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Does anyone knows enough about the stylometry to judge if letters to editors and a letter to a local government can really be compared to a white paper? It seem

Does anyone knows enough about the stylometry to judge if letters to editors and a letter to a local government can really be compared to a white paper? It seems to me that in tones, style and vocabulary, these are very different format which would not yield good result. Has the expert actually ever tried his technique to infer the author of a white paper based on sample of correspondence?

anaphor 13y ago
Here is a non-biased description of their technique: http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=5536 http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=5536 I would take it with a few grains of salt. edit: woops, I meant to link the original as well http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=5315 http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=5315
jnbiche 13y ago
I don't know about "stylometry", but textual analysis is definitely a field that is grounded in statistics and probability. And here's an excellent textual analysis of Satoshi's writing -- really quite convincing: https://likeinamirror.wordpress.com/2013/12/01/satoshi-nakamoto-is-probably-nick-szabo/ https://likeinamirror.wordpress.com/2013/12/01/satoshi-nakam... The verdict? Nick Szabo, a professor of computer science at GWU and trained attorney, with significant expertise in the digital economy and smart contracts. He's got a fascinating blog at: http://szabo.best.vwh.net/ http://szabo.best.vwh.net/ To be honest, I was convinced by this particular analysis back in December, but I haven't been passing it around because I respected Satoshi's desire for anonymity. However, now that an innocent man is being hounded and harassed, I think it's about time that the creator step up and claim his creation. We also need to know what happened to the Satoshi stash for this amazing project to move forward with greater certainty. So I would encourage the real Satoshi to step up. I'm not at all convinced that Dorian Nakamoto -- albeit a pretty fascinating man -- is actually the creator of Bitcoin.
- rdl 13y ago
  It's a weak tie between Szabo and Satoshi. Both write in cryptographer/academic/cypherpunk style. That's true of plenty of other likely Satoshis. Most of the specific phrases which link the two are fairly standard phrases within the community. I do think Szabo is in a top-100 list of Satoshi candidates, and the most damning linkage is Satoshi's failure to cite Szabo, but it's far from conclusive.
  - jnbiche 13y ago
    Yes, but there are a few other things that I'm thinking about writing about. They may not implicate Szabo conclusively, but it's pretty clear (to me, at least) that Satoshi is an academic. In any case, it's not Dorian Nakamoto. I'm sorry he's having to endure this scrutiny (especially after what he and his family went through during WWII).
    - rdl 13y ago
      It could easily be an academic who is outside academia (e.g. Zooko), or a team of academic + non-academic.
- VMG 13y ago
  Nitpick: you linked to his very interesting static page, his blog is at http://unenumerated.blogspot.de/ http://unenumerated.blogspot.de/
- pavel_lishin 13y ago
  > However, now that an innocent man is being hounded and harassed, I think it's about time that the creator step up and claim his creation. The creator would have to balance his desire to protect Dorian's family against his desire to protect his own family.
mzs 13y ago
I don't know about your particular question regarding the different styles for a white paper vs the Dorian writings, but in this case there is enough writing by Satoshi Nakamoto ignoring the whitepaper itself, some examples: http://www.metzdowd.com/pipermail/cryptography/2008-November/thread.html http://www.metzdowd.com/pipermail/cryptography/2008-November... So you can compare Dorian's vs those where both include more off the cuff wrirings. Personally I think it's pretty evident that Satoshi Nakamoto has a better handle on English than Dorian. I also believe that a textual analysis of the white paper vs. other shorter writings by Satoshi Nakamoto would show a strong correlation, maybe even finding rare pairs, while Dorian's would not match strongly at all.

anaphor 13y ago

Here is a non-biased description of their technique: http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=5536 http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=5536 I would take it with a few grains of salt. edit: woops, I meant to link the original as well http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=5315 http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=5315

jnbiche 13y ago

I don't know about "stylometry", but textual analysis is definitely a field that is grounded in statistics and probability. And here's an excellent textual analysis of Satoshi's writing -- really quite convincing: https://likeinamirror.wordpress.com/2013/12/01/satoshi-nakamoto-is-probably-nick-szabo/ https://likeinamirror.wordpress.com/2013/12/01/satoshi-nakam... The verdict? Nick Szabo, a professor of computer science at GWU and trained attorney, with significant expertise in the digital economy and smart contracts. He's got a fascinating blog at: http://szabo.best.vwh.net/ http://szabo.best.vwh.net/ To be honest, I was convinced by this particular analysis back in December, but I haven't been passing it around because I respected Satoshi's desire for anonymity. However, now that an innocent man is being hounded and harassed, I think it's about time that the creator step up and claim his creation. We also need to know what happened to the Satoshi stash for this amazing project to move forward with greater certainty. So I would encourage the real Satoshi to step up. I'm not at all convinced that Dorian Nakamoto -- albeit a pretty fascinating man -- is actually the creator of Bitcoin.

rdl 13y ago
It's a weak tie between Szabo and Satoshi. Both write in cryptographer/academic/cypherpunk style. That's true of plenty of other likely Satoshis. Most of the specific phrases which link the two are fairly standard phrases within the community. I do think Szabo is in a top-100 list of Satoshi candidates, and the most damning linkage is Satoshi's failure to cite Szabo, but it's far from conclusive.
- jnbiche 13y ago
  Yes, but there are a few other things that I'm thinking about writing about. They may not implicate Szabo conclusively, but it's pretty clear (to me, at least) that Satoshi is an academic. In any case, it's not Dorian Nakamoto. I'm sorry he's having to endure this scrutiny (especially after what he and his family went through during WWII).
  - rdl 13y ago
    It could easily be an academic who is outside academia (e.g. Zooko), or a team of academic + non-academic.
VMG 13y ago
Nitpick: you linked to his very interesting static page, his blog is at http://unenumerated.blogspot.de/ http://unenumerated.blogspot.de/
pavel_lishin 13y ago
> However, now that an innocent man is being hounded and harassed, I think it's about time that the creator step up and claim his creation. The creator would have to balance his desire to protect Dorian's family against his desire to protect his own family.

mzs 13y ago

I don't know about your particular question regarding the different styles for a white paper vs the Dorian writings, but in this case there is enough writing by Satoshi Nakamoto ignoring the whitepaper itself, some examples: http://www.metzdowd.com/pipermail/cryptography/2008-November/thread.html http://www.metzdowd.com/pipermail/cryptography/2008-November... So you can compare Dorian's vs those where both include more off the cuff wrirings. Personally I think it's pretty evident that Satoshi Nakamoto has a better handle on English than Dorian. I also believe that a textual analysis of the white paper vs. other shorter writings by Satoshi Nakamoto would show a strong correlation, maybe even finding rare pairs, while Dorian's would not match strongly at all.