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Okay 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 so

Okay 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 ago
Thank you for posting this <3
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
andremendes 10y ago
As 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 ago
I 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 ago
  No, 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.
  - bpchaps 10y ago
    Why not handle the the thing that seems to be pretty pressing right now instead? Reputation can wait until someone can confirm one thing or another. It's just kind of calloused otherwise and I'm sure someone whose reputation on the line would agree.
- nsajko 10y ago
  Andresen (and Matonis) themselves should be considered responsible for the harm to their own reputations no?
  - nacs 10y ago
    If someone gets scammed by a con-artist, would you blame the victim there too?
    - machinelearning 10y ago
      In this case yes, because they are influencers of the community and were not being responsible in ensuring the proof was rigorous enough
      - TillE 10y ago
        Gavin said that he expected Wright to immediately post public proof equivalent to what he'd seen in private. When that didn't happen, he started expressing doubts. I don't think he ever intended his post alone to be treated as authoritative proof. Yeah he made a mistake. But smart, even skeptical people get conned into making those kind of mistakes all the time. In the end, it's a lot of drama with no real harm done.
- nsajko 10y ago
  Andresen (and Matonis) themselves should be considered responsible for the harm to their own reputations no?
- devishard 10y ago
  Gavin's reputation is on the line because he is a security researcher, and he was duped by a not-very-convincing crypto scam. It's not a big deal to me; I wouldn't hold it against him much in, say, hiring. But whatever damage done to Gavin was done by his own choices. I'm not going to rush to feel sorry for him, either.
brador 10y ago
The Goodbye at the end is worrying, but he simply needs to do one small action to prove his case and put an end to it all. It would take less than 5 minutes, which leaves the question, why drag it on like this?
- bpchaps 10y ago
  Because mental health issues can cause rationalizations to stack one on top of the other. It sucks, but it would explain it. (I'm not actually claiming that's what's actually going on, for what it's worth. Just that the behavior has a familiar feel.)
- mathattack 10y ago
  I read the Goodbye as someone backed into a corner who can't prove it.
  - DyslexicAtheist 10y ago
    I read it that he is still trying hard to maintain the image of Satoshi to the public. Satoshi also disappeared like that.
  - dsfuoi 10y ago
    It feels like a rage quit. Completely frustrated when you simply cannot win, there is only one option remaining. Anger and self-pity.
- adwf 10y ago
  Probably because there are enough people who would still claim that he's not Satoshi. They'd just say he stole the signing key or something. There are already some saying that it was a colleague who he's taking the credit for, it's only a small leap for conspiracy nuts to jump to the theft idea. Of course, it's vastly more likely that he is not Satoshi and he's just trying to save face.
  - brador 10y ago
    At this point he's had a week of having everyone he knows hounded by the media. It might have just been a slip of the tongue/party joke he just rolled with and didn't expect to get this big. When your every action gets a Guardian article it can be a scary time for anyone. Especially those who've not experienced it before.
devishard 10y ago
This post reminds me of a tactic abusive people use to prevent their victims from leaving them. When confronted with their bad behavior, they apologize profusely and pretend to feel remorse for their actions to the point that people worry about them. Once people feel adequately sorry for them and are distracted from their bad behavior, they go right back to doing what they were doing. But the giveaway that shows it's all fake is that they never really get to the root of the bad behavior and do anything to fix it. In this case, Wright still hasn't admitted that he isn't Satoshi and doesn't have the key to the genesis block. I've seen this behavior far too many times from my ex--I'm not going to give in to it here. Sure, someone should go check that he's not going to kill himself. But that should not for a second distract from the fact that he's a liar and a fraud, and this is likely just his latest ploy.
- bpchaps 10y ago
  My ex did the same thing and it's pretty shitty, but it still deserves serious attention. The best route is to call the cops and ensure they get proper medical attention if nothing else for a strong jolt to reality. I don't think she would be alive now if I hadn't made that call.
- golergka 10y ago
  Abusive people commit suicides as well.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - k-mcgrady 10y ago
    Once you know it's a tactic you can't allow yourself to fall for it anymore or you'll end up trapped, regardless of what the final outcome is. However it's not right to go around guessing that someone like this guy is using that tactic and ignoring what could be a serious cry for help when you have no idea if he's an abusive person.
    - golergka 10y ago
empath75 10y ago
Someone should check on him out of an abundance of caution, but his note is laughably melodramatic.
Lxr 10y ago
Sometime between this being posted and now he has changed the homepage from an image to HTML, so I'm betting he's alive.
- jnbiche 10y ago
  He realized the image wouldn't be indexed by Google, I'd imagine.
nikcub 10y ago
I saw the post within a minute of two of it going up and also read it as a suicide note. I reached out to everyone I knew and heard back indirectly through someone else that he's ok. He's also updated his homepage in the last few minutes. Despite knowing just how much of a manipulator Craig is I think it's worth erring on the side of caution here.
- spdustin 10y ago
  Thank you for letting us know. Whether he's a lying asshole or not, I've learned the hard way to take someone seriously when they seem to be threatening self-harm, even if they've been insincere in the past. Someone who feels the need to lie so much isn't exactly neurotypical, and depressive thoughts with suicidal ideations often go along with such a compulsion. Better safe than sorry. Thanks again for checking in.
jnbiche 10y ago
Sadly, this type of behavior is also the hallmark of a master manipulator. Given his track record of deceit upon deceit (lied about PhD as confirmed by university, lied about supercomputer as confirmed by SGI, got caught backdating PGP key, multiple acquaintances in Australia on record about his sketchy business practices, etc. etc), I'd guess that the emotion here is significantly less than genuine. That said, I agree that if I knew the man, or had any idea where he is then I'd feel compelled to check in on him. But it sounds like people have checked in on him and he's OK [1]. But I'm guessing it's just more showmanship and more attempts to distract from the fact that he has no proof he's who he's claiming to be. 1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11636144 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11636144
nihonde 10y ago
Yes, certainly we should sympathize with this person who is behaving in a confusing way. Even if he made a calculated decision to manipulate the news media here, the blame must be shared by the journalists who promoted the story, and to an extent, the portion of the audience that was simply looking for an easy answer and a satisfying resolution. At the end of the day, the whole lot of us should be responsible for being skeptical enough to prevent a destructive person from turning their personal issues into a global crisis. Many people stepped up to debunk this story quite readily. It was the mainstream media that was really exacerbating the situation.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]

musha68k 10y ago

Thank you for posting this <3

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

andremendes 10y ago

As 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 ago

I 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 ago
No, 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.
- bpchaps 10y ago
  Why not handle the the thing that seems to be pretty pressing right now instead? Reputation can wait until someone can confirm one thing or another. It's just kind of calloused otherwise and I'm sure someone whose reputation on the line would agree.
nsajko 10y ago
Andresen (and Matonis) themselves should be considered responsible for the harm to their own reputations no?
- nacs 10y ago
  If someone gets scammed by a con-artist, would you blame the victim there too?
  - machinelearning 10y ago
    In this case yes, because they are influencers of the community and were not being responsible in ensuring the proof was rigorous enough
    - TillE 10y ago
      Gavin said that he expected Wright to immediately post public proof equivalent to what he'd seen in private. When that didn't happen, he started expressing doubts. I don't think he ever intended his post alone to be treated as authoritative proof. Yeah he made a mistake. But smart, even skeptical people get conned into making those kind of mistakes all the time. In the end, it's a lot of drama with no real harm done.
nsajko 10y ago
Andresen (and Matonis) themselves should be considered responsible for the harm to their own reputations no?
devishard 10y ago
Gavin's reputation is on the line because he is a security researcher, and he was duped by a not-very-convincing crypto scam. It's not a big deal to me; I wouldn't hold it against him much in, say, hiring. But whatever damage done to Gavin was done by his own choices. I'm not going to rush to feel sorry for him, either.

brador 10y ago

The Goodbye at the end is worrying, but he simply needs to do one small action to prove his case and put an end to it all. It would take less than 5 minutes, which leaves the question, why drag it on like this?

bpchaps 10y ago
Because mental health issues can cause rationalizations to stack one on top of the other. It sucks, but it would explain it. (I'm not actually claiming that's what's actually going on, for what it's worth. Just that the behavior has a familiar feel.)
mathattack 10y ago
I read the Goodbye as someone backed into a corner who can't prove it.
- DyslexicAtheist 10y ago
  I read it that he is still trying hard to maintain the image of Satoshi to the public. Satoshi also disappeared like that.
- dsfuoi 10y ago
  It feels like a rage quit. Completely frustrated when you simply cannot win, there is only one option remaining. Anger and self-pity.
adwf 10y ago
Probably because there are enough people who would still claim that he's not Satoshi. They'd just say he stole the signing key or something. There are already some saying that it was a colleague who he's taking the credit for, it's only a small leap for conspiracy nuts to jump to the theft idea. Of course, it's vastly more likely that he is not Satoshi and he's just trying to save face.
- brador 10y ago
  At this point he's had a week of having everyone he knows hounded by the media. It might have just been a slip of the tongue/party joke he just rolled with and didn't expect to get this big. When your every action gets a Guardian article it can be a scary time for anyone. Especially those who've not experienced it before.

devishard 10y ago

This post reminds me of a tactic abusive people use to prevent their victims from leaving them. When confronted with their bad behavior, they apologize profusely and pretend to feel remorse for their actions to the point that people worry about them. Once people feel adequately sorry for them and are distracted from their bad behavior, they go right back to doing what they were doing. But the giveaway that shows it's all fake is that they never really get to the root of the bad behavior and do anything to fix it. In this case, Wright still hasn't admitted that he isn't Satoshi and doesn't have the key to the genesis block. I've seen this behavior far too many times from my ex--I'm not going to give in to it here. Sure, someone should go check that he's not going to kill himself. But that should not for a second distract from the fact that he's a liar and a fraud, and this is likely just his latest ploy.

bpchaps 10y ago
My ex did the same thing and it's pretty shitty, but it still deserves serious attention. The best route is to call the cops and ensure they get proper medical attention if nothing else for a strong jolt to reality. I don't think she would be alive now if I hadn't made that call.
golergka 10y ago
Abusive people commit suicides as well.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- k-mcgrady 10y ago
  Once you know it's a tactic you can't allow yourself to fall for it anymore or you'll end up trapped, regardless of what the final outcome is. However it's not right to go around guessing that someone like this guy is using that tactic and ignoring what could be a serious cry for help when you have no idea if he's an abusive person.
  - golergka 10y ago

empath75 10y ago

Someone should check on him out of an abundance of caution, but his note is laughably melodramatic.

Lxr 10y ago

Sometime between this being posted and now he has changed the homepage from an image to HTML, so I'm betting he's alive.

jnbiche 10y ago
He realized the image wouldn't be indexed by Google, I'd imagine.

nikcub 10y ago

I saw the post within a minute of two of it going up and also read it as a suicide note. I reached out to everyone I knew and heard back indirectly through someone else that he's ok. He's also updated his homepage in the last few minutes. Despite knowing just how much of a manipulator Craig is I think it's worth erring on the side of caution here.

spdustin 10y ago
Thank you for letting us know. Whether he's a lying asshole or not, I've learned the hard way to take someone seriously when they seem to be threatening self-harm, even if they've been insincere in the past. Someone who feels the need to lie so much isn't exactly neurotypical, and depressive thoughts with suicidal ideations often go along with such a compulsion. Better safe than sorry. Thanks again for checking in.

jnbiche 10y ago

Sadly, this type of behavior is also the hallmark of a master manipulator. Given his track record of deceit upon deceit (lied about PhD as confirmed by university, lied about supercomputer as confirmed by SGI, got caught backdating PGP key, multiple acquaintances in Australia on record about his sketchy business practices, etc. etc), I'd guess that the emotion here is significantly less than genuine. That said, I agree that if I knew the man, or had any idea where he is then I'd feel compelled to check in on him. But it sounds like people have checked in on him and he's OK [1]. But I'm guessing it's just more showmanship and more attempts to distract from the fact that he has no proof he's who he's claiming to be. 1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11636144 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11636144

nihonde 10y ago

Yes, certainly we should sympathize with this person who is behaving in a confusing way. Even if he made a calculated decision to manipulate the news media here, the blame must be shared by the journalists who promoted the story, and to an extent, the portion of the audience that was simply looking for an easy answer and a satisfying resolution. At the end of the day, the whole lot of us should be responsible for being skeptical enough to prevent a destructive person from turning their personal issues into a global crisis. Many people stepped up to debunk this story quite readily. It was the mainstream media that was really exacerbating the situation.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]