4 ms·

Finney was a wonderful man. He was there with PGP from the start. The last few years of his life he suffered tremendously. When the world started finger-pointin

Finney was a wonderful man. He was there with PGP from the start. The last few years of his life he suffered tremendously. When the world started finger-pointing him as Satoshi his family got death/kidnap threats, swatting and worse. Hopefully anyone with the time to care about this will read one of his last comments on the subject dictated through eye-movement software from a wheelchair: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=155054.0 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=155054.0 Vale Hal.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
seibelj 6y ago
Hal is the person I believe was Satoshi. All of the evidence points to him more than anyone else I have read about. But wanting to keep his identity secret makes perfect sense given what happened.
- FrendlyReminder 6y ago
  I don't believe it at all and there's plenty of evidence to the contrary that people can find for themselves. That's my honest opinion and you are entitled to yours, fairly sure no one will ever know for certain. There's a journalist that went deep diving on this and came out with the same conclusion, from timelines to stylometric analysis, it doesn't add up to being Hal. He's just that guy who actually listened on the mailing list rather than be the snarky one where everyone else nods in agreement congratulating themselves how smart they are. In the last years of his abled life, the man was getting involved in whatever cutting edge technology he could find, most of this is documented, nearly all of them failed, except for twitter and bitcoin. He's now cryopreserved, something that has virtually no chance of ever succeeding in the next 1000 years, yet...
  - nobrains 6y ago
    My guesstimate is Nick Szabo.
    - bhaak 6y ago
      If you look at Szabo's twitter feed these days, I surely hope he isn't. Luckily, there is not that much that points towards him being Satoshi: https://archive.is/N3rYx https://archive.is/N3rYx https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2018/12/16/no-nick-szabo-wasnt-satoshi-in-2014-either/ https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2018/12/16/no-nick-szab...
      - svd4anything 6y ago
        His twitter feed is very libertarian and Austrian economics themed. That doesn’t surprise me at all, should it?
        CydeWeys 6y ago
        He says he hopes it isn't him, not that it lends evidence against it.
        svd4anything 6y ago
        I understand but that’s a strange hope a bit based on his twitter bring too right-wing or libertarian than he would prefer, yet those beliefs are actually very consistent with a lot of Satoshi’s known leanings and beliefs. The block zero comment is pretty libertarian for example and many of his comments on email lists are also. So it’s a bit illogical for the OP to hope for otherwise.
        mhluongo 6y ago
        I'm a libertarian Bitcoiner myself, and I hope it's not Szabo. You can be right libertarian without being a xenophobe or an outright racist.
  - tim333 6y ago
    Dunno about virtually no chance - we just need exponential improvements in scanning and computing to go on a while longer.
  - seibelj 6y ago
    The fact he lived very close to Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto (2 blocks away) is the most damning evidence to me. Explains why he selected that name - he thought it was a good name and he noticed it! Secondly him being the first person to respond to Satoshi is highly suspect to me, he could have been responding to himself.
    - CydeWeys 6y ago
      Huh, that's an interesting fact! I wonder what percentage of people outside of Japan live that close to someone named Satoshi Nakamoto?
    - lallysingh 6y ago
      That's a terrible reason!! Name your alias as Other Guy in My Town? What kind of idiot would do that? He's not collecting packages.
      - ivalm 6y ago
        I mean, more likely to be primed by a name of a guy in the town then randomly selecting a low prevalence name that happens to ALSO be the name of the guy in the town. It’s not that the marginal probability of using a known name is high, it’s that for a fact the name used IS a known name that makes it suspect.
      - em3rgent0rdr 6y ago
        People do choose aliases by odd relations like this.
        lallysingh 6y ago
        Yes, but I'd expect the inventor of Bitcoin to be a little not-dumb about it.
    - nadaviv 6y ago
      Source?
  - bdcravens 6y ago
    > ather than be the snarky one where everyone else nods in agreement Satoshi's discussions on BitcoinTalk were definitely not snarky, but fairly well measured and objective.
- api 6y ago
  If the creator of Bitcoin is in cryostasis, then I propose that we officially move all cyberpunk novels to the nonfiction section. All we are missing is Rastafarians in space.
  - dfischer 6y ago
    Better to put anything as nonfiction as fiction at this rate!
- meowface 6y ago
  There's zero good evidence it was him. There hasn't been good evidence for anyone named, so far. Him living kind of close to someone with the last name Nakamoto (it was actually more than two blocks away, I believe) is not good evidence whatsoever, and there's some specific circumstantial evidence to suggest they were different people. No, no smoking gun to disprove it, but no good case has ever been made.
  - dfischer 6y ago
    Zero? Definitely more than zero. In fact you’ll find papers if you try that put the probability higher than anyone other than Nick S. But it doesn’t really matter in the end in my opinion. The whole point was to not have a godhead.
    - meowface 6y ago
      I've read those papers. There's ostensible evidence put forward, but I find zero of it to be good evidence, personally. Nick Szabo is definitely a more likely match, with better evidence, but I think there's almost no chance it's him, either. >But it doesn’t really matter in the end in my opinion. The whole point was to not have a godhead. Of course; but it's not about that. It's about the mystery, the challenge, the thrill of the adventure. It's one of the absolute strangest and most enigmatic events in internet history - when else has some open source software blown up to even 0.0001% of this level with a 100% anonymous creator who no one's come close to identifying (that we know of)? Would I reveal who Satoshi was if I found out? Probably not. Their life would probably undeservedly become much harder and much worse. But I still sure as hell would be interested to know who made this thing. Also, if we know who it is, then we know who it isn't. Rumors over certain people being Satoshi can be very irresponsible.
- syngrog66 6y ago
  one of my pet theories was driven by a language observation. look at these two names written out side by side: Nick Szabo Satoshi Nakamoto the writer in me looks at those two names and sees a kind of echo/mirror/rearrangement pattern, as if someone was either trying to give a clue as to their real identity, or, to mislead in a playful way not decisive obviously. and might have been a coincidence. but if so its a weird one
  - brendyn 6y ago
    In japanese, the family name comes first so they actually line up naturally Nick Szabo Nakamoto Satoshi
    - SilasX 6y ago
      The same is true of Hungarian, which Szabo (“tailor”) comes from: https://www.thoughtco.com/szabo-last-name-meaning-and-origin-1422628 https://www.thoughtco.com/szabo-last-name-meaning-and-origin...
- gabereiser 6y ago
  The only thing we know for sure is that Hal knew Satoshi in some capacity. Anything else is speculation and/or conjecture.
- kovach 6y ago
  I believe it was actually 3 people: Phil Wilson, Craig Wright and Dave Kleiman. Phil left the project and deleted all evidence in 2011, when the FBI was getting involved. Dave died in 2013, and in 2015 Craig started to proclaim that he is Satoshi. The problem is, Craig is the least technical and least stable of the trio, so almost no one believes him. The source for this info is actually Phil, who comes back in 2017 to tell his story at http://vu.hn/bitcoin%20origins.html#bitcoin-origins http://vu.hn/bitcoin%20origins.html#bitcoin-origins Of course there is no hard evidence for this, so almost no one believes him as well. But I like the story, and matches some of my priors, so I'm sticking with it. There is also the ongoing lawsuit of the Kleiman estate vs Craig, for the Tulip Trust, a large cache of bitcoins they mined together. The jury trial is scheduled for October 13, so that might also expand on the story when it's concluded: https://coingeek.com/kleiman-v-wright-trial-delayed-until-october-13/ https://coingeek.com/kleiman-v-wright-trial-delayed-until-oc...
  - nullc 6y ago
    Please don't promote these despicable scammers.
grahoho 6y ago
Also why some other folks suspected of being Satoshi have denied it so arduously. If the above poster is Satoshi (which I suspect, it being a new account), I'd like to thank you for your contribution. Your writings are underrated but will be appreciated by future economists, developers, and historians.
techbubble 6y ago
Hal's post was so inspiring – thank you for sharing. The bit about having to finish the documentation was particularly noteworthy. Even when writing code laboriously through eye moment, Hal didn't lose focus of the importance of documentation.
WalterBright 6y ago
I did not know Hal well, but he was at Caltech in the dorm room next door to mine. He was indeed a wonderful man. Everybody liked him, and he was respectful and kind to everyone. Oh, and he was off-the-charts smart, too, though you had to get to know him for a while before discovering this.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

seibelj 6y ago

Hal is the person I believe was Satoshi. All of the evidence points to him more than anyone else I have read about. But wanting to keep his identity secret makes perfect sense given what happened.

FrendlyReminder 6y ago
I don't believe it at all and there's plenty of evidence to the contrary that people can find for themselves. That's my honest opinion and you are entitled to yours, fairly sure no one will ever know for certain. There's a journalist that went deep diving on this and came out with the same conclusion, from timelines to stylometric analysis, it doesn't add up to being Hal. He's just that guy who actually listened on the mailing list rather than be the snarky one where everyone else nods in agreement congratulating themselves how smart they are. In the last years of his abled life, the man was getting involved in whatever cutting edge technology he could find, most of this is documented, nearly all of them failed, except for twitter and bitcoin. He's now cryopreserved, something that has virtually no chance of ever succeeding in the next 1000 years, yet...
- nobrains 6y ago
  My guesstimate is Nick Szabo.
  - bhaak 6y ago
    If you look at Szabo's twitter feed these days, I surely hope he isn't. Luckily, there is not that much that points towards him being Satoshi: https://archive.is/N3rYx https://archive.is/N3rYx https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2018/12/16/no-nick-szabo-wasnt-satoshi-in-2014-either/ https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2018/12/16/no-nick-szab...
    - svd4anything 6y ago
      His twitter feed is very libertarian and Austrian economics themed. That doesn’t surprise me at all, should it?
      - CydeWeys 6y ago
        He says he hopes it isn't him, not that it lends evidence against it.
        svd4anything 6y ago
        I understand but that’s a strange hope a bit based on his twitter bring too right-wing or libertarian than he would prefer, yet those beliefs are actually very consistent with a lot of Satoshi’s known leanings and beliefs. The block zero comment is pretty libertarian for example and many of his comments on email lists are also. So it’s a bit illogical for the OP to hope for otherwise.
        mhluongo 6y ago
        I'm a libertarian Bitcoiner myself, and I hope it's not Szabo. You can be right libertarian without being a xenophobe or an outright racist.
- tim333 6y ago
  Dunno about virtually no chance - we just need exponential improvements in scanning and computing to go on a while longer.
- seibelj 6y ago
  The fact he lived very close to Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto (2 blocks away) is the most damning evidence to me. Explains why he selected that name - he thought it was a good name and he noticed it! Secondly him being the first person to respond to Satoshi is highly suspect to me, he could have been responding to himself.
  - CydeWeys 6y ago
    Huh, that's an interesting fact! I wonder what percentage of people outside of Japan live that close to someone named Satoshi Nakamoto?
  - lallysingh 6y ago
    That's a terrible reason!! Name your alias as Other Guy in My Town? What kind of idiot would do that? He's not collecting packages.
    - ivalm 6y ago
      I mean, more likely to be primed by a name of a guy in the town then randomly selecting a low prevalence name that happens to ALSO be the name of the guy in the town. It’s not that the marginal probability of using a known name is high, it’s that for a fact the name used IS a known name that makes it suspect.
    - em3rgent0rdr 6y ago
      People do choose aliases by odd relations like this.
      - lallysingh 6y ago
        Yes, but I'd expect the inventor of Bitcoin to be a little not-dumb about it.
  - nadaviv 6y ago
    Source?
- bdcravens 6y ago
  > ather than be the snarky one where everyone else nods in agreement Satoshi's discussions on BitcoinTalk were definitely not snarky, but fairly well measured and objective.
api 6y ago
If the creator of Bitcoin is in cryostasis, then I propose that we officially move all cyberpunk novels to the nonfiction section. All we are missing is Rastafarians in space.
- dfischer 6y ago
  Better to put anything as nonfiction as fiction at this rate!
meowface 6y ago
There's zero good evidence it was him. There hasn't been good evidence for anyone named, so far. Him living kind of close to someone with the last name Nakamoto (it was actually more than two blocks away, I believe) is not good evidence whatsoever, and there's some specific circumstantial evidence to suggest they were different people. No, no smoking gun to disprove it, but no good case has ever been made.
- dfischer 6y ago
  Zero? Definitely more than zero. In fact you’ll find papers if you try that put the probability higher than anyone other than Nick S. But it doesn’t really matter in the end in my opinion. The whole point was to not have a godhead.
  - meowface 6y ago
    I've read those papers. There's ostensible evidence put forward, but I find zero of it to be good evidence, personally. Nick Szabo is definitely a more likely match, with better evidence, but I think there's almost no chance it's him, either. >But it doesn’t really matter in the end in my opinion. The whole point was to not have a godhead. Of course; but it's not about that. It's about the mystery, the challenge, the thrill of the adventure. It's one of the absolute strangest and most enigmatic events in internet history - when else has some open source software blown up to even 0.0001% of this level with a 100% anonymous creator who no one's come close to identifying (that we know of)? Would I reveal who Satoshi was if I found out? Probably not. Their life would probably undeservedly become much harder and much worse. But I still sure as hell would be interested to know who made this thing. Also, if we know who it is, then we know who it isn't. Rumors over certain people being Satoshi can be very irresponsible.
syngrog66 6y ago
one of my pet theories was driven by a language observation. look at these two names written out side by side: Nick Szabo Satoshi Nakamoto the writer in me looks at those two names and sees a kind of echo/mirror/rearrangement pattern, as if someone was either trying to give a clue as to their real identity, or, to mislead in a playful way not decisive obviously. and might have been a coincidence. but if so its a weird one
- brendyn 6y ago
  In japanese, the family name comes first so they actually line up naturally Nick Szabo Nakamoto Satoshi
  - SilasX 6y ago
    The same is true of Hungarian, which Szabo (“tailor”) comes from: https://www.thoughtco.com/szabo-last-name-meaning-and-origin-1422628 https://www.thoughtco.com/szabo-last-name-meaning-and-origin...
gabereiser 6y ago
The only thing we know for sure is that Hal knew Satoshi in some capacity. Anything else is speculation and/or conjecture.
kovach 6y ago
I believe it was actually 3 people: Phil Wilson, Craig Wright and Dave Kleiman. Phil left the project and deleted all evidence in 2011, when the FBI was getting involved. Dave died in 2013, and in 2015 Craig started to proclaim that he is Satoshi. The problem is, Craig is the least technical and least stable of the trio, so almost no one believes him. The source for this info is actually Phil, who comes back in 2017 to tell his story at http://vu.hn/bitcoin%20origins.html#bitcoin-origins http://vu.hn/bitcoin%20origins.html#bitcoin-origins Of course there is no hard evidence for this, so almost no one believes him as well. But I like the story, and matches some of my priors, so I'm sticking with it. There is also the ongoing lawsuit of the Kleiman estate vs Craig, for the Tulip Trust, a large cache of bitcoins they mined together. The jury trial is scheduled for October 13, so that might also expand on the story when it's concluded: https://coingeek.com/kleiman-v-wright-trial-delayed-until-october-13/ https://coingeek.com/kleiman-v-wright-trial-delayed-until-oc...
- nullc 6y ago
  Please don't promote these despicable scammers.

grahoho 6y ago

Also why some other folks suspected of being Satoshi have denied it so arduously. If the above poster is Satoshi (which I suspect, it being a new account), I'd like to thank you for your contribution. Your writings are underrated but will be appreciated by future economists, developers, and historians.

techbubble 6y ago

Hal's post was so inspiring – thank you for sharing. The bit about having to finish the documentation was particularly noteworthy. Even when writing code laboriously through eye moment, Hal didn't lose focus of the importance of documentation.

WalterBright 6y ago

I did not know Hal well, but he was at Caltech in the dorm room next door to mine. He was indeed a wonderful man. Everybody liked him, and he was respectful and kind to everyone. Oh, and he was off-the-charts smart, too, though you had to get to know him for a while before discovering this.