Bitcoin Inventor Satoshi Nakamoto Outed By Newsweek 390
DoctorBit writes "According to today's Newsweek article, Satoshi Nakamoto is ... Satoshi Nakamoto — a 64-year-old Japanese-American former defense contractor living with his mother in a modest Temple City, California suburban home. According to the article, 'He is someone with a penchant for collecting model trains and a career shrouded in secrecy, having done classified work for major corporations and the U.S. military.' and 'Nakamoto's family describe him as extremely intelligent, moody and obsessively private, a man of few words who screens his phone calls, anonymizes his emails and, for most of his life, has been preoccupied with the two things for which Bitcoin has now become known: money and secrecy.' The article quotes him as responding when asked about bitcoin, 'I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it, ... It's been turned over to other people. They are in charge of it now. I no longer have any connection.' I imagine that he will now have to move and hire round-the-clock security for his own protection."
"It's been turned over to other people" ? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Why? (Score:2, Interesting)
Wrong, but it does match the public misconception. It's commonly believed that he's sitting on nearly half a billion dollars, and facts to the contrary won't even slow down those who will try to collect.
This is why if you ever do anything in your life that people might want to know about, never EVER answer a request for an interview with anything that could even be used to find a bit of truth. "Off the record" means "this will get into the headline" and everything you say can and will be used against you to get pageviews. The two best responses to a request for an interview are to file a restraining order and if that doesn't work, spend a couple bitcoins on an assassin.
Pretend? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Why? (Score:4, Interesting)
""Off the record" means "this will get into the headline""
and you base that on...what, exactly?
Obvious Hoax (Score:5, Interesting)
Newsweek : This man is Satoshi Nakamoto.
Sheriff : "What?" The police officer balks.
Sheriff : "This is the guy who created Bitcoin?
Are we really supposed to believe that a Police Officer would know such geek trivia?
Seems to be a little overly dramatic.
Re:Why? (Score:5, Interesting)
From the blockchain records, someone mined almost a million coins in the very very early days. There were a few small outgoing transactions, and then haven't been touched since Satoshi disappeared in 2011. It doesn't make much sense for those bitcoins to belong to anyone else.
Re:Why? (Score:5, Interesting)
The two best responses to a request for an interview are to file a restraining order and if that doesn't work, spend a couple bitcoins on an assassin
This comment states one of the best response to a request for an interview is to murder the requester and it is now at +5 interesting? What the actual fuck, people? The person who posted this comment is apparently a paranoid psychopath and you are effectively praising him.
Something that struck me as odd... (Score:3, Interesting)
"I obtained Nakamoto's email through a company he buys model trains from."
For some reason this quotation from the newsweek article stood out to me.
I know it's standard practice for lots of businesses to sell their email lists
but this came off to me as strange. A reporter calls up looking for a single
customers email address and you just give it to them?
Why use his real name if he wanted anonymity? (Score:4, Interesting)