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Was there any consensus on whether Szabo is Nakamoto? He seems to be on the short list of people who had both the brains and the talent to pull off Bitcoin.

tylersmith 9y ago
There's certainly no consensus on it. Many people think he is but probably not a majority.
brndnmtthws 9y ago
He's just one of several candidates[1], although I think the late Hal Finney is more likely to be Satoshi. Another theory is that the Satoshi persona was created by a group of individuals (cypherpunks) who were involved in the early Bitcoin community, including Hal Finney and Nick Szabo. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satoshi_Nakamoto#Possible_identities https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satoshi_Nakamoto#Possible_iden...
- nugget 9y ago
  Given how hard it is for any group of people to keep a secret, I've always thought it much more likely to be a single individual.
  - eternalban 9y ago
    The fact that intelligence services employing armies of people exist worldwide should be sufficient to disabuse you of that meme.
- brndnmtthws 9y ago
  And for those curious about Hal Finney, here's a fascinating post he wrote before his death: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=155054.0 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=155054.0
  - vernon99 9y ago
    Except he didn't completely die, he was actually cryo-preserved. Although you can look at it in multiple ways.
    - smitherfield 9y ago
      All available evidence suggests that cryonics is likely pseudoscience in theory and certainly pseudoscience in practice. Irreversible brain damage occurs within seconds (and total brain death within minutes) of oxygen deprivation, and freezing cell tissue in water ice permanently destroys it.
      - DiThi 9y ago
        We don't really know. Cryonics avoid ice formation with cryoprotectants or via vitrification. And assuming there _is_ brain damage, in theory it's still possible to recover as long as the _information_ of the brain hasn't been destroyed. It's akin to having the mainboard and the read head of a hard disk destroyed, but having the plates intact.
      - devrandomguy 9y ago
        What if we don't try to repair the body, but instead reconstruct it in a simulation? Even if the person's cells have all been mangled by ice crystals, a future medical team could conceivably map their neural network and estimate the strengths of the connections between neurons, with some futuristic high resolution scanning device. Maybe it doesn't matter that a frozen person is dead for now, if we could give their mind a virtual body transplant, and rehabilitate them in an idealized virtual environment.
      - vernon99 9y ago
        Yeah, as pointed above nobody's using ice for ages, your information is pretty outdated. Would also help if you would support your opinion by related research on the current state of the art cryo.
macroexchange 9y ago
Szabo reposted this blog post [1] on December 27, 2008 The Bitcoin genesis block was created Jan 4, 2009 [2] At that time there was about say 3 people in the world interested in these ideas. Make your judgement and consider the probabilities for P(Szabo = Satoshi) and P(Szabo != Satoshi). I think if you read up on all the articles and convince yourself. In [3] Szabo said there is a lot similarities with Bitcoin and Bitgold, and he talked about the differences in interviews. [1] http://unenumerated.blogspot.com/2005/12/bit-gold.html http://unenumerated.blogspot.com/2005/12/bit-gold.html [2] https://blockexplorer.com/block/000000000019d6689c085ae165831e934ff763ae46a2a6c172b3f1b60a8ce26f https://blockexplorer.com/block/000000000019d6689c085ae16583... [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_yUeuKu7L4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_yUeuKu7L4

tylersmith 9y ago

There's certainly no consensus on it. Many people think he is but probably not a majority.

brndnmtthws 9y ago

He's just one of several candidates[1], although I think the late Hal Finney is more likely to be Satoshi. Another theory is that the Satoshi persona was created by a group of individuals (cypherpunks) who were involved in the early Bitcoin community, including Hal Finney and Nick Szabo. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satoshi_Nakamoto#Possible_identities https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satoshi_Nakamoto#Possible_iden...

nugget 9y ago
Given how hard it is for any group of people to keep a secret, I've always thought it much more likely to be a single individual.
- eternalban 9y ago
  The fact that intelligence services employing armies of people exist worldwide should be sufficient to disabuse you of that meme.
brndnmtthws 9y ago
And for those curious about Hal Finney, here's a fascinating post he wrote before his death: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=155054.0 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=155054.0
- vernon99 9y ago
  Except he didn't completely die, he was actually cryo-preserved. Although you can look at it in multiple ways.
  - smitherfield 9y ago
    All available evidence suggests that cryonics is likely pseudoscience in theory and certainly pseudoscience in practice. Irreversible brain damage occurs within seconds (and total brain death within minutes) of oxygen deprivation, and freezing cell tissue in water ice permanently destroys it.
    - DiThi 9y ago
      We don't really know. Cryonics avoid ice formation with cryoprotectants or via vitrification. And assuming there _is_ brain damage, in theory it's still possible to recover as long as the _information_ of the brain hasn't been destroyed. It's akin to having the mainboard and the read head of a hard disk destroyed, but having the plates intact.
    - devrandomguy 9y ago
      What if we don't try to repair the body, but instead reconstruct it in a simulation? Even if the person's cells have all been mangled by ice crystals, a future medical team could conceivably map their neural network and estimate the strengths of the connections between neurons, with some futuristic high resolution scanning device. Maybe it doesn't matter that a frozen person is dead for now, if we could give their mind a virtual body transplant, and rehabilitate them in an idealized virtual environment.
    - vernon99 9y ago
      Yeah, as pointed above nobody's using ice for ages, your information is pretty outdated. Would also help if you would support your opinion by related research on the current state of the art cryo.

macroexchange 9y ago

Szabo reposted this blog post [1] on December 27, 2008 The Bitcoin genesis block was created Jan 4, 2009 [2] At that time there was about say 3 people in the world interested in these ideas. Make your judgement and consider the probabilities for P(Szabo = Satoshi) and P(Szabo != Satoshi). I think if you read up on all the articles and convince yourself. In [3] Szabo said there is a lot similarities with Bitcoin and Bitgold, and he talked about the differences in interviews. [1] http://unenumerated.blogspot.com/2005/12/bit-gold.html http://unenumerated.blogspot.com/2005/12/bit-gold.html [2] https://blockexplorer.com/block/000000000019d6689c085ae165831e934ff763ae46a2a6c172b3f1b60a8ce26f https://blockexplorer.com/block/000000000019d6689c085ae16583... [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_yUeuKu7L4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_yUeuKu7L4