Bitcoin and its mysterious inventor

[Mike Oxlong]

[matsuki]

[SIZE="4"]The Crypto-Currency[/SIZE]

Pretty badass but sounds like he end up creating a bunch of currency, exchanged it for hard currency, and bounced?

[Mike Oxlong]

Enigmatic bitcoin creator Nakamoto found

After years of speculation, the true identity of the mysterious person or group behind the bitcoin revolution known as “Satoshi Nakamoto” was revealed by Newsweek on Thursday.

It turns out his name is, in fact, Satoshi Nakamoto.

A reporter tracked down the 64-year-old, a Japanese-American physicist and model train enthusiast, living under the name Dorian S Nakamoto in a modest two-story house in suburban Los Angeles.

Nakamoto did not admit to being behind the phenomenon that, since its 2009 launch, has been hailed as a financial revolution despite scandals over its use in the drugs trade and money-laundering.

And he called the police when the magazine’s reporter knocked on his door.

But Newsweek said the man, whose quiet career involved classified work as a systems engineer for the U.S. government and government contractors, tacitly acknowledged his role in creating the crypto-currency that has rocked the banking world.

“I am no longer involved in that, and I cannot discuss it,” he said. “It’s been turned over to other people.”

In a scoop heralding the relaunch of its print edition on Friday after two years only online, Newsweek said Nakamoto was born in Japan in 1949 and immigrated to the United States 10 years later.

He studied physics at California State Polytechnic University and worked for a number of companies, but has apparently not held a steady job since 2002.

He spends much of his time on his model train hobby, and has apparently not tapped the millions of dollars of bitcoin wealth Newsweek says comes from authoring the computer code behind it.

His family, including two younger brothers who are also scientists, did not know of his link to bitcoin.

“He’s a brilliant man,” his brother Arthur Nakamoto told Newsweek. “He’s very focused and eclectic in his way of thinking. Smart, intelligent, mathematics, engineering, computers. You name it, he can do it.”

But they described a man with a deep libertarian streak, intensely private and distrustful of the government and banks.

Ilene Mitchell, one of Nakamoto’s six children from two marriages, said he taught her while growing up to “not be under the government’s thumb.”

Nakamoto’s 2008 bitcoin manifesto stressed the need for an online, electronic cash system that did not go through a financial institution, which requires both trust in the institution and payment for its role as an intermediary.

“What is needed is an electronic payment system based on cryptographic proof instead of trust, allowing any two willing parties to transact directly with each other,” he said.

Analysts have called his structure brilliant in the way it issues bitcoin without a central bank authority, and keeps a record of transactions but also protects users’ anonymity via distributed computing.

Gavin Andresen, chief scientist of the Bitcoin Foundation, said he had corresponded online with a man called Satoshi Nakamoto over one year as they refined the bitcoin code.

But they never spoke on the telephone and Andresen did not learn anything about his personal life.

“He went to great lengths to protect his anonymity,” Andresen told the magazine. “All we talked about was code.”

The currency’s success has made many wealthy: after trading for cents per bitcoin for the first two years of its existence, in 2011 an online frenzy erupted and it hit $40 a coin in late 2012.

Then, last year investors and speculators poured in, driving it over $1,100 a coin before falling off to the current $650 level.

With the writers of the original code all having been paid in bitcoin, Newsweek said Nakamoto is now likely worth $400 million.

Newsweek published a picture of Nakamoto and his home and car, a Toyota Corolla, in Temple City, California, east of downtown Los Angeles.

Readers fiercely blasted the author, Leah McGrath Goodman, for revealing the identity and whereabouts of someone who wanted to remain private.

Media news teams had clustered outside.

On Twitter, Andresen said he regretted talking to the author, criticizing Newsweek for publishing private details about Nakamoto.

But Goodman defended the article, saying via Twitter that “this man invented something that shaped the world.”

“We felt showing he lives humbly, despite his achievement, was both telling and inspiring.”

[matsuki]

Holy shit...I know that guy. The reporters best not get too close...

[Taro Toporific]

AP Exclusive: Man denies he's bitcoin creator
Associated Press, Thursday, March 6, 2014
...a key portion of the piece — where he is quoted telling the reporter on his doorstep before two police officers, "I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it" — was misunderstood.
Nakamoto said he is a native of Beppu, Japan who came to the U.S. when he was 10. He speaks both English and Japanese, but his English isn't flawless. Asked if he said the quote, Nakamoto responded, "no."
"I'm saying I'm no longer in engineering. That's it," he said of the exchange. "And even if I was, when we get hired, you have to sign this document, contract saying you will not reveal anything we divulge during and after employment. So that's what I implied."
"It sounded like I was involved before with bitcoin and looked like I'm not involved now. That's not what I meant. I want to clarify that," he said...
...Several times during the interview with AP, Nakamoto mistakenly referred to the currency as "Bitcom." When shown the original bitcoin proposal that Newsweek linked to in its story, Nakamoto said he didn't write it, and said the email address in the document wasn't his.
More...

bitcom.jpg

[wagyl]

Wardogs aren't fooled, just see their twitter!

[Taro Toporific]

Wardogs aren't fooled, just see their twitter!

Now the bozo is claiming he doesn't have an Internet connection in his house.

Today's Yomiuri Shimbun has interview with Dorian Nakamoto in which he again denies any Bitcoin connection and claims his house does not even have an Internet connection (even though he has many Internet posts on model train forums and Amazon, etc.).

"自宅ではインターネットもつながらない" "Jitaku de wa internet mo tsunagaranai."
yomiuri.co.jp/world/news/20140310-OYT1T00630.htm

liar.jpg

[matsuki]

Dude was often at the local Aikido Dojo (temple city has many Japaneeeeze Americans) but that was many many years ago.

米ロサンゼルス ehhhh, Rice Los Angleles? More like 豆米ロサンゼルスhehe

(What is it with shortening the already fucked Japanese named of other cuntries? Should I say I live in Tokyo-area, Tokyo, "Jap" now?)

[yanpa]

米ロサンゼルス ehhhh, Rice Los Angleles? More like 豆米ロサンゼルスhehe

(What is it with shortening the already fucked Japanese named of other cuntries? Should I say I live in Tokyo-area, Tokyo, "Jap" now?)

*shrug* it's abbreviated newspaperspeak. Could be worse, they could have written "米ロス". And thank fuck "米エルエー" has never gained credence.

[wagyl]

米ロサンゼルス ehhhh, Rice Los Angleles? More like 豆米ロサンゼルスhehe

(What is it with shortening the already fucked Japanese named of other cuntries? Should I say I live in Tokyo-area, Tokyo, "Jap" now?)

*shrug* it's abbreviated newspaperspeak. Could be worse, they could have written "米ロス". And thank fuck "米エルエー" has never gained credence.

米・羅府 anyone?
It is really no different from using US to abbreviate the abbreviation USA.

And speaking personally, while with Japanese colleagues in the US it was mighty handy to have a codeword like 米国人 to use when badmouthing the locals. In other countries we had to resort to ご当地の方.

[matsuki]

米ロサンゼルス ehhhh, Rice Los Angleles? More like 豆米ロサンゼルスhehe

(What is it with shortening the already fucked Japanese named of other cuntries? Should I say I live in Tokyo-area, Tokyo, "Jap" now?)

*shrug* it's abbreviated newspaperspeak. Could be worse, they could have written "米ロス". And thank fuck "米エルエー" has never gained credence.

米・羅府 anyone?
It is really no different from using US to abbreviate the abbreviation USA.

And speaking personally, while with Japanese colleagues in the US it was mighty handy to have a codeword like 米国人 to use when badmouthing the locals. In other countries we had to resort to ご当地の方.

Yanpa - I did see 米ロス somewhere recently...

Wagyl - Yeah, I get the idea, just think it's hilarious that after shortening beikoku to just a single character, the US is basically abbreviated as "rice."

[yanpa]

米ロサンゼルス ehhhh, Rice Los Angleles? More like 豆米ロサンゼルスhehe

(What is it with shortening the already fucked Japanese named of other cuntries? Should I say I live in Tokyo-area, Tokyo, "Jap" now?)

*shrug* it's abbreviated newspaperspeak. Could be worse, they could have written "米ロス". And thank fuck "米エルエー" has never gained credence.

米・羅府 anyone?
It is really no different from using US to abbreviate the abbreviation USA.

And speaking personally, while with Japanese colleagues in the US it was mighty handy to have a codeword like 米国人 to use when badmouthing the locals. In other countries we had to resort to ご当地の方.

Yanpa - I did see 米ロス somewhere recently...

Wagyl - Yeah, I get the idea, just think it's hilarious that after shortening beikoku to just a single character, the US is basically abbreviated as "rice."

That's because there was no character for "French fries" back in the Meiji era.

[matsuki]

dude...if anything, the US should be とうもころしこく

corn-USA[1].jpg

[Yokohammer]

An interesting twist:

Bankrupt Exchange Mt. Gox Still Has $600 Million in Bitcoins, Hackers Claim

"That fat f*ck has been lying."

[matsuki]

An interesting twist:

Bankrupt Exchange Mt. Gox Still Has $600 Million in Bitcoins, Hackers Claim

"That fat f*ck has been lying."

I can see it now...owners become insanely rich with the theft and J-gov refuses to do anything "because bitcoin is not a currency." (while they tax them on the "earnings")

[wagyl]

You prefer the earnings to be tax free?

[J.A.F.O]

You prefer the earnings to be tax free?

I do but I'm just peculiar. On an aside this reminds me of a decent read.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Best-Way-Rob-Bank/dp/0292721390

[matsuki]

You prefer the earnings to be tax free?

How do you tax a currency that you refuse to recognize as a currency?

[omae mona]

You prefer the earnings to be tax free?

How do you tax a currency that you refuse to recognize as a currency?

That has never been a problem. http://money.howstuffworks.com/bartering4.htm


Choko, are you serious you know this guy? That is pretty amazing if so. What else can you tell us about him?

[matsuki]

You prefer the earnings to be tax free?

How do you tax a currency that you refuse to recognize as a currency?

That has never been a problem. http://money.howstuffworks.com/bartering4.htm

So it's like bartering in their eyes...and there's a paper trail.

Choko, are you serious you know this guy? That is pretty amazing if so. What else can you tell us about him?

I've never been to his home or anything like that but chatted up with him several times for the years I was going to Aikido instruction. Aikido Dojo near his place and I think he came by the university a few times as well. (Instructor at the university also taught in Temple City Dojo and this dude also graduated from my university) He seemed delighted that I could say more than bukakke, wakarimasen, and didn't ask him about anime or any other sort of wacky Japanese things. He was a lil bit of a "I'll tell you how it is" type guy but nothing unusual nor did he ever mention anything about currency.

[J.A.F.O]

He seemed delighted that I could say more than bukakke, wakarimasen

You mean there is more to japanese than this?

[Mike Oxlong]

Satoshi Nakamoto is (probably) Nick Szabo

I recently became interested in identifying the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto. I started from the Bitcoin whitepaper [0] published in late 2008, and proceeded to run reverse textual analysis –essentially, searching the internet for highly unusual turns of phrase and vocabulary patterns (in particular places which you would expect a cryptography researcher to contribute to), then evaluating the fitness of each match found by running textual similarity metrics on several pages of their writing.

Which led me rather directly to several articles from Nick Szabo’s blog.

For those who wouldn’t know Nick Szabo and his documented links to Bitcoin: prior to the apparition of Bitcoin, Nick had been developing for several years (since 1998 [1]) the enabling mechanism for a decentralized digital currency, eventually converging on a system he called “bit gold” [3], which is the direct precursor to the Bitcoin architecture.

According to what seems to be a widely accepted origin story of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto was a highly skilled computer scientist (or group thereof) who found about Nick’s proposition for bit gold, hit upon an idea for bettering it, published the Bitcoin whitepaper, and decided to turn it into reality by developing the original Bitcoin client. Nick denies being Satoshi, and has stated his official opinion on Satoshi and Bitcoin in a May 2011 article [1].

I would argue that Satoshi is actually Nick Szabo himself, probably together with one or more technical collaborators.

As I mention above, what originally led me to this hypothesis is that reverse-searching for content similar to the Bitcoin whitepaper led me to Nick’s blog, completely independently of any knowledge of the official Bitcoin story. I must stress this: an open, unbiased search of texts similar in writing to the Bitcoin whitepaper over the entire Internet, identifies Nick’s bit gold articles as the best candidates. It could still be a coincidence, although an unlikely one -since cryptocurrencies were a fairly niche topic in 2008 and earlier, every contributor to the field was going to be reusing the same shared expressions and vocabulary. Satoshi would have been a reader of Nick’s blog, so you would expect him to describe the same concepts in a similar way. But there’s more...

[Russell]

Well, if I google only a few key words from my own research, I end up with my name.

So, I am not so surprised by this result. Not a very convincing argument.

[Mike Oxlong]

Well, if I google only a few key words from my own research, I end up with my name.

So, I am not so surprised by this result. Not a very convincing argument.

http://blog.sethroberts.net/2014/03/11/ ... f-bitcoin/

The hypothesis that Szabo is the inventor passes several other tests as well:

1. Right time zone. The original bitcoin postings appeared to come from the Eastern (United States) time zone. Szabo lives near Washington, D. C.

2. Prior to bitcoin, he had similar ideas. As far as I can tell, his previous ideas were the closest of anyone’s.

3. Yet the original bitcoin proposal didn’t reference his work. The usual reason for not mentioning a predecessor’s work is that you want more credit. Yet the creator of bitcoin didn’t want credit. Failure to mention Szabo’s work is so strange it may have been Szabo’s way of telling insiders he’s the inventor. In other words, this fact makes sense if Szabo is the inventor. It remains unexplained if anyone else is.

4. Szabo failed to get excited when bitcoin emerged. It was based on his work (more or less). Like everyone, including me, Szabo had been told countless times that his ideas were worthless, crazy, stupid and so on. (“Money just doesn’t work like that, I was told fervently and often.”) Because of that treatment, I greatly enjoy pointing out confirmation of my ideas. It’s such a fundamental pleasure there’s a word for it: glee. If he wasn’t the inventor of bitcoin, Szabo should have gleefully followed its progress, pointing out over and over how this showed his original ideas were right. He didn’t do this. Again, this makes sense if he was the inventor — he didn’t want to draw attention to how close bitcoin is to his published ideas. It remains unexplained if anyone else is.

5. The clincher, for me, is that he wrote an article about the emergence of money that is compatible with my theory of human evolution. His article says money emerged from collectibles. Collectibles are an important part of my theory. I say they emerged because they helped skilled artisans, who were innovators, make a living. For most people, collectibles are trivial, whereas I’ve written often about the Willat Effect, which I believe is the psychological rule that created them. It isn’t easy to be consistent with my theory. I’ve read dozens of theories about human evolution. Whenever they explain the same things as mine (e.g., evolution of language), they have been inconsistent with my theory. Two examples are Jared Diamond’s ideas and Daniel Dennett’s ideas. Szabo’s essay is the only the second example I have seen of ideas that fit mine. The aquatic ape theory, which is about what happened before the events of my theory, also fits; Szabo’s ideas are about what happened after the events of my theory. Szabo’s ideas about the emergence of money are very non-obvious (especially because you have to realize the centrality of collectibles) and are compatible with a theory he cannot have heard of. I doubt anyone agrees with me that compatibility with my theory is a great plus but it is obvious that if you understand how money began, you are in a much better position to invent a new form of money than if you don’t. The difficulty of mining bitcoins corresponds to the difficulty of making collectibles. You could randomly pick anyone, including cryptographic experts, and the probability would be extremely low they have a good theory of how money began. Yet Szabo does.

I ignore the coincidence of initials: NS and SN (or NS).

[wagyl]

Choko, are you serious you know this guy? That is pretty amazing if so. What else can you tell us about him?

I'm not entirely sure that this is the best of ideas. We all know what some members of the press are like. Feeding their titilation could attract the wrong, inconvenient type of attention.

Where is that fucking stable door?

[matsuki]

Considering they went after his relatives and such, can't rule that out but nothing I know about the guy is worth mentioning, let alone news-worthy. I mean, I had more ammo after 3/11 and I didn't even get paid to tell my horror story of battling empty conbini shelves and toilet paper hoarders.

[kurogane]

Well, if I google only a few key words from my own research, I end up with my name..

I can name my own tune in only 3 words.

What is your general area of research, btw? Just curious.

So, I am not so surprised by this result. Not a very convincing argument.

Not very convincing, and with a distinct whiff of Tin Foil Hat schizoid narcissism. If the time zones fit because Nick Szabo lives in Washington, D.C., would not Satoshi Nakamoto also need to live in the same time zone, by which I assume we mean that the Pacific Time Zone and the Eastern Time Zone are actually the same time zone but that fact is being hidden from us by the clever machinations of the Replicant Overlords.

The writer of that article is clearly not mentally rowing with all his oars. Or have I read him wrong?

EDIT: Okay, I read through that latter quote in detail, and I think I get what he means now. The reason I came to this enlightened conclusion is that when I was a child I often hysterically insisted that none of the component parts of a given meal served on a plate could touch any of the other component parts of that meal, or in more ideal terms, any other part of ANY OTHER MEAL (note emphasis). Now, normally one could easily theorise that the presence of gravy or other more viscous and less easily delimited condiment aspects of ANY GIVEN MEAL would present a significant complication to the successful realisation of my theoretical model, but strangely, as long as said gravy or viscous condiment did not contain any noticeable element of ANY OTHER COMPONENT PART of the actual meal being consumed I did not seem to mind and ate the meal quite happily. Obviously, this early attempt at the realisation of an ideal model presented my parents with a few problems and headaches, but due to a magical and serendipitous convergence of technological and personal psychological developments, I was able to construct and realise it all at a yet precocious age. The answer, as most truly epochal answers are, was deceptively simple and ready to hand: my parents bought me a military mess plate easily found at any camping supply or army surplus store. IOW, it was a plate in and of itself, like all the other plates in my mother's cupboard, but it was separated into BITS.

While I am always happy to discount mere coincidence, I think that fellow travellers will agree this 'coincidence' (note the use of inverted commas) is a bridge too far even for Occam or his minions.

ANyways, I have cross posted a copy to that Seth Roberts blog MikeOx linked, so we'll see if he finds it sufficiently collectible for his collectibles.

MikeOx,

Are you endorsing this Roberts guy or just providing it as a related link???? Not that it matters, of course........., but he is plainly collecting bats in his belfry. He is also the inventor of the Shangri-La Diet, and a 38 year old Emeritus Professor from UC Berkeley, so he is no newbie to fame and success.

[Mike Oxlong]

EDIT: Okay, I read through that latter quote in detail, and I think I get what he means now. The reason I came to this enlightened conclusion is that when I was a child I often hysterically insisted that none of the component parts of a given meal served on a plate could touch any of the other component parts of that meal, or in more ideal terms, any other part of ANY OTHER MEAL (note emphasis). Now, normally one could easily theorise that the presence of gravy or other more viscous and less easily delimited condiment aspects of ANY GIVEN MEAL would present a significant complication to the successful realisation of my theoretical model, but strangely, as long as said gravy or viscous condiment did not contain any noticeable element of ANY OTHER COMPONENT PART of the actual meal being consumed I did not seem to mind and ate the meal quite happily. Obviously, this early attempt at the realisation of an ideal model presented my parents with a few problems and headaches, but due to a magical and serendipitous convergence of technological and personal psychological developments, I was able to construct and realise it all at a yet precocious age. The answer, as most truly epochal answers are, was deceptively simple and ready to hand: my parents bought me a military mess plate easily found at any camping supply or army surplus store. IOW, it was a plate in and of itself, like all the other plates in my mother's cupboard, but it was separated into BITS.

While I am always happy to discount mere coincidence, I think that fellow travellers will agree this 'coincidence' (note the use of inverted commas) is a bridge too far even for Occam or his minions.

ANyways, I have cross posted a copy to that Seth Roberts blog MikeOx linked, so we'll see if he finds it sufficiently collectible for his collectibles.

MikeOx,

Are you endorsing this Roberts guy or just providing it as a related link???? Not that it matters, of course........., but he is plainly collecting bats in his belfry. He is also the inventor of the Shangri-La Diet, and a 38 year old Emeritus Professor from UC Berkeley, so he is no newbie to fame and success.

Just came across your edit. Saw the post before you added. No, not endorsing anyone. Just reading through reddit subforum topics and throwing stuff at the FG wall. There was an earlier article I saw that also appeared to locate some plausible authors of the protocol...

In a recent issue of the New Yorker , Joshua Davis wrote a story about Bitcoin, the crypto-currency that has ignited the imaginations of the technorati and led to a rush of media coverage. But this is no usual magazine feature. Not only does Davis, a marvelous writer whose work I've long admired, offer a primer on Bitcoin--what it is, how it works, why it’s important--he sets off on a journey to find its mysterious, secrecy-obsessed inventor, who goes by the name Satoshi Nakamoto. I think the man he found at the end of his search is the wrong guy. And by transparently sharing my own process for tracking Bitcoin's elusive inventor, I will show how a stream of stunning coincidences can end up pointing to not one, but three potential candidates...

http://www.fastcompany.com/1785445/bitc ... y-reopened

Now, off to see if you've received a reply from SR.

[kurogane]

Cool. He seems to have disallowed my copy and paste.

Am I alone in thinking he is an obvious schizoid freakball? He rambles on about rubbish and makes completely implausible connections based on his won private schizoidia. I think I like this guy.

His argument is rubbish, and the connections he makes remind me of Twilight Zone conspriacy episodes.

FTR. I have no inside knowledge on this bit money thing, which does make it all rather 9/11.

[kurogane]

Now, off to see if you've received a reply from SR.

Nope. Just deletions. Oh, well. It's not really very nice to tease mental patients.

So, anyways, Mikey, since you seem rather informed or at least interested in the whole Bitcoin thing, which I am not in any way:

I am quite dumbfounded to see 2 working academics publishing such childishly speculative self-indulgent rubbish, and the fact they can make such ludicrous connections and present them as plausible bodes badly for the species, in MYHOMO. It's tin foil hat time for both of them from where I sit.

Soooo, in your IHOMO is my lack of interest in the mechanisms of Bitcoin and lack of insider knoweldge about the issue as a whole misleading me into construing the arguments presented by both Roberts and Penenberg as fantasy level delusional hogwash redolent of a cutting room floor edit of a De Nero Taxi Driver monologue?