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Title: Interview with Satoshi. Post by: Anonymous on October 06, 2010, 11:34:08 PM Instead of people wondering what Satoshi is planning for bitcoin (ie world domination :D) or what his motives are we should create a list of questions to ask which he can answer at his own convenience and in his own words like they do with a digg dialog. I think such a thing would help clear up certain assumptions from being made. I will post it on the blog at http://bitcoinmedia.posterous.com/ (http://bitcoinmedia.posterous.com/) where everyone can read it, if satoshi agrees of course. :)
Ask away! Title: Re: Interview with Satoshi. Post by: MoonShadow on October 07, 2010, 12:41:08 AM What gave you the idea of Bitcoin, and what motivated you to complete it?
Title: Re: Interview with Satoshi. Post by: nelisky on October 07, 2010, 12:58:45 AM What planet do you come from, does it get cold there during the winter and don't you have other heating means, ones that don't include getting CPUs to 100% continuosly?
Also, while on the subject, are you planning to rule the earth all by yourself or do we get to apply for sidekick? Title: Re: Interview with Satoshi. Post by: kiba on October 07, 2010, 01:05:55 AM Are you really from Japan?
Title: Re: Interview with Satoshi. Post by: theymos on October 07, 2010, 01:17:03 AM What will you do if the major governments make Bitcoin illegal and actively try to shut it down? Will you resist them?
If Bitcoin becomes bigger than PayPal, how do you see the organization of the project? Will you continue to develop it more-or-less alone, will there be a secret group of developers like TrueCrypt, will it be a massive community-driven project like Firefox, or what? Title: Re: Interview with Satoshi. Post by: jimbobway on October 07, 2010, 01:18:32 AM Hey Satoshi,
What is your favorite food? Title: Re: Interview with Satoshi. Post by: lfm on October 07, 2010, 02:14:23 AM How many BTC do you have?
Title: Re: Interview with Satoshi. Post by: kiba on October 07, 2010, 03:58:45 PM So how do you determine if there is enough questions for Satoshi to answer?
Title: Re: Interview with Satoshi. Post by: SmokeTooMuch on October 07, 2010, 04:36:20 PM What do you think is the worst thing that could happen to bitcoin ?
Title: Re: Interview with Satoshi. Post by: ribuck on October 07, 2010, 05:29:15 PM Do you still think 21 million bitcoins will be enough?
(Actually I think of it as 2.1 quadrillion nanocoins or whatever we decide to call the smallest divisible part of a bitcoin.) Title: Re: Interview with Satoshi. Post by: Anonymous on October 08, 2010, 05:15:57 AM So how do you determine if there is enough questions for Satoshi to answer? Thats a good questioin. I will point out the thread to him and he can pick and choose. Title: Re: Interview with Satoshi. Post by: grondilu on October 08, 2010, 05:24:41 AM What is your political orientation ? Would you say that the creation of bitcoin was politicaly oriented ?
And by the way, for how long have you been planning to rule the world ? :) PS: Do you realise how freaking genius was your idea of a decentralized time server ? How does it feel to change History of human kind ? (well, maybe this one is a bit too much :) ) Title: Re: Interview with Satoshi. Post by: kiba on October 08, 2010, 06:27:48 AM PS: Do you realise how freaking genius was your idea of a decentralized time server ? time server? Title: Re: Interview with Satoshi. Post by: grondilu on October 08, 2010, 06:31:25 AM time server? Sorry. I meant "timestamp server", as Satoshi call it in his white paper. Title: Re: Interview with Satoshi. Post by: Timo Y on October 08, 2010, 09:41:31 AM How many people in this forum do you know personally?
Title: Re: Interview with Satoshi. Post by: mpkomara on October 08, 2010, 10:31:31 AM If bitcoins were infinitely divisible, why would you choose to cease generation of bitcoins at any point?
Title: Re: Interview with Satoshi. Post by: grondilu on October 08, 2010, 11:58:57 AM If bitcoins were infinitely divisible, why would you choose to cease generation of bitcoins at any point? Those remarks concerning the "number" of bitcoins are just amazing. Why can't you see the bitcoin as a unit of measure, instead of a single entity ? I mean, there are about 200,000 tons of gold in the world. That's 200 millions of kilograms. However, there is not more gold if you count it in kilograms than in tons. If you divide a bitcoin in ten, you don't add 9 bitcoins ! Just as you can't make more bread by spliting a piece of bread in several pieces. You're not Jesus-Christ :) ! In other worlds : you can't increase the quantity of some commodity, just by increasing the precision of the tool you use to measure it. Title: Re: Interview with Satoshi. Post by: mpkomara on October 08, 2010, 12:43:17 PM i'm sorry, i wasn't very clear. As the number of bitcoins approaches 21 million, I would like to know why Satoshi chose to call for an end to generation of bitcoins rather than continue generating a smaller and smaller amount. I would think that we should asymptotically approach 21 million rather than just stop at 20,986,000 or whatever that number is. Seems like 500 years from now there still should be generation of bitcoins, no matter how small the generations appear to us today.
Title: Re: Interview with Satoshi. Post by: grondilu on October 08, 2010, 12:48:46 PM i'm sorry, i wasn't very clear. As the number of bitcoins approaches 21 million, I would like to know why Satoshi chose to call for an end to generation of bitcoins rather than continue generating a smaller and smaller amount. I would think that we should asymptotically approach 21 million rather than just stop at 20,986,000 or whatever that number is. Seems like 500 years from now there still should be generation of bitcoins, no matter how small the generations appear to us today. Satoshi doesn't "call for an end" whatsoever. 21 millions IS an asymptotic limit. As I understood, since the number of bitcoins created for each new block will decrease geometrically (50, then 25, then 12.5, etc.), then the total number of bitcoins will be the limit of a geometric serie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geometric_series). I guess 21 millions is the result of Satoshi's calculation. Can anyone confirm ? Title: Re: Interview with Satoshi. Post by: theymos on October 08, 2010, 03:13:55 PM Bitcoins aren't infinitely divisible. The smallest amount is 0.00000001. Once the halving would make a subsidy lower than this, the amount will go to 0 because the calculation is done as a bitwise right shift (of an integer holding the number of nanocoins). It just so happens that the total number of coins in this scheme ends up being very near 21 million (20,999,999.9769)
Even if the precision is greatly increased, the number of BTC in existence would never go above 21 million. See: http://theymos.ath.cx:64150/btcstat.php?q=changeparams&precision=200 (Changes precision to 200 instead of 8.) Title: Re: Interview with Satoshi. Post by: kiba on October 08, 2010, 03:56:04 PM Why do you use subversion and sourceforge.net instead of the new and hip git and github.com?
How old are you anyway? Title: Re: Interview with Satoshi. Post by: ribuck on October 08, 2010, 04:03:04 PM ...you can't increase the quantity of some commodity, just by increasing the precision of the tool you use to measure it No of course the quantity doesn't change, but the utility of a commodity might change according to how divisible it is. Personally I don't think it's an issue for bitcoins.Title: Re: Interview with Satoshi. Post by: lfm on October 10, 2010, 03:40:42 AM i'm sorry, i wasn't very clear. As the number of bitcoins approaches 21 million, I would like to know why Satoshi chose to call for an end to generation of bitcoins rather than continue generating a smaller and smaller amount. I would think that we should asymptotically approach 21 million rather than just stop at 20,986,000 or whatever that number is. Seems like 500 years from now there still should be generation of bitcoins, no matter how small the generations appear to us today. Satoshi doesn't "call for an end" whatsoever. 21 millions IS an asymptotic limit. As I understood, since the number of bitcoins created for each new block will decrease geometrically (50, then 25, then 12.5, etc.), then the total number of bitcoins will be the limit of a geometric serie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geometric_series). I guess 21 millions is the result of Satoshi's calculation. Can anyone confirm ? You're both right in a way. The number of mined coins is divided in half about every four years (210000 blocks). this means the current 50.00000000 BTC will actually hit zero in about 150 years. Note it gets pretty small, less than 0.01 BTC in only 50 years or so. It actually hits zero instead of just getting continually smaller because it is fixed integer computer arithmetic and not mathematically theoretical numbers which could get infinitely small. Title: Re: Interview with Satoshi. Post by: Anonymous on October 10, 2010, 04:48:49 AM I sent satoshi a pm about this thread. I dont know how regularly he checks his messages.
Maybe another good question could be "What is your preferred method of contact ?" :D Title: Re: Interview with Satoshi. Post by: joe on October 13, 2010, 09:00:43 AM Quote 1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 3 And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. ... 2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested [a] from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. 3 And on the 8th day Satoshi decreed that there shall be 21 million coins of bit, and it was so. I was surprised I never noticed this paragraph until I re-read the passage recently. Title: Re: Interview with Satoshi. Post by: grondilu on October 13, 2010, 12:38:36 PM Quote 3 And on the 8th day Satoshi decreed that there shall be 21 million coins of bit, and it was so. I was surprised I never noticed this paragraph until I re-read the passage recently. :) More seriously, should we say again that the actual amount of bitcoins doesn't matter, as long as it is both constant and divisable enough ? It's really just a unit of measure. In a ton of sand, there are 1000 of kilograms, one billion grams, and still, it's all the same amount of sand. Title: Re: Interview with Satoshi. Post by: nelisky on October 13, 2010, 12:47:55 PM Quote 3 And on the 8th day Satoshi decreed that there shall be 21 million coins of bit, and it was so. I was surprised I never noticed this paragraph until I re-read the passage recently. :) More seriously, should we say again that the actual amount of bitcoins doesn't matter, as long as it is both constant and divisable enough ? It's really just a unit of measure. In a ton of sand, there are 1000 of kilograms, one billion grams, and still, it's all the same amount of sand. I don't think I fancy the comparison used. Bitcoins and sand, sounds like negative connotation... Let me try and fix that: Quote It's really just a unit of measure. In a ton of cash, there are 1000 kilograms of hard currency, a shitload of dough, and still, it's all the same amount of cash. Title: Re: Interview with Satoshi. Post by: grondilu on October 13, 2010, 01:07:16 PM I don't think I fancy the comparison used. Bitcoins and sand, sounds like negative connotation... Well, I had already done the comparaison with gold earlier in this thread, so I wanted to change. But I should have sticked with gold. That's what bitcoin is : electronic gold. And it's actually even better, since gold is not very easy to handle in very small quantities. Anyway, here is the comparaison with gold. In the whole world, there are about 150,000 tons of gold. That's 150 billions of kilograms, and about 5 billions of onces. All those numbers represents the same quantity. |