The Man Behind Bitcoin - Is Newsweek Going Too Far?

Unfortunately I am unable to post in the proper forum, because of some weird glitch... So I'll have to post here.

Hello ATS!

So Newsweek ousted the man who created bitcoin by tracking him down and exposing him to the world, after this same person went through great lengths to keep himself anon and private. Has free speech and media gone too far, this time? If a person wants to remain private, isn't it their right to that privacy?

Newsweek Source - The Face Behind Bitcoin
Must have a subscription after 5 reads

Newsweek claims it's found the man behind Bitcoin
Another Source For Information To Newsweek's Article

Newsweek has published a story purporting to have uncovered the real identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the enigmatic creator of cryptocurrency Bitcoin. A trail of investigation reportedly led to "a 64-year-old Japanese-American man whose name really is Satoshi Nakamoto," and who has "a career shrouded in secrecy, having done classified work for major corporations and the US military." Nakamoto is said to live in southern California and to have kept his work on Bitcoin secret even from his family.

In this story, also lies a mystery of sorts and there are some questions we might ask. Why bitcoin? Where did the idea come from?

It's almost like he stepped in just to start the project then vanished and wanted no part of it. This seems like a comic book style mystery at the very least.

Nakamoto introduced Bitcoin to the world in 2008, but his identity has remained unknown, despite attempts by The New Yorker and others to unmask him. Current Bitcoin chief developer Gavin Andresen says that between 2010 and 2011, Nakamoto corresponded with him frequently by email and private message, giving away little about himself. In 2011, he asked Andresen to downplay the "mysterious founder" aspect of the currency, but since then, nothing has been heard from him.

Is it possible that the government inspired such an idea or does it stem purely from his liberaterian thinking?

Nakamoto is said to live in southern California and to have kept his work on Bitcoin secret even from his family.
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The man Newsweek spoke to, who goes by the name Dorian Nakamoto, is said to have a background in engineering and to have spent much of his life on defense projects. After leaving a job at Hughes Aircraft (now part of Raytheon), he reportedly worked as a computer engineer who sometimes took on independent military projects.
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Much of the report hinges on matching the timelines between Nakamoto the Bitcoin creator and Nakamoto the engineer, including the years it might have taken him to write the code and a period of ill health that could explain his absence from the Bitcoin project over the past few years. It also relies on parallels between Nakamoto's libertarian political beliefs and the principles of Bitcoin, designed to be anonymous and to operate independently of government regulation.

But the creator says himself that he has nothing to do with it anymore, since it's creation.

In addition to interviews with family and friends, reporter Leah McGrath Goodman cites a single face-to-face interaction with Nakamoto, in which he "tacitly acknowledged" his role in the program. "I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it," he said. "It's been turned over to other people. They are in charge of it now. I no longer have any connection."

Still, this person wanted to stay out of the public eye, but Newsweek knew this would be a huge story so they didn't care. They would leave no stone unturned to find the man who started something huge and something so chaotic to some that our own government wants to put a stop to it.

Nonetheless, it's the closest anyone has gotten to actually finding Nakamoto, which also raises ethical questions — is it fair to so thoroughly expose a man who has gone to great lengths to stay anonymous? In addition to an alleged photograph of him, an image of his house could be matched to, say, Google Street View photographs, and precise details are given about his job history, family, and car model. Attempts to visit his house even seem to have ended in him calling the police: Goodman's only interaction with him in person was mediated by law enforcement.

Do you think Newsweek went too far? Are they wrong to pull from hidding, this person of interest to the world? He may be old and frail but his family still has to deal with this all the same. Where do we draw the line? I'm also curious about this person but I would never raid his privacy to solve my own curiosity.

What say you ATS?



I would like to close with this, which I find may be very important

"I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it," he said. "It's been turned over to other people. They are in charge of it now. I no longer have any connection."

Why can't he discuss it? Who are "they" that are in charge, when I thought no one was in charge of Bitcoin?

Hmmmmmmm

Good stuff. I was going to get to all that. I would appreciate it if you could post in my thread. S&F. Thank you.

Very interesting stuff. Who knows if any of it is true or not, but as far as the question of did Newsweek go to far? No I don't think so. It's their freedom to dig regardless of how unethical it may be.

I'd rather have a media that went too far in every aspect of reporting, but of course they'd never go this far when trying to find information on certain politicians,corporations, and government agencies.

PsychoEmperor
I'd rather have a media that went too far in every aspect of reporting, but of course they'd never go this far when trying to find information on certain politicians,corporations, and government agencies.

Very much agree on politicians, and thinking of it, I could maybe say the same about someone who's made such an impact on the country and the world. Though, I'm kind of on the fence since he's no longer active in it, but still, he has made a beast of something that exists and does effect much of the world in general.

Still, privacy for the average person should still exist. Politicians? Hell no!

devildogUSMC
Good stuff. I was going to get to all that. I would appreciate it if you could post in my thread. S&F. Thank you.

I dunno... you have another post with no sources to information you provide. I don't really have a need to respond on your post. Though, If I had something to offer your thread, I certainly would. My interest in this guy is only on the mystery behind his creation and why people are dying for it. I'm thinking possible secret organizational ties? Maybe that's going too far, though.

Just a note, though, I'm not trying to take credit for your post or anything against you in any sort of way. In no way do I care about flags and stars, but I do love the discussion, none the less. My post is based on ethical issues with reporting against this person's privacy as well as the mystery behind the man's work, and why it was done. When I posted, there was no other posts available. It took me a little bit to post my thread in it's current form, so you did beat me to it about who the person is, but not my original aim. It just came with the territory, so to speak.

Both of our posts do still have induvidual merrit.

I think it's fine for the media to dig on someone involved in any public way/issues, especially being part of something like bit coin which is being adopted into our system by some and someday might be common place. This directly could effect BILLIONS of people, so why not find out about who was a part of this system and who they are?

I think it IS unethical for the media to dig and try to destroy people who are NOT involved in public issues. Like when the media digs into reasons for a divorce as an example. As was already stated by another member, if the media hounded and dug like this on our politicians and bankers, we would be better off, but money and power stop these sissies dead in their tracks, so they destroy the small potato's and then act like they are crack journalists.

So the Government got him to make the programing for them.
and now hes been comprised,
they kill him!

Some how I'm just not fully buying it... several of her quotes sound some what fabricated. And I find it extremely hard to believe that he would go to such great lengths to hide his identity and then just use his real name. Doesn't add up... I'm going to need more proof. She should have recorded the conversation she had with him.

Another thing that doesn't add up: according to the writer of this article he wont admit to his family that he is Satoshi, yet he admits to her that he created Bitcoin? The only solid evidence she has is the one comment he made about not being involved in Bitcoin any more, but why would he tell her that when he wont even tell his family members? Why would he call the police only to go outside and answer her questions and essentially admit to being the creator of Bitcoin?

Comment by Charlie Shem:

“I find it hard to believe that a guy who’s name is Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto who went sooo far, farther than anyone I know to hide is anonymity, signed messages with PGP, used a throw away email address, avoided all emails about his personal life, worked for the US government, would use his REAL name on potentially the most groundbreaking technological innovation of our time.”

And Jeff Garzik:

This Newsweek article is no more, or less, credible than other articles supposing to find Satoshi. It offers zero credible evidence that he designed bitcoin. We will know Satoshi by his digital signatures: the “real” Satoshi can easily prove their identity by (a) signing a message with his well-known PGP key, or (b) signing a message using bitcoins presumed to be mined and held by Satoshi.

www.coindesk.com...

reply to post by ChaoticOrder


You do have valid points. I'm curious to see how this all plays out on all fronts. Like one responder mentioned... If this IS the guy, there is some possibility, based on all of the other weird happenings recently, that someone might pop him and then no one will talk.

For me.. It's anyones guess and anybody's game. I don't know what to believe or where to even begin.

reply to post by StallionDuck


I see several possible theories:

1) He actually is the real Satoshi Nakamoto and he used his real name to cause doubt if he ever was found.
2) The report is a fabrication created to get page views and this guy is not the real Satoshi Nakamoto.
3) The reporter was hired by someone (maybe even the real Satoshi) to put the focus on the wrong guy.
4) This guy was paid to pretend to be the real Satoshi Nakamoto and has fed the reporter false information.

3 and 4 obviously seem quite unlikely but there could be a reason for doing either of those things, maybe his house is being monitored to see if anyone targets him. Maybe someone is trying to smoke out the real Satoshi and force him to reveal himself in order to save this guy from all the attention he will get.

New evidence from business insider:

Alleged Bitcoin Creator Railed Against East LA's 'Thieves And Criminals' In Angry Letter About Train Service

It is apparently a comment submitted to a public response notice about a proposed train line through Los Angeles. In it, Dorian Nakamoto from Temple City warns of a train service that would serve as a “get away” by the “thieves and criminals” in East L.A., a majority-Hispanic neighbourhood:

This strongly indicates that Dorian is not the real Satoshi because the real Satoshi has superb english skills. Anyone who has read his old posts on the bitcointalk forum knows that he was extremely well spoken. Either this man is not the real Satoshi or he purposely wrote that letter using poor english knowing that it would be dug up at some point in the future... which seems extremely unlikely.

reply to post by ChaoticOrder


Good investigative work. You have my vote now. So... Since you're so passionate about this identity.. are you sure YOU aren't the person in question??

StallionDuck
reply to post by ChaoticOrder

 

Good investigative work. You have my vote now. So... Since you're so passionate about this identity.. are you sure YOU aren't the person in question??

Lol I wish. If you read some of my posts from early 2011 you'll see that I actually first learnt about bitcoin from a post on ATS. After that I became heavily involved with bitcoin and it has been one of my passions for several years now. So I have a lot of interest in this story because I have a great deal of respect for Satoshi and I want to make sure we have the right guy before I believe anything.

Sharing what I had found earlier on this;
The denial claims by both Dorian and Satoshi about this Newsweek article-
www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by dreamingawake


The AP interview:


Link to P2P Foundation comment:
p2pfoundation.ning.com...

EDIT: by the way if anyone can locate the full interview please post the link in this thread.

EDIT: another AP video with more scenes from the interview:

Dorian's brother chimes in on reddit:

www.reddit.com...