
Report linking Bitcoin and Silk Road retracted - Aqueous
http://money.cnn.com/2013/11/27/technology/bitcoin-silk-road/
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zik
Great work by those researchers. They linked Satoshi Nakamoto to Silk Road.
Except it wasn't Satoshi, it was someone else. And it wasn't Silk Road, it was
MtGox. I think their methods could use some improvement.

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dmak
It's disturbing to think people can cause such a huge ripple and the media
will report it up without any skepticism.

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shubb
Reputation counts for something, and reputations can be damaged. A lot of
people trust Adi 'The A in RSA' Shamir, because of what he has done in the
past. They have to.

It takes a long time to get the background to understand cryptography, or
quantum physics. Although you or I might believe we can find holes in a paper
(bad stats etc), you have to accept we are less able to judge the merit of a
paper than someone with years of study and experience in that field. So we
trust people who have done great things.

Now everyone will remember Shamir both by his past works, and this mistake.
Next time his paper will hit the news he will be described as 'the father of
RSA, who mistakenly accused someone of inventing bitcoin and being a criminal
last year'. News sites will definitely say that - it is a really fun addition
to the story.

I think Shamir will regret this paper more than most people who have to make a
retraction.

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stephencanon
Nitpick: Adi Shamir is "the 'S' in" Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman.

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moocowduckquack
_But the man that federal authorities have arrested and accused of launching
Silk Road, Ross Ulbricht, is from Austin too. Given the folklore surrounding
Bitcoin and Silk Road, get ready for rumors that Trammell is Satoshi hiding in
plain sight._

On that basis, I'm going to start a rumor that Bruce Sterling is Satoshi.

edit - But he hasn't written Bitcoin yet. That happens after he accidentally
buys H G Wells' time machine in an obscure ebay auction, thinking that he is
acquiring an ornate steampunk wardrobe.

~~~
Crito
After discovering the time machines true purpose, he decides to use it in a
get-rich-quick scheme. He goes back to in time planning on buying lots of
bitcoins when they were super cheap so that he can sell them in the future for
a massive profit _(that he can use to pay of the debt he acquired during the
purchase of the time machine)_.

He waits and waits for bitcoins to be invented, but for some reason they don't
arrive on schedule. Suddenly it dawns on him, and he knows what he must do...

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theboywho
"After suggesting earlier this week that a link existed between the creators
of Silk Road and Bitcoin"

Wait, what? They didn't suggest a link between "the creators of the Silk" Road
and "Bitcoin" but with "the creators of the Silk road" and "the creators of
Bitcoin"

I see more journalists trying to jump on the Bitcoin train but oh boy...they
fail miserably. It's scary when you think this might be the case with all
other topics, not just bitcoin.

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proksoup
What you're pointing out is your misunderstanding of the authors intended use
of language (I'm not saying it's grammatically correct, but their intention is
obvious.)

"a link existed between the creators of Silk Road and Bitcoin" === "a link
existed between the creators of Silk Road and the creators of Bitcoin".

The "creators of" phrase applies to both subjects (or subject/object, I get
those words confused) --- this is a common grammatical construct regardless of
my confusion of the words subject and object --- the application of the phrase
to both I mean.

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theboywho
You make a valid point, but how about the title: "Report linking Bitcoin and
Silk Road retracted"?

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hbbio
Seems like every attempt at disturbing Bitcoin ends up reinforcing the
strength and the interest in the ecosystem.

~~~
59nadir
Interest, maybe, but I does it really drum up any actual users? I think most
people are sort of waiting to see if it'll fail or not.

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gesman
Someone's bull got a double doze of attention.

