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Or that he has lost the private keys.

sph 4y ago
Although Bitcoin is resistant to the "charismatic leader" problem, his second coming would give him incredible fame, following but also personal danger. Yet I do not think any human would resist a moment in the spotlight, if not to renounce its child and its current direction.
- sweetbitter 4y ago
  I'm sure there are plenty of humans who don't care for fame/money/power. You just don't hear about them because... well... Though in this case Satoshi could have just kept a smaller number of coins not tied to him.
- chaosite 4y ago
  Of course. Various people have claimed to be Satoshi over the years, but failed to provide any sort of proof. Satoshi could either actually be one of those people, or realize that without proof he would be subject to the same fate.
- throwaway0a5e 4y ago
  I think someone who believes that it will bring certain death could resist. It wouldn't surprise me if he destroyed his private keys to prevent himself from ever succumbing to the temptation. Those coins are of little value when using any of them would kick off a race to track you down and kidnap you with the intention of rubber-hosing the key out of you before going short on bitcoin. Having a secret in your head that can be converted into billions of dollars is not a good position to be in if you are not already a highly powerful individual with tons of people looking out for you.
  - sph 4y ago
    He must have lost the keys very early, when Bitcoin was just a fun experiment, and that would still be dubious: how did he imagine his creation would be so big as to prompt destroying his keys right there and then? The common human response at that idealistic stage would be greed. And even if he had the foresight, it's probably harder to just stay silent for 15 years. I imagine one would just come out, say they've lost all their BTC, that the original project was a failure but they have an even better idea now, and starting a new cryptocurrency with his name attached. Overnight billionaire once again.
    - postalrat 4y ago
      Why would you mine your digital currency and then just throw it away? That's not something he wanted others to do so why do it yourself?
    - throwaway0a5e 4y ago
      You don't need 15yr of foresight. I can see someone keeping their mouth shut for the first X years on the basis of "things are going well, my project is being adopted, I had better not F with it by increasing the number of coins in play lest there be unintended consequences" and then at some point deciding that things have gotten out of hand, the stakes are too high, pulling the hard drive off the shelf, drilling it and tossing it in the bay.
      - sph 4y ago
        I can't see anybody having that self-control is my point. I can't think of any person in history that has shown this level of restraint, especially about a very valuable and very controversial invention. Occam's razor says it's easier to assume he's dead than trying to imagine him as the most patient Buddhist monk, with deep economic and cryptographic knowledge, the world has ever seen. But we could go on with this discussion for years, so let's just agree to disagree and wait and see if his name surfaces again or not. There's bound to be more and more hucksters trying to claim they're Satoshi the longer this legend lives.
        aaaaaaaaata 4y ago
        > I can't think of any person in history that has shown this level of restraint, You wouldn't know about them, holy hell haha
        sph 4y ago
        Fair enough, but I raise Jesus as a counter argument of very restrained individual that still is pretty famous, among his other "achievements".
        4y ago
  - cypress66 4y ago
    You are overestimating the odds of that happening. Vitalik Buterin is widely known, travels all the time to many countries, and although he might not be as rich as satoshi, still owns like a billion in crypto. Yet he hasn't been kidnapped.
    - aaaaaaaaata 4y ago
      World Economic Forum = plot armour?

sph 4y ago

Although Bitcoin is resistant to the "charismatic leader" problem, his second coming would give him incredible fame, following but also personal danger. Yet I do not think any human would resist a moment in the spotlight, if not to renounce its child and its current direction.

sweetbitter 4y ago
I'm sure there are plenty of humans who don't care for fame/money/power. You just don't hear about them because... well... Though in this case Satoshi could have just kept a smaller number of coins not tied to him.
chaosite 4y ago
Of course. Various people have claimed to be Satoshi over the years, but failed to provide any sort of proof. Satoshi could either actually be one of those people, or realize that without proof he would be subject to the same fate.
throwaway0a5e 4y ago
I think someone who believes that it will bring certain death could resist. It wouldn't surprise me if he destroyed his private keys to prevent himself from ever succumbing to the temptation. Those coins are of little value when using any of them would kick off a race to track you down and kidnap you with the intention of rubber-hosing the key out of you before going short on bitcoin. Having a secret in your head that can be converted into billions of dollars is not a good position to be in if you are not already a highly powerful individual with tons of people looking out for you.
- sph 4y ago
  He must have lost the keys very early, when Bitcoin was just a fun experiment, and that would still be dubious: how did he imagine his creation would be so big as to prompt destroying his keys right there and then? The common human response at that idealistic stage would be greed. And even if he had the foresight, it's probably harder to just stay silent for 15 years. I imagine one would just come out, say they've lost all their BTC, that the original project was a failure but they have an even better idea now, and starting a new cryptocurrency with his name attached. Overnight billionaire once again.
  - postalrat 4y ago
    Why would you mine your digital currency and then just throw it away? That's not something he wanted others to do so why do it yourself?
  - throwaway0a5e 4y ago
    You don't need 15yr of foresight. I can see someone keeping their mouth shut for the first X years on the basis of "things are going well, my project is being adopted, I had better not F with it by increasing the number of coins in play lest there be unintended consequences" and then at some point deciding that things have gotten out of hand, the stakes are too high, pulling the hard drive off the shelf, drilling it and tossing it in the bay.
    - sph 4y ago
      I can't see anybody having that self-control is my point. I can't think of any person in history that has shown this level of restraint, especially about a very valuable and very controversial invention. Occam's razor says it's easier to assume he's dead than trying to imagine him as the most patient Buddhist monk, with deep economic and cryptographic knowledge, the world has ever seen. But we could go on with this discussion for years, so let's just agree to disagree and wait and see if his name surfaces again or not. There's bound to be more and more hucksters trying to claim they're Satoshi the longer this legend lives.
      - aaaaaaaaata 4y ago
        > I can't think of any person in history that has shown this level of restraint, You wouldn't know about them, holy hell haha
        sph 4y ago
        Fair enough, but I raise Jesus as a counter argument of very restrained individual that still is pretty famous, among his other "achievements".
      - 4y ago
- cypress66 4y ago
  You are overestimating the odds of that happening. Vitalik Buterin is widely known, travels all the time to many countries, and although he might not be as rich as satoshi, still owns like a billion in crypto. Yet he hasn't been kidnapped.
  - aaaaaaaaata 4y ago
    World Economic Forum = plot armour?