Newsweek claims to have found, and reveals, bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto

[TheL8Elvis]

Newsweek is running an article called The Face Behind Bitcoin

Below is the URL and an excerpt:

http://mag.newsweek.com/2014/03/14/bitcoin-satoshi-nakamoto.html
Two police officers from the Temple City, Calif., sheriff's department flank him, looking puzzled. "So, what is it you want to ask this man about?" one of them asks me. "He thinks if he talks to you he's going to get into trouble."

"I don't think he's in any trouble," I say. "I would like to ask him about Bitcoin. 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'd come here to try to find out more about Nakamoto and his humble life. It seemed ludicrous that the man credited with inventing Bitcoin - the world's most wildly successful digital currency, with transactions of nearly $500 million a day at its peak - would retreat to Los Angeles's San Bernardino foothills, hole up in the family home and leave his estimated $400 million of Bitcoin riches untouched. It seemed similarly implausible that Nakamoto's first response to my knocking at his door would be to call the cops. Now face to face, with two police officers as witnesses, Nakamoto's responses to my questions about Bitcoin were careful but revealing.

The reporter (Leah McGrath Goodman) claims to have tracked down the creator of bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto.

The first question is, do you believe Goodman has enough evidence to reasonably believe the man she found is actually the creator of bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto.

I don't know much about Nakamoto and bitcoin, but Goodman seems to have made a good circumstantial case. I'm not sure what hard evidence would satisfy everyone, other than a direct admission.

The second question, whether you believe it is actually Nakamoto or not, is did she do a 'bad' thing by 'violating' this persons privacy ? She published the city where he lives, and a picture of his house address, and car with license plate.

It is not illegal, but it seems a bit unnecessary, especially considering he clearly desired privacy. The article comments were almost universally reviling Goodman for doing it.

I think it was unnecessary and wrong, mostly because I don't see any benefit to her revealing it.

 

[Cain]

Shocking. Newsweek is still around?

would retreat to Los Angeles's San Bernardino foothills

Temple City is in the San Gabriel valley, not San Bernardino. It doesn't even make any sense to say "Los Angeles's San Bernardino foothills." Might as well say Los Angeles's San Diego beaches."

 

[applecorped]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/07/us-bitcoin-inventor-idUSBREA252D820140307


Car chase!!!

 

[ThunderChunky]

It's not him. Newsweek is about to get sued.

 

[TheL8Elvis]

It's not him. Newsweek is about to get sued.

It's not him because ... he said so ? If he doesn't sue, does that mean it really is him ?

And it just so happens the "real" Nakamoto has come out after 4 years to say "I am not Dorian Nakamoto

*shrugs* I certainly don't know, but his denial and explanation aren't terribly convincing.

 

[ThunderChunky]

It's not him because ... he said so ? If he doesn't sue, does that mean it really is him ?

And it just so happens the "real" Nakamoto has come out after 4 years to say "I am not Dorian Nakamoto

*shrugs* I certainly don't know, but his denial and explanation aren't terribly convincing.

I see zero reason to believe that it is him. They author of the article even stated they looked at a lot of people, but he fit the "profile." So they happened to find someone with the right name and the right profile...that's it. But it makes zero sense.

Why would he use his real name if he wanted to hide? Why would he say it was him (as alleged in the newsweek article) only to recant the next day? Was he calling it "bitcom" as a ruse? Looks like they found an eccentric old programmer whose English is not so great. That's about it.

 

[Puppycow]

AP Exclusive: Man said to create bitcoin denies it

In an exclusive two-hour interview with The Associated Press, Nakamoto, 64, denied he had anything to do with it and said he had never heard of bitcoin until his son told him he had been contacted by a Newsweek reporter three weeks ago.

Nakamoto acknowledged that many of the details in Newsweek’s report are correct, including that he once worked for a defense contractor, and that his given name at birth was Satoshi. But he strongly disputed the magazine’s assertion that he is “the face behind bitcoin.”

“I got nothing to do with it,” he said, repeatedly.

Newsweek stands by its story, which kicked off the relaunch of its print edition after 15 months and reorganization under new ownership.

The part about never even having heard of bitcoin until 3 weeks ago, sounds unlikely. Is there still anyone alive who hasn't at least heard of it?

 

[Puppycow]

Anyway: Why? Why is the real-life identity of this man something the public needs to know?

Other than idle curiosity I don't see any good reason for this story.

 

[Cain]

It's not him because ... he said so ? If he doesn't sue, does that mean it really is him ?

And it just so happens the "real" Nakamoto has come out after 4 years to say "I am not Dorian Nakamoto

That's exactly what Dorian Nakamoto would say! Since the story couldn't get basic geography correct, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if the hapless journalist failed to find one of the most notorious and elusive computer programmers in the world.

I say it's not him. Anyone wanna bet American dollars on it?

 

[Aepervius]

AP Exclusive: Man said to create bitcoin denies it



The part about never even having heard of bitcoin until 3 weeks ago, sounds unlikely. Is there still anyone alive who hasn't at least heard of it?

Pretty much all my colleagues (between 30 and 50+ years old) except one, none of heard of bitcoin. And those are guys which heard from the latest antic of copyright stuff.

Butcoin "popularity" and knowledge from it, is not as widespread as you would think.

 

[3point14]

What's the point? Why bother finding this bloke?

 

[ThunderChunky]

What's the point? Why bother finding this bloke?

It's interesting that a very powerful technology was invented by an anonymous person who then just disappeared to do other things. People want to know who he is, why he did it, what he's doing now, and what he plans to do with the largest stash of bitcoins. I doubt they will find him unless he either wants to be found or if he needs to reveal himself in order to cash out. He is a cryptography expert after all, but you never know.

 

[catsmate]

AP Exclusive: Man said to create bitcoin denies it



The part about never even having heard of bitcoin until 3 weeks ago, sounds unlikely. Is there still anyone alive who hasn't at least heard of it?

Yes. The vast majority of humanity in fact. Even in the "developed" world it's unknown to probably the majority of people.

 

[TheL8Elvis]

I see zero reason to believe that it is him. They author of the article even stated they looked at a lot of people, but he fit the "profile." So they happened to find someone with the right name and the right profile...that's it. But it makes zero sense.

Why would he use his real name if he wanted to hide? Why would he say it was him (as alleged in the newsweek article) only to recant the next day? Was he calling it "bitcom" as a ruse? Looks like they found an eccentric old programmer whose English is not so great. That's about it.

I think this article addresses your questions pretty well:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmir...tor-satoshi-nakamoto-is-brilliant-journalism/

As Mathew Ingram notes, “It’s interesting how everyone chose to believe the secretive hacker mastermind pseudonym thing [when it came to Bitcoin creator's identity]. The truth is boring.”

It may be boring but it’s impressive that Goodman apparently succeeded where others have failed. While Dorian S. Nakamoto refused to talk at length with her, she did interview many people in his life, including his brothers, children, ex-wife, and former colleagues, all of whom found the idea that he is Bitcoin’s creator compelling given his libertarian views, background as a computer engineer and work on classified military projects. They also claim his writing style matches that of Nakamoto.
...
Nakamoto may have wanted to distance himself from the project by using his middle name in its authorship but there was some pride and desire to be associated with it in not taking on a true pseudonym. It must have gotten bigger than he ever expected, and with the arrest and prosecutions of other currency creators, he may have feared the financial Frankenstein cooked up in his computer laboratory. Now that his thin veil of anonymity has been stripped away, will he be free to cash in? In that way, she may have done him a favor.


I certainly see more than zero reasons there.

It's circumstantial, but if he was trying to remain anonymous, or removed from the project, what, aside from his own admission, would constitute acceptable evidence ?

 

[Tsukasa Buddha]

I'm sure this scoop has no relation to Newsweek returning to print. Why find a story when you can create one?

 

[casebro]

But aren't there federal laws against printing your own currency?

And even adding Bitcoin to the dollar is increasing the money supply, which is inflationary? and subverting the control the Fed Reserve has?

If I was Nakamoto, I might hide too.

 

[ThunderChunky]

I think this article addresses your questions pretty well:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmir...tor-satoshi-nakamoto-is-brilliant-journalism/

As Mathew Ingram notes, “It’s interesting how everyone chose to believe the secretive hacker mastermind pseudonym thing [when it came to Bitcoin creator's identity]. The truth is boring.”

It may be boring but it’s impressive that Goodman apparently succeeded where others have failed. While Dorian S. Nakamoto refused to talk at length with her, she did interview many people in his life, including his brothers, children, ex-wife, and former colleagues, all of whom found the idea that he is Bitcoin’s creator compelling given his libertarian views, background as a computer engineer and work on classified military projects. They also claim his writing style matches that of Nakamoto.
...
Nakamoto may have wanted to distance himself from the project by using his middle name in its authorship but there was some pride and desire to be associated with it in not taking on a true pseudonym. It must have gotten bigger than he ever expected, and with the arrest and prosecutions of other currency creators, he may have feared the financial Frankenstein cooked up in his computer laboratory. Now that his thin veil of anonymity has been stripped away, will he be free to cash in? In that way, she may have done him a favor.


I certainly see more than zero reasons there.

It's circumstantial, but if he was trying to remain anonymous, or removed from the project, what, aside from his own admission, would constitute acceptable evidence ?

For starters, newsweek claims that he did provide that admission, but now that seems like it is much more likely a communication error (the man's English is not very good, unlike the bitcoin creator). Seems like the author just wanted it to be him so bad that she was seeing and hearing things that weren't there. This is just an old man that likes trains and free lunches.

Something actually credible would be convincing, like expertise/interest in cryptography (nondescript "secret government work" doesn't count), examples of previous code written by him, or actual writing samples that match (not just British spellings). One thing we do know is that the Bitcoin creator knew exactly what he was creating! He either wanted to remain anonymous from the start or not. If he didn't, then why is he denying it's him (after a supposed admission)? Why did he use anonymous emails for everything? Literally all she has is that he did secret government work, he's a programmer, his name is Satoshi, and he might have some libertarian views. Those are are pretty generic properties.

Forbes is right about one thing: the truth is boring. In this case, the boring truth is shoddy journalism.

 

[Cain]

Here are e-mails allegedly written by the Nakamotos:

http://i.imgur.com/DB4oq5s.png

 

[Ferguson]

But aren't there federal laws against printing your own currency?

No, it's illegal to counterfeit. There's nothing wrong with making your own. It would be a pretty difficult thing to enforce, anyway; almost every video game has its own currency of gold/gems/rupees/whathaveyou, Airlines have miles, Credit Cards have points, etc.


The Federal Reserve has no authority to regulate bitcoin:
http://www.dailydot.com/business/bitcoin-federa-reserve-yellen-regulate/

 

[Puppycow]

Here are e-mails allegedly written by the Nakamotos:

http://i.imgur.com/DB4oq5s.png

I think that pretty much seals it. Different people.