almost _too_ good. I
didn't notice my first time.

------
dharma1
For a professional journalist to sink to such a level - with zero
consideration for others in order to advance their own career - never ceases
to amaze me.

~~~
smsm42
Isn't that what professional journalists routinely do?

~~~
declan
Those would be journalists who are not acting professionally.

------
pistle
Doxxing the guy is not nice.

With this out of the way, maybe cryptocurrency can focus attention on leveling
up protocols and systems to improve utility. When bitcoin becomes the
Friendster of cryptocurrency, Satoshi won't matter, just the disruptive ideas
around our proxies for value and the new tools and power that can be used in
positive ways to help improve the lot for all humans.

People want the confidence that they are able to securely accrue and employ
the value of their efforts and wisdom to improve their standard of living. The
values of the mainstream of humanity will determine the fate of this stuff.
The current level of technical acumen required to handle and secure most any
crypto$ is too high for them right now.

It's time to level up.

------
confluence
There's one thing that doesn't add up: why would such a privacy conscious man
use his real name on a project he thought might be illegal? If he was so
serious about his privacy, he would not have used his real name in public.

~~~
adventured
Usually the simplest explanations are the right ones. Who expects to create a
new form of exchange, that goes on to become a $10 billion network (and maybe
one day far larger)?

It's entirely plausible that Satoshi thought using that name, on his little
project, would be enough. There is sometimes a lab mentality among people
whose work has mostly been hidden away, they would never expect it to touch
every corner of the world economy. It was just an experiment early on, and by
the time it was obvious it would be more than that, his name was already
attached.

~~~
bachback
no, not at all. read the very first posts he made, where he predicted world
wide use. he was absolutely aware of the possibility.

------
mcphilip
Apparently the author of this newsweek piece will be on CNBC sometime this
morning:

[https://twitter.com/SquawkCNBC/status/441544016421978112](https://twitter.com/SquawkCNBC/status/441544016421978112)

~~~
greyskull
I feel really bad for Mr. Nakamoto. He would have likely been found out at
some point, but this is the worst way for it to happen. Now _everyone_ knows.

If he was put off by just one journalist visit, I imagine he'll consider
relocating now.

~~~
danielweber
Was he "put off"? He seems to have consented to the interview, and to have
posed for a picture.

Having interacted enough with bad members of the media [NB: there are also
good ones], I'm not so naive as to think that there's no way they could have
persuaded him to do it with lies or bullshit or empty threats, but without
evidence for that he could have just said "I don't want to talk to you" and
left it at that.

 _EDIT_ : I've re-read and might be changing my position. He didn't actually
consent to any in-person interview. It was very very clear he didn't want to
talk in person. So where did the picture come from?

~~~
jnbiche
Why do you think that's a picture he posed for? She probably got it from one
of the family members she spoke to.

~~~
danielweber
I am now unsure of that and backing away from that position.

Is there a print-version of this article? That would show the photo credit in
the margin. Too bad photo credits don't seem to be the custom on the web.

~~~
path411
In the online article it says:

"Satoshi Nakamoto in Lancaster, Calif. Credit: Photo via Photobucket.com via
Satoshi Nakamoto (Wagumabher)"

Sounds more like she uncovered his personal photobucket and took an image.

~~~
danielweber
Thanks, that wasn't there a few hours ago.

------
easytiger
Can we ban paywalled articles?

~~~
sp332
That would be fine with me!
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?strip=1&q=cache...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?strip=1&q=cache:http%3A%2F%2Fmag.newsweek.com%2F2014%2F03%2F14%2Fbitcoin-
satoshi-nakamoto.html)

~~~
blumkvist
So, we don't want advertising and we don't want subscriptions.

It seems like we don't know what we want.

~~~
sp332
I like subscriptions, I just don't care enough about Newsweek to subscribe.
Can't we have ads, with a payment option to remove ads? Ars Technica does this
[https://arstechnica.com/subscriptions/](https://arstechnica.com/subscriptions/)

------
Uhhrrr
"Reverse Polish notation" \- was this originally Hungarian notation before
some layer of "fact checking" ruined it? I have no idea how one would program
using RPN.

~~~
dmourati
+1 for RPN. Ha!

------
grej
I wonder if Leah McGrath Goodman would like photos of her home published and
members of her family identified against her will? I wonder if she thought
about that, or the man and his family's safety, before choosing to publish
this information about him?

Reading the description of the man and recognizing the value he placed on
privacy and anonymity, I'm genuinely sad for him. I also fear for his personal
safety and that of his family for the reasons others have stated.

~~~
smacktoward
_> I wonder if Leah McGrath Goodman would like photos of her home published_

Nobody at Google Street View, which cheerfully publishes pictures of millions
of peoples' homes without consent or even notification, appears to have ever
wondered that.

~~~
bruceb
Homes you can drive by. Hardly that big of a deal.

------
yoha
Breaking history navigation + mandatory cookies…

The Wikipedia article saved me some time getting to the point:

> Though Nakamato's identity was a source of speculation since the launch of
> Bitcoin in 2008, an article in the news magazine Newsweek by Leah McGrath
> Goodman, published March 6, 2014, made the case that his true identity was
> Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto (born 1949), a Japanese American man living
> in California.[8]

------
72deluxe
The article appears to have many "from then on he stopped responding to
emails" and "he then dropped off the map" phrases in it. He might not be
replying to emails?

The article is cleverly written to make these perfectly ordinary (in)actions
sound suspicious. People could write the same about me if I didn't reply to
emails or phone calls for a while.

------
glimmung
I hope nothing negative happens to the subject of this piece.

I hope something thoroughly educational happens to the author of this piece.

Cheesy and ill-considered.

------
mathattack
_If Nakamoto ever sells his Bitcoin fortune, he would likely have to do so at
a legitimate Bitcoin bank or exchange, which would not only give away his
identity but alert everyone from the IRS to the FBI of his movements._

I think they just did that.

Amazing that he actually used his real name. This tells me that he didn't
realize how far it would go when he started it.

------
gnoway
I would be worried if I was the reporter. If anything happens to Satoshi, I
suspect there are a moderate to high number of people who will make this
reporter's life miserable as retribution. I'm thinking of all the bs that
Krebs has to put up with.

Seriously irresponsible reporting. Not brave, not necessary, not helpful, not
interesting, just stupid.

------
mikeg8
If you want to email the Newsweek editor and let them know your disapproval,
the address is letters@newsweek.com.

~~~
bruceb
They don't care. This is the story of the day and week.

------
robocaptain
I'm confused, I am seeing all these comments about how it was wrong to out him
and then a lot of stuff about governments and stuff.

But isn't it just crazy that they actually found him? I thought that was a big
deal? Last I checked, lots of people doubted he was even a real person.

------
hnha
There would be an easy way to protect his well-being: Crash Bitcoin so that it
is worthless.

~~~
sandis
Except then someone who has invested a fortune in Bitcoin might go nuts and
take it out on him

------
rl12345
On the bright side: if keeping his anonymity was Satoshi's main reason for not
touching his BTC fortune, now he and his family will finally be able to use
all that money and take benefit from it - well deservedly.

------
r4pha
I thought that bitcoin as a whole would be badly shaken at the second Satoshi
touched his coins. What if, now that he allegedly has a face, he could have
allegedly legitimate needs to spend his coins on?

* takes off tinfoil hat

------
ChuckMcM
Doxing as journalism, kind of surreal. Not sure I get the point though. (I
understand why irc enemies do it, but I don't get the journalistic value of
'outing' Satoshi)

~~~
anigbrowl
Oh come on, you're a smart person Chuck. You don't get the journalistic value
of tracking down the person who founded a $10 billion cryptocurrency economy
that is in the news on a weekly basis? Pull the other one, it's got bells on.

~~~
ChuckMcM
Oh I get the value of kind of "knowing the guy" but I don't understand the
whole 'take down-esque' form the article took.

It would have been perfectly reasonable to use all that data and report that
Satoshi is a brilliant, if quirky, guy living in Southern California. But to
go through the hunt, the leads, the follow up, identifying his kids, family,
and location. It has the feel of papparazzi taking pictures of Kate
Middleton's panties on a windy day.

~~~
anigbrowl
I don't disagree that it's tacky, and have a low opinion of gonzo journalism
in general. However, the rise of personal reporting brands is bigger than one
person or evne one publication.

As for bringing the guy's identity out into the opne, I am OK with that. If
(as posited elsewhere on this thread) he owns or controls some 5-10% of the
bitcoin economy,t hen a good number of other people have a legitimate interest
in knowing who he is and how he might leverage that. Frankly, one reason I've
avoided speculating in bitcoin was precisely because of the lack of
information about this; a crypto-currency set up by some International Man of
Mystery has a high potential of being a pump-and-dump scheme.

------
basseq
Is anyone else surprised that that police know that Satoshi is the creator of
Bitcoin? That seems like an esoteric piece of knowledge for someone not in the
tech space.

------
2810
This is the best "He is the only person I have ever known to show up for a job
interview and tell the interviewer he's an idiot - and then prove it."

------
Myrmornis
Well it's too late to get any points for this inference now, but I'm going to
claim that there was a strong clue that the author of the PDF was old: the
bitcoin paper cites "An Introduction to Probability Theory and Its
Applications" by William Feller. This is a classic, from the 1960s, but I
don't think it's very well known among people under 40 (correct me if I'm
wrong).

~~~
mzs
It's also a classic, I used it as text in a course back in '98 or so. Also
it's more widely used outside of USA, personally I believe that is because it
is inexpensively reprinted and because Feller was Croatian. I believe it has
been translated to a number of languages including Chinese and notably
Japanese.

------
ropman76
The biases of this article aside, he sounds like a very interesting man. It
saddens me that the way we found out who he really is was by a very gross
invasion of his privacy. A sit down interview (in person or virtually)would
have been much more interesting. I would have liked to have known eventually,
but not like this

------
lcasela
This is a really irresponsible article. Imagine what this guy is going to have
to live with for the rest of his life.

------
wil421
I feel sorry for this guy. The reign of hell newsweek is about to put on him
is not going to be fun. Especially since this guy is pretty ecentric and
doesnt like being in the public eye.

My hopes are no one tries to rob this guy or kidnap his family to get to his
supposed 400m.

~~~
theklub
Could be worse, if he has a meltdown and hurts himself.

------
deanclatworthy
So this guy was found using public records as it's his real name or used to
be? I would suspect that the authorities therefore would have known about him
for far longer than Newsweek.

------
donutdan4114
That page took about 20s to fully load. Over 300 requests... wtf...

~~~
kaishiro
Ugh, it's so awful. And the mobile kicks the asides into the middle of the
fucking article.

------
gexla
Now that the article outed him, maybe he will spend some of his Bitcoin on a
fortress, security and drones (coded himself of course) to patrol his house.

------
thekevan
This may not add to the discussion but I still cannot help my self and have to
comment that this doxxing is disgusting and irresponsible.

------
est
aaaannnd now he is not

[https://twitter.com/byandreachang/status/441687863222996992](https://twitter.com/byandreachang/status/441687863222996992)

[https://twitter.com/byandreachang/status/441687863222996992](https://twitter.com/byandreachang/status/441687863222996992)

------
verroq
HN can't decry censorship and keep flagging this article because it includes
Satoshi's dox.

~~~
maxerickson
Well, there are multiple people here, so differing views aren't really
inconsistent.

But it's also possible to believe that certain government powers should be
very limited while at the same time believing that individuals should strive
not to be assholes to each other.

Information wants a banana.

------
wnevets
bitcoin fanboys are funny.

------
cryowaffle
The article doesn't have the picture of his house anymore

~~~
cryowaffle
... and now the article put the photo of the house back up. I suspect Newsweek
realized that removing it implied guilt.

------
raymondduke
Finally, the face of this super villain in his evil lair.

------
davesque
Poor guy. I hope he's going to be alright.

------
socialist_coder
0% this is actually the real Satoshi Nakamoto.

~~~
bruceb
I will bet you a bitcoin it is.

~~~
socialist_coder
good thing you didn't really bet. /lol

------
ParadisoShlee
This is a pretty predatory article.

------
knodi
Why did the author out him.

------
sizzle
lives in SoCal and a Cal Poly alumni, respect!

------
otikik
Paparazziweek.

------
dionyziz
Bullshit.

------
maxk42
You just killed a man you dumb shit.

~~~
bruceb
How did they kill him? He will be fine.

------
grondilu
I knew it was his real name. I'm pretty sure I called it on bitcointalk.org
(I'm grondilu there) and I was pretty much the only one who thought it was his
real name.

