5 ms·

I was recently (Thanksgiving) discussing this with the owner of a small tech company. Our consensus was that if Satoshi was not Szabo, Satoshi at least read Sza

by sirsar 13y ago

I was recently (Thanksgiving) discussing this with the owner of a small tech company. Our consensus was that if Satoshi was not Szabo, Satoshi at least read Szabo's works. The article doesn't spend as much time on the similarity of Szabo's ideas to those of the Bitcoin whitepaper, but I encourage anyone who is interested in this topic to read some of Szabo's stuff. His website, http://szabo.best.vwh.net/ http://szabo.best.vwh.net/ is currently experiencing capacity issues, so here's a cache link: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://szabo.best.vwh.net/ http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://... Additionally, his blogspot: http://unenumerated.blogspot.com/ http://unenumerated.blogspot.com/

deleted 13y ago
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jey 13y ago
Wei Dai is another relevant person, with his b-money ideas and bitcoin's use of the crypto++ library. But who cares?
- clarkm 13y ago
  Well, Wei Dai and b-money are cited in Satoshi's original white paper.
  - gwern 13y ago
    Only because someone else pointed out to Satoshi that he should cite them.
    - clarkm 13y ago
      I know Adam Back introduced Satoshi to b-money, but (correct me if I'm wrong) this was back before Satoshi had formalized his ideas. When he first posted the paper to metzdowd's cryptography list, the b-money citation was there.
      - gwern 13y ago
        Isn't that pretty much the same thing? Satoshi didn't mention Wei Dai until Adam pointed him out to him.
Aqueous 13y ago
From a limited experience with either of their writings, I don't think it's Szabo. I've read a lot of Satoshi's emails and Satoshi's writing style seems at the same time less academically formal but also more technical. Nick Szabo's writing, at least on his blog, seems less technical but more academically formal. Nick Szabo also seems to heavily discuss history and historical concepts. I do not see a lot of technical content on his blog. Satoshi seems to have a greater command of - and focus on - computers. This doesn't rule out the possibility the Szabo is some kind of Newton-like polymath who has command of a vast quantity of knowledge, but it seems more likely that Satoshi is more technical-minded than broad-based in his knowledge, despite being very smart. They might use a lot of the same phrases and idioms but this could just be a function of the fact that Satoshi was heavily influenced by Szabo. Regardless if they are writing about the same topic they are likely to use a LOT of the same words and phrases, and it might be more useful to filter out any words or phrases that are specific to the topic at hand.
- michaelt 13y ago
  If your aim is not to be identified, I can understand keeping your mouth shut about matters of opinion, especially if you hold distinctive opinions you have given out in public before. One of Ulbricht's reported failings [1] was talking about Mises and the Austrian School as both Ulbricht and DPR. Keeping your anonymous persona's mouth shut about history, politics, economics, sociology, art theory and human nature is good 'opsec'. [1] http://grugq.github.io/blog/2013/10/09/it-was-dpr/ http://grugq.github.io/blog/2013/10/09/it-was-dpr/
  - cpleppert 13y ago
    Except that Nick Szabo's main interest in bit gold was to stop inflation. He says flat out that "the most pernicious of which has probably been inflation" when discussing problems with money. That seems to also be a main motivation behind bitcoin was well(at least from the early proponents who seemed to be more philosophically motivated than they were by practical considerations)
    - michaelt 13y ago

by sirsar 13y ago

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

jey 13y ago

Wei Dai is another relevant person, with his b-money ideas and bitcoin's use of the crypto++ library. But who cares?

clarkm 13y ago
Well, Wei Dai and b-money are cited in Satoshi's original white paper.
- gwern 13y ago
  Only because someone else pointed out to Satoshi that he should cite them.
  - clarkm 13y ago
    I know Adam Back introduced Satoshi to b-money, but (correct me if I'm wrong) this was back before Satoshi had formalized his ideas. When he first posted the paper to metzdowd's cryptography list, the b-money citation was there.
    - gwern 13y ago
      Isn't that pretty much the same thing? Satoshi didn't mention Wei Dai until Adam pointed him out to him.

Aqueous 13y ago

From a limited experience with either of their writings, I don't think it's Szabo. I've read a lot of Satoshi's emails and Satoshi's writing style seems at the same time less academically formal but also more technical. Nick Szabo's writing, at least on his blog, seems less technical but more academically formal. Nick Szabo also seems to heavily discuss history and historical concepts. I do not see a lot of technical content on his blog. Satoshi seems to have a greater command of - and focus on - computers. This doesn't rule out the possibility the Szabo is some kind of Newton-like polymath who has command of a vast quantity of knowledge, but it seems more likely that Satoshi is more technical-minded than broad-based in his knowledge, despite being very smart. They might use a lot of the same phrases and idioms but this could just be a function of the fact that Satoshi was heavily influenced by Szabo. Regardless if they are writing about the same topic they are likely to use a LOT of the same words and phrases, and it might be more useful to filter out any words or phrases that are specific to the topic at hand.

michaelt 13y ago
If your aim is not to be identified, I can understand keeping your mouth shut about matters of opinion, especially if you hold distinctive opinions you have given out in public before. One of Ulbricht's reported failings [1] was talking about Mises and the Austrian School as both Ulbricht and DPR. Keeping your anonymous persona's mouth shut about history, politics, economics, sociology, art theory and human nature is good 'opsec'. [1] http://grugq.github.io/blog/2013/10/09/it-was-dpr/ http://grugq.github.io/blog/2013/10/09/it-was-dpr/
- cpleppert 13y ago
  Except that Nick Szabo's main interest in bit gold was to stop inflation. He says flat out that "the most pernicious of which has probably been inflation" when discussing problems with money. That seems to also be a main motivation behind bitcoin was well(at least from the early proponents who seemed to be more philosophically motivated than they were by practical considerations)
  - michaelt 13y ago