Tag Archives: satoshi

Dorian Nakamoto Hires Lawyer, Denies Any Bitcoin Connection

by ReinaldoKirklin Posted on March 17, 2014

Mother Jones

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Just a quick update on Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto of Temple City, the man Newsweek says is the inventor of Bitcoin. He has hired a lawyer and released a statement:

In the statement, Nakamoto says: “I did not create, invent or otherwise work on Bitcoin. I unconditionally deny the Newsweek report….My background is in engineering. I also have the ability to program. My most recent job was as an electrical engineer troubleshooting air traffic control equipment for the FAA. I have no knowledge of nor have I ever worked on cryptography, peer to peer systems, or alternative currencies.”

The Newsweek story also notes what appears to be a strange gap in his resume over the last decade, the time during which the bitcoin code was written and released. Nakamoto explains:

“I have not been able to find steady work as an engineer or programmer for ten years. I have worked as a laborer, polltaker, and substitute teacher. I discontinued my internet service in 2013 due to severe financial distress. I am trying to recover from prostate surgery in October 2012 and a stroke I suffered in October of 2013. My prospects for gainful employment has been harmed because of Newsweek’s article.”

I’ll confess that I’m surprised by how this story has progressed. The fact that the “Satoshi Nakamoto” who invented Bitcoin managed to stay anonymous for several years isn’t too remarkable. Trying to identify a single person out of 7 billion is hard. But once a particular person was identified, I expected that the online community would turn its talents on the guy like a laser beam, fairly quickly establishing without doubt whether he is or isn’t the right guy. But that hasn’t really happened. We still don’t know for sure.

Along with his unconditional statement, though, the fact that Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto hasn’t been conclusively identified as the Bitcoin founder is bad news for Newsweek. If he were really the guy, there would probably be a whole lot more evidence today than there was two weeks ago.

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Dorian Nakamoto Hires Lawyer, Denies Any Bitcoin Connection

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Did Newsweek Dox the Wrong Satoshi Nakamoto?

by RafaelClopton Posted on March 7, 2014

Mother Jones

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Is Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto of Temple City, California, the same “Satoshi Nakamoto” who invented Bitcoin? Newsweek’s Leah McGrath Goodman says he is in a cover story here, and Felix Salmon does a good job of running through the evidence here. Matt Yglesias is skeptical:

Here’s the question of Newsweek’s Bitcoin “scoop,” as I understand it—is the fact that a person is named “Satoshi Nakamoto” good evidence that the person in question is the originator of Bitcoin? If it is, then all of the other evidence regarding this particular Satoshi Nakamoto is telling….But absent the name, there is very little here.

I don’t agree. The key evidence is this conversation that Goodman had with Nakamoto in front of his home:

Tacitly acknowledging his role in the Bitcoin project, he looks down, staring at the pavement and categorically refuses to answer questions.

“I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it,” he says, dismissing all further queries with a swat of his left hand. “It’s been turned over to other people. They are in charge of it now. I no longer have any connection.”

Nakamoto says he was misunderstood. His English isn’t great, and he was just referring to no longer being an engineer. Goodman, however, says this is nonsense. “I stand completely by my exchange with Mr. Nakamoto. There was no confusion whatsoever about the context of our conversation — and his acknowledgment of his involvement in bitcoin.”

In any case, this is the key piece of evidence. If Goodman is right, then Nakamoto is now covering up after making a momentary slip. But if Goodman stretched the quote a bit to make it sound cleaner than it was in real life, then Nakamoto is very likely in the clear.

Last night there was some chatter on Twitter about whether Goodman’s story sounded right. She made a mistake identifying LA County sheriff’s deputies as “police officers from the Temple City, Calif., sheriff’s department,” for example, and some of her quotes seem a little too good to be true. Personally, I wasn’t persuaded. The former is a minor error, and I didn’t find the quotes all that hard to believe. What’s more, Goodman was very transparent about how she tracked down this story and what her sources were. There’s nothing obscure about any of it. It’s a very, very public story and, thanks to Goodman’s transparency, one that’s pretty easy to check. If Goodman made any of it up, she sure chose a very spectacular way to commit career suicide.

All that said, Karl Smith has a piece at FT Alphaville that compares some of Dorian Nakamoto’s writing to that of the Nakamoto who wrote the original Bitcoin proposal. He’s pretty persuasive that they don’t seem to match. This isn’t a smoking gun or anything, but it definitely gives us fresh reason to be skeptical.

In any case, tracking down the real identity of “Satoshi Nakamoto” is hard, but I suspect that verifying whether Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto of Temple City is the same guy isn’t. One way or another, I have a feeling that someone is going to clear this up definitively within a week or two. Maybe sooner.

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Did Newsweek Dox the Wrong Satoshi Nakamoto?

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Bitcoin Founder Apparently a Fan of "The Purloined Letter"

by johnsmith2345as Posted on March 6, 2014

Mother Jones

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Newsweek’s Leah McGrath Goodman claims to have discovered the true identity of the mysterious “Satoshi Nakamoto” who invented Bitcoin. It turns out he’s….Satoshi Nakamoto:

Far from leading to a Tokyo-based whiz kid using the name “Satoshi Nakamoto” as a cipher or pseudonym (a story repeated by everyone from Bitcoin’s rabid fans to The New Yorker), the trail followed by Newsweek led to a 64-year-old Japanese-American man whose name really is Satoshi Nakamoto. 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.

….”You want to know about my amazing physicist brother?” says Arthur Nakamoto, Satoshi Nakamoto’s youngest sibling, who works as director of quality assurance at Wavestream Corp., a maker of radio frequency amplifiers in San Dimas, Calif. “He’s a brilliant man. I’m just a humble engineer. He’s very focused and eclectic in his way of thinking. Smart, intelligent, mathematics, engineering, computers. You name it, he can do it.”

But he also had a warning. “My brother is an asshole. What you don’t know about him is that he’s worked on classified stuff. His life was a complete blank for a while. You’re not going to be able to get to him. He’ll deny everything. He’ll never admit to starting Bitcoin.”

And with that, Nakamoto’s brother hung up.

If Goodman is right, Nakamoto is a geeky senior citizen who lives in a suburban stucco house a few miles from Pasadena. He invented Bitcoin because he wanted a currency that wouldn’t make financiers rich. “He did not like the notion of banks and bankers getting wealthy just because they hold the keys,” says Bitcoin’s chief scientist, Gavin Andresen.

He also really, really wants to be left alone. I guess that part isn’t working out so well anymore. For what it’s worth, I suspect the part about inventing a currency that bankers can’t make a profit from might not work out in the long run either.

Excerpt from – 

Bitcoin Founder Apparently a Fan of "The Purloined Letter"

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