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Is there a theory for why Nick Szabo would be public about Bit Gold but go to great efforts to hide himself when creating Bitcoin? It seems unlikely to me that

Is there a theory for why Nick Szabo would be public about Bit Gold but go to great efforts to hide himself when creating Bitcoin? It seems unlikely to me that someone who previously had no issue being public would suddenly be so secretive, especially given how unlikely it was for Bitcoin to turn out the way it did.

1066 5y ago
As unlikely as traction to Bitcoin was/is, surely he would have understood the implications it could have to the practitioner of this idea? "bitcoins can not be manipulated by governments or financial institutions and bitcoin transactions occur directly between two parties without a middleman." If he figured that he could make it functionally work with Bit Gold, why would you expose yourself to that. [1] https://web.archive.org/web/20091129231620/http://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/ https://web.archive.org/web/20091129231620/http://sourceforg...
- finite_jest 5y ago
  There is a counterargument to that: Craig Wright. He openly claims to be Satoshi (almost certainly fraudulently), and he seems to be doing kinda OK. [1] [1]: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/06/miami-jury-rules-in-favor-of-craig-wright-bitcoin-claimed-inventor.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/06/miami-jury-rules-in-favor-of...
  - robocat 5y ago
    That argument is nonsense because: 1. It is post factual - it couldn't have been predicted beforehand. 2. Craig Wright would only be attacked by those that believe Craig is Satoshi. That could be a very small subset of those who would want to attack Satoshi.
drawkbox 5y ago
Bit Gold was maybe to test out interest, then when the real one was made it would be more anonymous. If you think about it, bitcoin being anonymous is a feature as it makes it seem less centralized eventhough Satoshi owns a large chunk of it. Today companies or individuals will control a large chunk of other coins/platforms and it feels more centralized or even autocratic. At any time those big fish could wreak havoc. Satoshi seems more hands off. Another potential reason is the money it would generate and the recognition would attract too much attention. The successful decentralized currency like bitcoin might have been foreseen as a threat to the creator after it takes off and gains in value. From the wiki on Nick Szabo, he is more 'reclusive' and not wanting to be known. On his blog he mentioned his intent on creating a live version of the currency as Bit Gold was more of a prototype/demo and was never launched. Even the name Bit Gold and bitcoin are very similar as is the name Nicholas Szabo (N.S.) and Satoshi Nakamoto (S.N.) in a few ways. Satoshi Nakamoto always seems like a purposeful shroud of a name, looking for someone by that name is probably not going to find them: > Nathaniel Popper wrote in The New York Times that "the most convincing evidence pointed to a reclusive American man of Hungarian descent named Nick Szabo." In 2008, prior to the release of bitcoin, Szabo wrote a comment on his blog about the intent of creating a live version of his hypothetical currency. [1] Hal Finney was the first to receive 10 bitcoins from Satoshi Nakamoto [2]. Hal Finney was the next employee after Phil Zimmermann at PGP. So he knew the potential for being pursued by governments for software creations. Hal, who died in 2014 unfortunately, probably knew Satoshi and would have known he was shrouding/anonymous for good reasons as seen in the PGP history just before that and around the same time bit gold was being created. The very likely people to be Satoshi Nakamoto are Nick Szabo and Hal Finney due to the early interactions and transactions, and potentially Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, but that seems unlikely they would use their real name [3]. Maybe it was all three or someone else entirely, these guys are just around the early days and some of the first transactions. Either that or someone or some group saw the need for decentralized currency from their efforts and then front ran them and made it seem more like them to help shroud themselves. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Szabo#Satoshi_Nakamoto_speculation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Szabo#Satoshi_Nakamoto_sp... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hal_Finney_(computer_scientist)#Bitcoin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hal_Finney_(computer_scientist... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satoshi_Nakamoto#Possible_identities https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satoshi_Nakamoto#Possible_iden...

1066 5y ago

As unlikely as traction to Bitcoin was/is, surely he would have understood the implications it could have to the practitioner of this idea? "bitcoins can not be manipulated by governments or financial institutions and bitcoin transactions occur directly between two parties without a middleman." If he figured that he could make it functionally work with Bit Gold, why would you expose yourself to that. [1] https://web.archive.org/web/20091129231620/http://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/ https://web.archive.org/web/20091129231620/http://sourceforg...

finite_jest 5y ago
There is a counterargument to that: Craig Wright. He openly claims to be Satoshi (almost certainly fraudulently), and he seems to be doing kinda OK. [1] [1]: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/06/miami-jury-rules-in-favor-of-craig-wright-bitcoin-claimed-inventor.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/06/miami-jury-rules-in-favor-of...
- robocat 5y ago
  That argument is nonsense because: 1. It is post factual - it couldn't have been predicted beforehand. 2. Craig Wright would only be attacked by those that believe Craig is Satoshi. That could be a very small subset of those who would want to attack Satoshi.

drawkbox 5y ago

Bit Gold was maybe to test out interest, then when the real one was made it would be more anonymous. If you think about it, bitcoin being anonymous is a feature as it makes it seem less centralized eventhough Satoshi owns a large chunk of it. Today companies or individuals will control a large chunk of other coins/platforms and it feels more centralized or even autocratic. At any time those big fish could wreak havoc. Satoshi seems more hands off. Another potential reason is the money it would generate and the recognition would attract too much attention. The successful decentralized currency like bitcoin might have been foreseen as a threat to the creator after it takes off and gains in value. From the wiki on Nick Szabo, he is more 'reclusive' and not wanting to be known. On his blog he mentioned his intent on creating a live version of the currency as Bit Gold was more of a prototype/demo and was never launched. Even the name Bit Gold and bitcoin are very similar as is the name Nicholas Szabo (N.S.) and Satoshi Nakamoto (S.N.) in a few ways. Satoshi Nakamoto always seems like a purposeful shroud of a name, looking for someone by that name is probably not going to find them: > Nathaniel Popper wrote in The New York Times that "the most convincing evidence pointed to a reclusive American man of Hungarian descent named Nick Szabo." In 2008, prior to the release of bitcoin, Szabo wrote a comment on his blog about the intent of creating a live version of his hypothetical currency. [1] Hal Finney was the first to receive 10 bitcoins from Satoshi Nakamoto [2]. Hal Finney was the next employee after Phil Zimmermann at PGP. So he knew the potential for being pursued by governments for software creations. Hal, who died in 2014 unfortunately, probably knew Satoshi and would have known he was shrouding/anonymous for good reasons as seen in the PGP history just before that and around the same time bit gold was being created. The very likely people to be Satoshi Nakamoto are Nick Szabo and Hal Finney due to the early interactions and transactions, and potentially Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, but that seems unlikely they would use their real name [3]. Maybe it was all three or someone else entirely, these guys are just around the early days and some of the first transactions. Either that or someone or some group saw the need for decentralized currency from their efforts and then front ran them and made it seem more like them to help shroud themselves. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Szabo#Satoshi_Nakamoto_speculation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Szabo#Satoshi_Nakamoto_sp... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hal_Finney_(computer_scientist)#Bitcoin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hal_Finney_(computer_scientist... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satoshi_Nakamoto#Possible_identities https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satoshi_Nakamoto#Possible_iden...