Is GWU Econ Prof. Nick Szabo Satoshi Nakamoto? 120
Pseudonymous Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto (whether that name represents one person or several) is believed to hold many millions of dollars in Bitcoin. Various attempts have been made to pin down Nakamoto's identity; the IB Times reports today that a (sadly anonymous) analysis points to George Washington University economics professor Nick Szabo, based on textual analysis and some other clues, such as Szabo's expertise in digital currency and his role as founder of GoldCoin. Szabo's blog Unenumerated is fascinating reading, whether or not this analysis is right.
No.. (Score:5, Funny)
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No. *I* am Satoshi Nakamoto
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Nick is that you?
No that's not me... wait.. I didn't post the GP, it looks like someone Nicked my account...
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and bronies
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nothing says creepy like an adult pokemon fan
Ya, i creep myself out at times.
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Seemed relevant to your interests:
silly image here [narwhaler.com]
-l
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No, *I* am Satoshi Nakamoto, and so's my wife!
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Howard Johnson is right!
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No, I am Cheezburger Brown
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I am Tiger Woods.
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The only real way to confirm somebody is Satoshi is to log into the Bitcoin forums, use Satoshi's acccount, and "reveal" who they are. Then again, that might just be done by hacking into the forums (although the passwords are hash-encoded.... so it is a bit harder).
The main problem is that Satoshi has dropped off the radar and hasn't posted for a long, long time.... hence the speculation.
Otherwise, your claim is as good as mine and perhaps even stronger.
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If he'd sign a message using the wallet that is known to be owned by him...
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If you ask me, people should always use their real names online.
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Nick Szabo is an anagram for A Biz Con
Close, try
A Biz Conks
Cask Biz On
Cask Biz No
Sack Biz On
Sack Biz No
An Biz Sock
Ask Biz Con
As Biz Conk
But my favorite is:
Ska Biz Con
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Sick boanz?
Zab no sick,
I nok scabz --
Za sock bin...
O, ick, nasz B!
K, I can sobz?
No, sick baz.
Zis no cab, K?
Ban sick-O'z.
K. C siz o bank?
OK, C. Biznas!
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Let's not forget: Zik's Bacon
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Roddy McDowall was AWSOME wearing that ape suit and playing Satoshi Nakamoto. How can anyone not agree?
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Everyone knows that Satoshi Nakamoto is The Stig.
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Actually, Stig Hackvan died a week or two ago. Wasn't him.
So you're saying... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Diversifying his portfolio.
Betting entirely on Bitcoins as becoming the de-facto virtual currency is risky.
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You'd think he'd diversify into traditional investments, or a range of cryptocurrencies with actually noteworthy features like Peercoin, Primecoin, or Zerocoin. Not yet another alt coin clone with absolutely nothing creative at all.
I'd suspect it was Satoshi if he blew us all away with in-chain smart contracts, not just following the botnet-friendly Scrypt crowd.
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It is one of the oldest ploys in the book.
You never suspect the genius when he acts like a buffoon.
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Betting on the latest started up one because "Bitcoins have become so expensive already! This one is cheap!" seem like a worse idea.
I know! (Score:2)
occupy space (Score:2)
Re:occupy space (Score:4, Funny)
appropriately for the topic, this reads as COIN-TELPRO
proof in the coin (Score:4, Interesting)
We'll find out who he is when the original bitcoins are used. In the meantime, an anonymous blogger making speculative claims is not really news.
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Can you elaborate on how using the coin will reveal the true identity of the person currently holding them?
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How do know the original coins are being used?
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It's referred to as the 'genesis block', which was created by Satoshi Nakamoto. So far, those bitcoins have not been circulated and are still 'owned' by Satoshi Nakamoto. He could come out of obscurity tomorrow by using one of those bitcoins and adding a message to it.
Is he what? (Score:5, Funny)
Is GWU Econ Prof. Nick Szabo Satoshi Nakamoto?
Is GWU Econ Prof. Nick Szabo Satoshi Nakamoto what? Apart from of mixed Hungarian and Japanese descent...
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Is GWU Econ Prof. Nick Szabo Satoshi Nakamoto?
Is GWU Econ Prof. Nick Szabo Satoshi Nakamoto what? Apart from of mixed Hungarian and Japanese descent...
Hunganese?
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OK, the joke was that was all one person with a lot of names. I honestly didn't get it at first, since the question was clearly grammatically correct, and I'm a Grammar Nazi.
Stop being a Grammar Nazi. It's outdated. Today we have Grammar Jihadists. ;-)
If I had to guess who the founder of bitcoin was.. (Score:3, Funny)
When I hear about bitcoin's founder I am reminded of a homeless man I met in Palo Alto in the 1990's, in his 30's or 40's. He used to stand on the street chanting weird things and you would think he was insane, which he was. But if you talked to him, you'd realize he was pretty smart too. Anyhow, he told me about how he was getting his P.H.D. in Economics from Yale, but they rejected his thesis which was basically about private currency, as his professors equated it with counterfeiting and he subsequently went semi-mad according to him. This guy was a smart homeless guy but also a little crazy, his shopping cart had various gadgets powered by car battery, and I think there was a reason he was hanging out in the valley at that time. Find him, and you will find the creator of bitcoin.
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When I hear about bitcoin's founder I am reminded of a homeless man I met in Palo Alto in the 1990's, in his 30's or 40's. He used to stand on the street chanting weird things and you would think he was insane, which he was. But if you talked to him, you'd realize he was pretty smart too. Anyhow, he told me about how he was getting his P.H.D. in Economics from Yale, but they rejected his thesis which was basically about private currency, as his professors e
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Yeah, I had my comment moderated as funny, which it is, but I'm serious about this guy if I had to pick someone I've met in my life it would be him (and I know a guy who has the Nobel Prize in Economics). But there are a few street people who are maybe so smart they get hay-wired.
This guy used to stand in alley with his eyes rolled up, between the bookstore and the music shop chanting "Help me gus! Save us gus!" I used to think he was saying God, not gus, but I asked him about it. I actually didn't know
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I know a guy who has the Nobel Prize in Economics
No you don't.
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Yea, genius and madness tend to go hand in hand - same traits cause both. There's been research into it, and if i recall right they pretty much concluded it's almost like flip sides of a coin.
History shows us as well, many geniuses of our past were... A bit out of their mind, but because of that they are also geniuses -> they think about things no one else would, they see those things differently and approach differently.
I believe part of the reason genius minds go a bit mad, or some genius persons seems
5 bitcons sez he is (Score:2)
So what.
No (Score:3, Funny)
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Coming up on Slashdot next: "Can every headline question be answered No?"
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Slashdot does support Unicode. Just a very limited subset of all characters.
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And the correct answer is, of course, "no".
Case in point: "How Much Is Oracle To Blame For Healthcare IT Woes?" is a headline question [slashdot.org] which cannot be answered with "no".
rss for blog? (Score:2)
Is there an rss link for that blog? I can't find it.
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http://unenumerated.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss [blogspot.com]
(A LINK rel="alternate" in the HTML head element. Opera shows an icon in the address bar, I'm sure some other browsers do too.)
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Thank you kindly.
Does it really matter? (Score:3)
I mean, The Winklevoss twins (of Facebook fame - yes those two) have claimed repeatedly that they own around 10% of all bitcoins out there spread through various safe storage locations.
If that's true (that would be around 2M bitcoins), that would put their holdings at over $2B.
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that would be around 2M bitcoins
I think it's safe to assume that they meant 10% of all currently existing bitcoins, which, if true, would currently amount to around 1.2 million bitcoins.
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On paper, but kinda not really. Trying to cash out even 1% of those would have the price under $100.
Don't even try (Score:4, Interesting)
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The arguments for Nick being Satoshi, other than the fact that he's one of the few dozen people with the skills and interests to do the design right, came down to
But the technical terms that the current speculation mentions are all standard terms in the field, like "trusted third party" (which was pr
Why hide? (Score:3)
Re:Why hide? (Score:4, Insightful)
What is the motivation to hide behind a pseudonym as the creator of Bitcoin?
I can think of a few things. Reporters bothering you, other idiots bothering you. Become a target for people to steal your bitcoins. Government might become more interested in you (NSA). And worse, relatives asking for money because they think you are rich.
Ya, I think I'd stay anonymous also.
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Well, mostly, because this way people don't send me fundraising letters.
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Have you looked at the block chain records of the richest people in bitcoin?
You can attach messages to transfers, and these people are spammed to death with microscopic transactions with begging messages added.
I wish people spamming me would attach pennies.
Is this the Geek Enquirer? (Score:1)
NO? Then how about we stick to news (for nerds) and not unfounded speculations from random blogs.
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Slashdot was founded on the unfounded speculations from random blogs.
I've seen that movie (Score:1)
It's Kevin Spacey.
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I think you mean "another guy who also wasn't named Satoshi Nakamoto".
Although thinking of it, maybe his name really is Satoshi Nakamoto, and he made up that pseudonym story so that no one would guess he was the one who created Bitcoin; after all, who would use his own name as pseudonym?
So... (Score:1)
Of course he'd say no (Score:2)
If the person you want to write about is the real Satoshi, he'd obviously say no.
If the person you want to write about the real Satoshi, he'd probably also say no. He might also ask you not to hassle him.
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I thought he was you actually.
In the future everyone will be Satoshi Nakamoto for 15 minutes.