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Bitcoin 'creator' backs out of Satoshi coin move 'proof'
- Grazester 10y ago"But, as the events of this week unfolded and I prepared to publish the proof of access to the earliest keys, I broke. I do not have the courage. I cannot." This guys is so full of crap its amusing
- rory096 10y agoKey phrase: "I cannot."
- toyg 10y agoLol, he doesn't have the courage to do the one thing that will remove any doubt about him, but has enough courage to announce to the public that he's a coward and a broken man and likely a fraud on a planetary scale... At this point his mental health is clearly not good. If he really believes what he writes, he has delusions on a clinical scale which should be addressed before he does something he might regret. If he doesn't believe it, he is a consummate fraudster, a danger to the community, and should probably go to jail.
- CIPHERSTONE 10y agoHe doesn't have the courage to make use of basic bitcoin functionality... oh the humanity!
- macspoofing 10y agoNo kidding. Unlike the Newsweek fiasco, this person publicly identified himself as Satoshi, so expectations of proof are reasonable. What courage is he talking about? He already announced.
- rdtsc 10y ago> What courage is he talking about? Courage of admitting he lost control of his con game. The only way is to keep plowing forward with more lies and more diversion, no matter how childish and stupid. At the end of the day every con artist is also a desperate, lonely and broken on some level. There is probably a tiny dose of truth in what he said at that level. In other words he is not sorry and broken for lying, he is sorry and broken for being caught red handed at his own game.
- lovemenot 10y agoSuppose Craig just took a rational bet that did not pay off. Craig, hoping Satoshi to be alive, provided an opportunity for Satoshi to move some of his own Bitcoin and have Craig become Satoshi in the public mind. But Satoshi, did not bite.
- jgrahamc 10y agoThe note is terribly sad. I hope he has people around him to support him.
- StavrosK 10y agoHe does, he showed me a photo of himself with some stick figures drawn in, which proves it.
- hugozap 10y agoIt's weird that he's afraid of proving it but not of being labeled as a con artist. It makes no sense.
- arxpoetica 10y agoHuman nature, often, does not add up.
- regnet 10y agoHe's clearly used to being labeled a con-artist for many years.
- 6nf 10y agoHe defrauded the Australian government by claiming R&D grants and then pocketing the money. Millions of dollars. He's a criminal.
- mabbo 10y agoI hope the actual Satoshi is alive somewhere, and just for fun moves a different original coin, as if to say "I am alive, and Wright is not me".
- CydeWeys 10y agoEven better if the coin is moved to a burn address that looks something like 1IWouldAnnounceMyselfThisWayJaNVN2. Or just use the privkey from the genesis block to sign a message "In the very unlikely event that I ever decide to reveal myself, it will be through a message similar to this one" -- and then post it anonymously somewhere.
- andremendes 10y agoSource: http://www.drcraigwright.net/ http://www.drcraigwright.net/ Asides the conversation, the whole source code of this website is: <img src="homepage.jpg"> This man is really not caring. EDIT: site is updated now, with proper html+css coding.
- dTal 10y agoLove it. Unresponsive design :p
- spriggan3 10y ago> Asides the conversation, the whole source code of this website is: <img src="homepage.jpg"> You're kidding right ? EDIT : no he isn't .
- SyneRyder 10y agoSome of the website is still in archive.org, but will probably disappear soon. Any snapshots before May have already disappeared. Might help for folks to download the old posts before they disappear from the web entirely. Frustratingly, it appears the main screenshots from the Sartre post (showing his original 'proof') have already been removed from archive.org.
- sah2ed 10y agoI entertained the possibility that he would not be able to weather what would come next from his claim, so I managed to save the 7 screenshots for the Jean-Paul Sartre, Signing and Significance blog post. You can fetch them from here: http://imgur.com/a/ppGI9 http://imgur.com/a/ppGI9
- SyneRyder 10y agoBrilliant, thanks for this!
- CIPHERSTONE 10y agosah2ed, you are the real MVP!
- celticninja 10y agoDude's a liar. After everything else he has done this is the simplest step which requires no extra burden on him. He has already claimed to be SN, the only reason not to follow through is because he cannot and could never have. Therefore he is just another pretender to the throne.
- r3bl 10y agoAnd let us not forget that the doctorate degree that he's bragging about so much that he put it in his domain is completely made up, as discovered by Forbes when they asked the college about it. (Warning: Adblock dection) http://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2015/12/11/bitcoin-creator-satoshi-craig-wright-lies-hoax/#7cd66c053903 http://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2015/12/11/bitcoi...
- atomical 10y agoHe played the media like a fiddle. They should follow up with some investigative reporting on him.
- Aqueous 10y agoIf "playing the media like a fiddle" means "walking away with your tail between your legs, a sad, broken man..." then sure.
- dsfuoi 10y agoYou don't know if he is a sad, broken man. There is no evidence to believe the post reflects upon his real emotions, and since the man is untrustworthy[0], the post cannot be taken as evidence about his emotional state. [0]:Whether he is willfully or maliciously deceptive is irrelevant. Even if he has the best of intentions, his behavior is still untrustworthy.
- Aqueous 10y agoI don't know, but based on the last line I err on the side of caution. People don't react well to world-wide humiliation. I agree that he is completely untrustworthy and can't be relied upon to give an accurate representation of his own mental well-being.
- tazjin 10y agoCan we just stop giving this con man more attention?
- tangled_zans 10y agoI know right. It was obvious from the start that he's full of shit, how are people still arguing about this?
- numair 10y agoIt is interesting to note that the only Satoshi-existence scenario whose probability improves with each passing day, is the scenario in which Satoshi / the "Satoshis" is/are dead (unless you think Bitcoin was the first great invention of hyper-advanced AI, of course). Figuring out whether anyone actually knows who Satoshi is/was becomes more interesting than waiting for the person(s) to show up, because it will never happen in a death scenario. One thing we have gained from this bizarre circus is a sign that neither Gavin nor Jon know who Satoshi might be; who's left? Who might know?
- Finnucane 10y agoIf Satoshi is dead or not an individual person, then who owns his bitcoin? If Satoshi is dead, then his property would be subject to the probate laws of his home country. Can the bitcoin of a dead person be recovered if they don't make arrangements for it in their will? Or will blocks of bitcoin become inactive over time as their owners die?
- bitJericho 10y agoBitcoins can only be distributed if you have the private key for it. If satoshi dies and leaves the keys for his heirs, then its just a normal asset. If the keys are gone, then that money is unrecoverable, just like burning cash.
- Finnucane 10y agoSo Bitcoin could conceivably be 'burned' faster than new bitcoin can be made. That might be great for a collector's market, but sounds like a bad plan for a useful currency.
- digi_owl 10y agoAnd one wonder why it is being traded more like a commodity than a currency...
- BinaryResult 10y ago
- gtrubetskoy 10y agoMy (non-provable) theory is that Satoshi is not a person but a team, now defunct, that was tasked with developing a crypto-currency. They are probably more scientists/mathematicians/economists than they are software developers, which would explain the very sound but not exactly elegant initial code. It would also explain the silence - the project is over, the team is probably bound to secrecy because this stuff is classified. The only time Satoshi spoke out (edit: and we don't even know that it was authentic, see discussion below) was to help the poor bloke who was mistaken to be Satoshi and his life was being ruined, and that was probably a collective decision by the former team members, it was the right thing to do. This is a different case - Satoshi speaking out wouldn't help in this case, Craig sounds like someone in need of help from a professional psychiatrist or psychologist, http://www.drcraigwright.net/ http://www.drcraigwright.net/ almost sounds like a suicide note. I feel sorry and worried for the bloke.
- user24 10y ago> The only time Satoshi spoke out was to help the poor bloke who was mistaken to be Satoshi no, the forum account was hacked to make that claim. It wasn't by Satoshi.
- gtrubetskoy 10y ago> no, the forum account was hacked to make that claim. It wasn't by Satoshi. Are you sure, I wasn't aware of that? Edit: the "I am not Dorian Nakamoto" was on March 7 2014, the account hack on Sept 8 of same year. It doesn't prove it conclusively. In fact the hack may well have been done deliberately, for a (kind of) plausible deniability (i.e. now you can't tell whether it was the real "Satoshi" and thus there was no provable breach of secrecy).
- celticninja 10y agoThe only sort of confirmation that I could find on that claim was that the original address was unused for over a year so was then available for registration by a new user, this was then used to allow a password reset on another account. I believe this was the gmx and vistomail accounts.
- ebbv 10y agoOne thing that gives me a little pause and makes me think maybe he is telling the truth (even though all other evidence and logic says he's a fraud) is that the real Satoshi has not put out a statement calling this guy out as a fraud. When the Dorian Nakamoto stuff happened the real Satoshi put out a statement saying he's not Dorian. That wasn't that long ago. If he did that you'd think he'd step up and say he's not Craig Wright either. But maybe he did the previous one because he felt Dorian was being victimized whereas Craig Wright has made a mess of his own design. It's hard to say for sure.
- ramblerman 10y agoIt's not that unlikely that satoshi is dead given the sudden silence. Someone like Craig Wright might have gambled on that fact.
- kbart 10y agoI'm sure the goal of such step is exactly this -- to leave some room for doubt. The conman was moved in a corner during last few days, it was the only logical step left. It's only few commands to prove that you really poses the original key, no need for drama, screenshots and buggy scripts.
- gamache 10y ago> When the Dorian Nakamoto stuff happened the real Satoshi put out a statement saying he's not Dorian. That wasn't that long ago. My read on that is that Satoshi felt sorry for the hapless Japanese-American guy with tech media showing up at his house. In contrast, Craig Wright asked for this.
- celticninja 10y agoAlso the old guy was going to have to prove a negative. Can't be done.
- lgas 10y agoLet's see some proof that it can't be done.
- crystalmeph 10y agoTin-foil, but if I were Satoshi and wanted to remain anonymous, and some journalists started snooping around, one way to shut them down would be to publicly post a "proof" that seems technical enough to get the reporters to run out screaming "we got him!" but falls apart once more technical people start investigating...
- chriswarbo 10y agoIf you treat the "proof" falling apart under scrutiny as evidence that he is Satoshi, then to remain consistent you must treat a strong proof which holds up under scrutiny as evidence against him being Satoshi. http://lesswrong.com/lw/ii/conservation_of_expected_evidence http://lesswrong.com/lw/ii/conservation_of_expected_evidence
- crystalmeph 10y agoTo be clear, I don't believe my tin-foil conspiracy is true, and honestly it doesn't matter one bit to me if Craig Wright is the inventor of Bitcoin. That said, I never said that his "absence of evidence that he is Satoshi" is actually "evidence that he is Satoshi". In fact, no one has provided any real evidence either that he is or is not Satoshi. Again, assuming that the real Satoshi wishes to remain anonymous, but is on the verge of discovery anyway, he may have a difficult time "proving" that he isn't Satoshi, so his next best bet might be to sidestep proof entirely and instead play a kind of mind game to throw off the investigation. So conservation of expected evidence doesn't factor in, because he hasn't "proven" anything one way or the other, he's basically gambled that internet ridicule will achieve a desired goal.
- arcticfox 10y agoThis would be rather genius. And extremely unlikely, but effective if true and ever enacted.
- CyberDildonics 10y agoWhy would it be clever to put yourself on the map when before no one would have even considered you?
- spdustin 10y agoOkay seriously, is anyone contacting the authorities to see if this man is still alive? I do not know who to contact or what his location is. His "blog" post sounds like a suicide note - I've had the misfortune of reading others, and there are telltale signs - and it doesn't appear that anyone is taking steps to see if he's okay. Maybe he is a liar, maybe he's Satoshi, who gives a shit at this point when the jaded comments make it sound like we've been invaded by 4chan.
- musha68k 10y agoThank you for posting this <3
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- andremendes 10y agoAs the author of one of those jaded comments, I'm worried about this possibility now. I believe someone (healthy) close to him should take some care of him for a while. Regardless of his online identity.
- sktrdie 10y agoI understand this, but there's also the dimension where his actions, whether true or not, are also damaging other people (Gavin's reputation is on the line). We'd all be more worried for him if he wasn't so blatantly causing harm to other people's reputation. Obviously he could suffer from severe mental illness, which combines elements of harming others and self harm, but as a society I think we should worry more about the person being harmed (ex. Gavin).
- bwilliams18 10y agoNo, that's a horrible thought. If he truly is suicidal we should be doing what we can to make sure he is cared for.
- sktrdie 10y ago@bwilliams, yep, and that's why I said "I understand this". We should help him. But we should also help, if not more, Gavin and the others who's reputation is on the line without much fault of their own.
- spilk 10y agoWhy is there even an argument? It is not rocket science to produce a signed message with a key, the reference software can do this trivially. Until that is provided I don't see why anyone should entertain the possibility. Anything else is just theatrics.
- koktang 10y agoIs the website image steganographic?
- mastazi 10y agoI thought the same. The image has been taken down, is there anyone who saved it?
- headgasket 10y agothat would be tha bomb. a satoshi signed message in the jpg
- cporios 10y agohttps://web.archive.org/web/20160505121147/http://www.drcraigwright.net/homepage.jpg https://web.archive.org/web/20160505121147/http://www.drcrai...
- supercoder 10y agoIt's a suicide note.
- serf 10y ago> it's a suicide note .. or an attempt to bolster the flames of a dying media spectacle that keeps your name up at the top of the news feeds. I hope I'm right, I hate the idea of a guy being driven to suicide; even more than I hate the idea of him social engineering media outlets en masse to self-promote.
- l33tbro 10y agoAs cringey as this whole episode has been, I genuinely hope this guy is alright and doesn't do something dumb.
- woodman 10y agoThe subsequent modifications to the website lead me to believe that the chances of this being a suicide note are really low. But everything leading up to this leaves me confident that he will continue to "do something dumb", just not suicide.
- jbmorgado 10y agoI think it follows the typical modus operandi of large part of the Bitcoin community: 1 - Propose flawed argument. 2 - Insert pink unicorns. 3 - When asked for proof, don't give it and instead claim this is exactly what's best for the world but that we are too short minded to understand it.
- snitko 10y agoWhat you're trying to do here is to project your hatred for Bitcoin using fraud as somehow representative of the ideas embedded into Bitcoin, which have nothing to do with that fraud.
- pg_is_a_butt 10y agosorry, HN proved that correlation is causation. you're an idiot.
- jbmorgado 10y agoI'm sorry, but only the people that feel the need to follow something as some kind of religion or philosophy really need to attribute the adjectives "hatred" or "love" to some kind of technology. The rest of the world at large (EDIT: that knows about bitcoin as sub intended by the rest of the sentence) that is not part of the bitcoin cult, looks at the thing for its technological prowess - or lack of it - and mostly sees it as a cryptographic experiment gone right and a financial experiment gone very wrong.
- snitko 10y agoDon't speak for most people. Most people know nothing about Bitcoin just yet. Can you be more specific about where the financial experiment of Bitcoin has gone wrong and why?
- jbmorgado 10y agoIt's quite telling that you don't want me to speak for other people but just in your answer before projected your irrational feelings about bitcoin on me and on what I feel or don't feel for bitcoin (so that we get straight, I don't "feel" anything for a technology, that doesn't make sense). When I referred the world at large, I referred the world at large that already knows bitcoin, not the world population. And from those, most of them obviously didn't get in bitcoin (in fact the ones that did get in bitcoin are pulling out as can be clearly seen in the volume of bitcoin transactions since 2014). And it is a clearly failed financial experiment because: 1 - It concentrated all the wealth in the hands and very few people in only a couple of years (http://www.bitcoinrichlist.com/top100 http://www.bitcoinrichlist.com/top100) 2 - The majority of bitcoin transactions are used for ilegal purposes (http://www.coindesk.com/dark-web-markets-processed-more-bitcoin-than-bitpay-in-2014/ http://www.coindesk.com/dark-web-markets-processed-more-bitc...) 3 - It's more inconvenient than existing payment systems to use so people don't use it (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-is-dead-says-prominent-fintech-executive-taavet-hinrikus-transferwise-bitcoin-experiment-failed-191800988.html http://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-is-dead-says-prominent...) 4 - People are so uninterested and suspicious of bitcoin that you actually loose money if you present bitcoin as a payment/donation method (http://bitcoinist.net/mozilla-study-shows-bitcoin-negative-impact-donations/ http://bitcoinist.net/mozilla-study-shows-bitcoin-negative-i...) 5 - Complete unregulation keeps meaning high scale theft and complete unreliability of bitcoin markets (MtGox and many others) All in all, the world at large - in this case not only the ones that know bitcoin - clearly understands that the financial system needs more regulation not less, and yet, you put bitcoin in the table with is utter lack of regulation and try to claim its a great thing that will solve the world's financial problems but you don't give absolutely no sane argument or metrics about how it is doing that. And that was exactly my original point.
- ParadisoShlee 10y agothat’s the kind of apology I would expect from the zodiac killer..
- threatofrain 10y agoIt's hard for me to believe that he's backing out of his promise to provide stronger evidence because the pressure is too much, because the pressure of being known as a fraud is a lot worse than being known as an inventor.
- dpweb 10y agoThis whole "controversy" is incredibly boring. The real Satoshi would be able to prove it easily. Prove it, or STFU and we can move on from the who is Satoshi mystery?
- arcticfox 10y agoIt's not that boring at all. How did he smoke and mirror two of the best Bitcoin devs on the planet? At worst, it's an interesting discussion of a con man running into a technical wall.
- haakon 10y agoMatonis is not a Bitcoin developer or a person of much technical merit, if that was one of the two you referred to. Good question about Gavin, though.
- arcticfox 10y agoAh - you're correct, he seems to be an economist. I incorrectly assumed someone so intimately involved w/ Bitcoin for so long must be a cryptographer.
- AKifer 10y agoThe only blamable thing in this story is that the so called mainstream media are not technically knowledgeable enough to "scientifically" check their news sources. Good thing, all the nerds around have exposed the scheme in such a short time, I like this era !!
- bpchaps 10y agoOdd note - his page just turned from a jpeg to use actual text. So, uh. yay, I suppose.
- oneloop 10y agoThe words "absolute moron" come to mind.
- Geekette 10y agoGiven his history as a prolific liar, I find his post to be utter bullshit. Note how he's still lying about things he was caught at: "When the rumours began, my qualifications and character were attacked. When those allegations were proven false". NO - it was established (with confirmation from the schools in question) that he lied about having a PhD from Charles Stuart U. and he definitely does not possess 8 masters degrees. Not to mention other lies about having super computers and partnership with SGI to build more with fake reference letter (all clarified by company as false), etc. Now, because he knows he can't successfully claim Satoshi's identity and in light of possible charges based on ongoing police investigation (fraudulent use of tax credits), he wants to dramatically disappear. I hope the authorities have his passport(s). His thirst for fame is unreal.
- pinewurst 10y agoPerhaps the Satoshi show is his way to convince Australian tax authorities of diminished capacity to lessen the penalties for his fraudulent acts? A sociopath grasping at any lever that could work in his favor.
- dsfuoi 10y agoI still haven't seen anyone write what those fraudulent acts are exactly. Since Craig Wright (let's not call him what he isn't) apparently has several companies, these should be some clue about that?
- pinewurst 10y agoThere are articles that do so (https://www.nikcub.com/posts/craig-wright-is-not-satoshi-nakamoto/ https://www.nikcub.com/posts/craig-wright-is-not-satoshi-nak...). The gist is that Australia via their tax authorities pays R&D credits in cash. Wright set up a corporate vehicle funded by the transfer _on paper_ of Bitcoins that are not proven to even exist. He used these to mostly buy software from himself and claimed a AU$3.1m R&D cash tax refund.
- 10y ago
- criddell 10y agoHis note doesn't make any sense to me. If I were to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he is Satoshi, this note still doesn't make any sense. Removing all doubt that he at least controls the keys is almost trivial.
- id122015 10y agothese stories about bitcoin are like those long drama's/soap operas/ Tween Peaks, I dont know anything about because I didnt have time to put up with it. Only women..
- imsatoshi 10y agoTrue that
- Tenoke 10y agoCan someone please explain how Gavin can still think he is Satoshi? I am very confused.
- mpeg 10y agoPeople who get conned will generally refuse to believe they've been scammed, even when presented with evidence.
- bitmapbrother 10y agoI suggested this from the start. A simple transaction from Satoshi's account to an agreed upon 3rd party is all that would have been needed to prove his claims. Claiming to not have the "courage" to perform this simple verification is just ridiculous.
- glaberficken 10y agoLink to archived version of full May 3rd post https://web.archive.org/web/20160504045648/http://www.drcraigwright.net/extraordinary-claims-require-extraordinary-proof/ https://web.archive.org/web/20160504045648/http://www.drcrai...
- abalone 10y agoWhat is the best theory of how Gavin Andresen and Jon Matonis were deceived?
- tommynicholas 10y agoTo those of you who have never known a conman or someone with borderline personality disorder, this behavior might seem odd. To me, it's like looking at a picture of a dog and going "oh that's a dog!"
- danielweber 10y agoThe best indicator for me was, instead of providing something right away, saying you will provide it "soon," and then waiting for the inevitable excuse when it doesn't happen.
- tommynicholas 10y agoNot just the excuse, but making themselves into a martyr SPECIFICALLY as the excuse. This type of person can never simply say they can't do something, they have to be larger than life even when failing to do something.
- johnjac 10y agoWe're an anarcho-syndicalist commune. We take it in turns to act as a sort of 'Satoshi Nakamoto' for the week. But all the decision of that Satoshi have to be ratified at a special biweekly meeting.
- bizzbuzz 10y agoAll lies...
- neuropie 10y agoIt's very interesting that he asked the media to send coins to one of Satoshi's Bitcoin addresses, and that he would return them. All of Satoshi's original coins are Pay-to-Public-Key, whereas the BBC's money was sent Pay-to-Public-Key-Hash (P2PKH). This means that Craig would have to present a signature along with a public key that just has the same hash as the Satoshi public key, not a signature for Satoshi's public key itself. I think he is banking on finding another key with the same hash, as a final desperate attempt to forge his identity.
- m-i-l 10y agoIf Craig Wright did indeed purchase the supercomputer which was placed at number 17 on the list of the world's fastest supercomputers in November 2015, perhaps its sole purpose was to do a collision attack. Although as with other claims, it is uncertain whether he did buy this computer (SGI deny it was bought from them but concede that it could have been bought on the grey market[0]). [0] http://www.zdnet.com/article/sgi-denies-links-with-alleged-bitcoin-founder-craig-wright/ http://www.zdnet.com/article/sgi-denies-links-with-alleged-b...
- TheBlight 10y agoTo move the coins in a P2PKH output the signature also needs to include the public key.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- biot 10y agoIn the video he claims that he is the one known by the "monkier" [sic] Satoshi Nakamoto. A very appropriate misspeak of the word "moniker".
- jsprogrammer 10y agoHumans are not monkies and never were. It is believed that the two species shared a common ancestor at some point. Edit: If someone has evidence otherwise, please post.
- nickfrostatx 10y agoYour comment was seen as pedantic and nonconstructive.
- jsprogrammer 10y agoAnd a comment referring to us as "angry monkeys" is non-pedant constructivism? Where can I view these observations?
- PhasmaFelis 10y agoI think it was clear to most people that "angry monkeys" was a metaphorical figure of speech, not a serious assertion regarding the ancestry of humankind.
- dang 10y agoWe detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11636167 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11636167 and marked it off-topic.
- jsprogrammer 10y agoWhy?
- satysin 10y agoThe guy sounds like a pathological liar and narcissist. Amazing so many were sucked in to his bullshit. The journalists involved should be embarrassed as they look like utter fools.
- throw7 10y ago"There are very credible people besides Gavin and Jon who still think he is Satoshi - people who are privy to other information and whose judgement I respect." Oh? Pray tell.
- jonah 10y agoBitcoin needs a "For Entertainment Purposes Only" disclaimer on it.
- ajonit 10y agoI really wish Satoshi comes out from hiding before he (or the group) is dead (assuming he is not already); otherwise it will forever take #1 position on those listicles sites ("The top 10 mysteries of all time; You really want to know #1")
- tunesmith 10y agoFor those of you who haven't had firsthand experience with truly weird habitual liars, this is exactly what it's like... not saying Wright is a liar but he hasn't differentiated himself from it.
- saalweachter 10y agoThought experiment: Suppose Satoshi, whoever it is, is still alive somewhere in the wild. But he doesn't have his original keys (hard-drive failure with no backup, apartment fire with no offsite backup, etc etc). How would Satoshi prove himself then?
- jamoes 10y agoHe could still have access to his PGP private key, which would be a strong data point. It could be possible that someone stole this key though, so this alone wouldn't completely prove his identity. If he had the foresight to know he might want to prove his identity at some point in the future, he could have embedded the hash of a message into an early block (using the public keys of coinbase transactions). The message could say something like "Satoshi Nakamoto is <real name>. <salt>". In order to prove his identity, he'd just have to reveal the contents of the message (he'd have the make the salt something he could memorize so that it wouldn't be at risk of being destroyed by a fire). Ideally he'd encode this message hash in multiple early blocks (using a different salt in each message, so that the hash is different each time). I think anything like the "knowledge of the content of private emails" is flawed. Satoshi's email account was hacked, so most of his "private" emails are no longer private (supposedly he didn't use PGP for most of his private correspondence).
- CydeWeys 10y agoA Bitcoin private key is only 51 characters when expressed in the Base58 format that Bitcoin uses. Here is an example private key expressed in such a format: 5Kb8kLf9zgWQnogidDA76MzPL6TsZZY36hWXMssSzNydYXYB9KF If I were Satoshi I totally would've committed it to memory. I have more random characters than that memorized for passwords to various accounts. Or, even easier, have a smaller simple password, and then be able to reconstruct them using an algorithm that your remember, e.g. SHA256(SHA256(SHA256("correct") + "horse battery") + "staple").
- atomical 10y agoThat is genius.
- fapjacks 10y agoWow, I'm psychic! Turns out all the guy really had was a rubber suit in a freezer. It wasn't a bigfoot after all!! Shocking.
- PhasmaFelis 10y agoThe entire "who is Satoshi" thing is basically the tech equivalent of gossip rags.
- The_knight 10y agoI'd be willing to bet that the coins will move soon.
- 6nf 10y agoI will take your bet, what would you like to wager?
- imsatoshi 10y agoThis guy is not the creator. No body is. Evolution!!
- imsatoshi 10y agoThis guy is not the creator. No body is. Evolution!!
- jheriko 10y agoUnsurprising. Being vague and mysterious is the hallmark of bullshit. The fact that some people believe it is more a testament to their naivete than anything else. I pity them... :(
- kazinator 10y agoThe Nick Szabo hypothesis is plausible, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satoshi_Nakamoto#Nick_Szabo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satoshi_Nakamoto#Nick_Szabo >In December 2013, a blogger named Skye Grey linked Nick Szabo to the bitcoin's whitepaper using a stylometric analysis. All that, and the NS/NS: Nakamoto Satoshi / Nick Szabo. :) I assign a low probability to the proposition that Nakamoto is other than Szabo. Suppose Nakamoto isn't Szabo. Why the various similarities? They could be deliberate: Nakamoto isn't Szabo but another researcher who not only runs with the same ideas, but mimics the elements of writing, duplicates the timezone of activity and so on. Even chooses the letters N and S for his pseudonym to tantalize people with the hypothesis that he is Szabo. The problem under this hypothesized scenario is that Szabo would almost certainly have cried foul: "Hey, world, this Bitcoin Nakamoto dude is ripping off my research without crediting me at all!" Secondly, why would someone who wants to create a digital currency system based on Szabo's ideas go to the trouble of creating all these irrelevant similarities. On the other hand, there is the why: why wouldn't someone who obviously knows a lot about security an privacy issues not put more effort into building plausible deniability? Maybe Szabo simply doesn't care about having anything near air-tight claim that he isn't Nakamoto, and so just let himself be sloppy. Perhaps he actually wants there to be all that circumstantial evidence, and is biding his time until the right moment to admit that he is Nakamoto, at which time with just some small piece of proof, it will be iron-clad to everyone.
- cogentleman 10y agoHaha can't handle the limelight, this fella reminds me of the Flappy Bird creator. I think he's BSing as well.
- lazzlazzlazz 10y agoNobody here should be surprised; we knew Wright has been engaging in pathological behaviors for years now. The question is how Gavin will handle the damage to his reputation. I feel bad for him.
- bitmadness 10y agoWhat an ass
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- DonGateley 10y agoPerhaps he was simply clued to some seriously bad consequence of proving his ownership of the Satoshi hoard.