
Proof-of-Satoshi fails Proof-of-Proof - mbgaxyz
http://www.metzdowd.com/pipermail/cryptography/2016-May/029323.html
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writtles
To save everyone from the oozing condescension of this guy's rant I'll boil
down his thesis: Just because someone can spend Satoshi's bitcoin doesn't
PROVE that they're Satoshi. Given by the many common sense reasons he listed
with the know-it-all fervor of an 8th grade WoW player (someone could have
stole it or the original team passed it around among themselves etc). Sure it
doesn't prove anything ABSOLUTELY if Craig Write actually moved a bitcoin, but
it certainly would help his case.

~~~
mbgaxyz
On the other hand... the author is a respected financial cryptographer. He
invented Riccardian contracts, is a proponent of triple-entry accounting, has
authored many papers and provided expert testimony to the US senate finance
subcommittee. 45 leading banks have joined the R3 consortium and he is R3's
blockchain architect.

~~~
maxander
One might object that we don't _know_ the author is a respected financial
cryptographer- we see merely that he's posting with a respected
cryptographer's account, which proves nothing. : )

Regardless of his larger accomplishments, this particular post qualifies as a
rant by my measure- phrases like "ripping the wool off sheep's backs" and
"sate your pavlovian hunger" don't make for calm and measured discourse. As
for substance, clearly he's angry that people are responding so scathingly to
Wright's claim, but A) this is the internet, that's how it behaves, and B) we
are all quite aware that cryptographic proofs aren't everything and that
Satoshi might have lost his keys, but Wright has offered us many good reasons
to doubt his sincerity. Past actions (fake degrees, tax shenanigans, etc)
aside, he came out with the assertion that he was Satoshi _and could prove
it._ He posted a fake demonstration of signing a message with Satoshi's key,
and then made noise about being about to spend coins from the genesis block
before backing out altogether. It just _looks bad._ If he had come out and
said "I'm Satoshi Nakamoto, but I don't have the keys to prove it", well...
people wouldn't necessarily believe him, but it would have remained a
possibility in people's minds. This whole story has functioned as quite
effective _human_ proof that Wright is a con-artist.

