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So either: 1. Craig actually is Satoshi but is withholding the only real proof anyone cares about for some unknown reason 2. Craig is a fraud and Gavin was tr

So either: 1. Craig actually is Satoshi but is withholding the only real proof anyone cares about for some unknown reason 2. Craig is a fraud and Gavin was tricked 3. There's some other strange situation going on (Gavin is in on it? Gavin is being coerced? Gavin's reddit account was also hacked?) EDIT: I'm inclined to believe #2. If Craig were Satoshi he wouldn't need a coordinated "Official Announcement" with major publications and a long hand-wavy blog post describing how to verify a signature. He could just sign the message "Craig Steven Wright is Satoshi Nakamoto, creator of Bitcoin" using a known Satoshi Bitcoin address' private key and post it anywhere. The community will know what to do. This is literally the only proof any who knows more than a little about Bitcoin will accept.

HappyTypist 11y ago
It's possible that the "brand new laptop" Gavin received wasn't brand new at all and was opened, flashed, and resealed, or perhaps Craig has obtained a fake trusted certificate for electrum.org and MITM'd the connection on his home/work wifi.
- Aqueous 11y ago
  The explanations for how Craig Wright could have deceived so many credible people are getting incredibly complicated. If in the end Craig managed to dup four major news media outlets, Bitcoin devs, Matonis, and apparently other members of the so-called "Satoshi Team," then fuck, he deserves the win - maybe not credit for having invented Bitcoin, but for being such a brilliant conman! The easily-debunked cryptographic proof offered up so far has in fact supported suspicions that he is a conman. If Craig Wright turns out not to be Satoshi, and Gavin was not hacked or coerced, then I feel sad for Gavin Andresen's reputation, as well as Bitcoin's as a whole. I'll also be relieved if he is a conman, because anything else would be sorely disappointing...
  - EthanHeilman 11y ago
    Simple stage magic was used by psychics to deceive professional scientists under experimental conditions at Stanford for years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parapsychology_research_at_SRI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parapsychology_research_at_SRI It is unreasonable to assume that someone who is not an expert in stage magic can detect/defeat basic deception techniques. I don't know about this particular case but I see no reason to rule out deception, anyone can be fooled especially if they are specifically targeted.
  - jakobegger 11y ago
    I've been victim to a fraud a couple of years ago, and in retrospect it's amazing how gullible I was -- conning is so easy because we tend to trust people by default. And in this case, all the people who fell for the fraud probably really wanted this to be true, which probably affected their judgement.
    - danielweber 11y ago
      Thank you. I think people misunderestimate how easy it is to get conned, especially when the conman is preying directly on you.
  - JabavuAdams 11y ago
    Social engineering works. This is why being conned feels like such a violation. People think it can't happen to them. Just like advertising only works on those other dumb sheeple. EDIT> Also, re: media. If you've ever given an interview and then been surprised at what was actually written / reported, this wouldn't surprise you. In this case, the media is relying heavily on the tech experts. It's only necessary to con the techies.
- JabavuAdams 11y ago
  That's the first thing I thought of. The "clean" laptop has to come from the verifying party, not from the party being verified.

HappyTypist 11y ago

It's possible that the "brand new laptop" Gavin received wasn't brand new at all and was opened, flashed, and resealed, or perhaps Craig has obtained a fake trusted certificate for electrum.org and MITM'd the connection on his home/work wifi.

Aqueous 11y ago
The explanations for how Craig Wright could have deceived so many credible people are getting incredibly complicated. If in the end Craig managed to dup four major news media outlets, Bitcoin devs, Matonis, and apparently other members of the so-called "Satoshi Team," then fuck, he deserves the win - maybe not credit for having invented Bitcoin, but for being such a brilliant conman! The easily-debunked cryptographic proof offered up so far has in fact supported suspicions that he is a conman. If Craig Wright turns out not to be Satoshi, and Gavin was not hacked or coerced, then I feel sad for Gavin Andresen's reputation, as well as Bitcoin's as a whole. I'll also be relieved if he is a conman, because anything else would be sorely disappointing...
- EthanHeilman 11y ago
  Simple stage magic was used by psychics to deceive professional scientists under experimental conditions at Stanford for years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parapsychology_research_at_SRI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parapsychology_research_at_SRI It is unreasonable to assume that someone who is not an expert in stage magic can detect/defeat basic deception techniques. I don't know about this particular case but I see no reason to rule out deception, anyone can be fooled especially if they are specifically targeted.
- jakobegger 11y ago
  I've been victim to a fraud a couple of years ago, and in retrospect it's amazing how gullible I was -- conning is so easy because we tend to trust people by default. And in this case, all the people who fell for the fraud probably really wanted this to be true, which probably affected their judgement.
  - danielweber 11y ago
    Thank you. I think people misunderestimate how easy it is to get conned, especially when the conman is preying directly on you.
- JabavuAdams 11y ago
  Social engineering works. This is why being conned feels like such a violation. People think it can't happen to them. Just like advertising only works on those other dumb sheeple. EDIT> Also, re: media. If you've ever given an interview and then been surprised at what was actually written / reported, this wouldn't surprise you. In this case, the media is relying heavily on the tech experts. It's only necessary to con the techies.
JabavuAdams 11y ago
That's the first thing I thought of. The "clean" laptop has to come from the verifying party, not from the party being verified.