Bitcoin Forum

I was thinking the other day how different Bitcoin would be today if Satoshi or whoever created Bitcoin came forward and took credit. If there were one person to answer questions and explain the benefits of using Bitcoin it might've caught on quicker.

On the other hand, I was also thinking about the possibility that the true creator of Bitcoin is dead or murdered. If Satoshi actually chose to remain anonymous then it would make it that much easier for him to be killed without anyone knowing. If he were famous then his every move would be watched.

Or what if it was not a single person that started Bitcoin, but a group of individuals with their own secret motives. Why would they chose to remain anonymous and for what purpose?

Regardless, it is strange that the public does not know who is behind the fastest growing digital currency in the world. What do you think?

We are behind the fastest growing digital currency in the world.

It doesn't matter who Satoshi is.

I can understand why the creator has not come forward, for obvious reasons, but Bitcoin imo would be taken much more seriously to the majority of big investors if the creator was at least contactable. So I vote, yes!

 ;D Right

I'm with adamstgBit - it really doesn't matter who he is.

If anything - it'll lead to instability. Right now we've no idea who he is. He's almost godlike (not necessarily a good thing).

If we discover he's just a human being who eats, defecates, parties, cries, farts and is altogether human - we might just find a way to discredit Bitcoin  because we disagree with him being a Mormon or that he enjoys deer hunting, etc.

Better we leave things as they are, that way Bitcoin stands on it's own merits.

Who knows? Maybe he knew this all along and he knew that disappearing was a requirement to it's success.

Should the creator of Bitcoin come forward?  It depends on what his goals are.


There's thousands of people to explain it now, and they can explain it just as well if not better.

I voted no because he might end up like the former cia director. attacked credibility.  8)

I voted no.

As in previous posts coming forward can ONLY lead to people trying to discredit him/ her /them.

Let us all just say ty to him/ her /them and leave it at that.

Suppose other than creating Bitcoin, he's a complete jerk.  Maybe things would actually be worse if he came forward.

In any event, it's entirely up to whoever (singular or plural) is Satoshi to come forward or not.

no way. these people should shut their mouths for the next 30 years.

+1. Well said.


Satoshi should NOT even come forward on his deathbed. The fact that no individual or organization is behind bitcoin is the entire point. While Satoshi's re-emergence obviously would not actually change that fact, the bitcoin-uneducated would fail to understand this. There are already too many dullards out there saying Satoshi is "pulling the strings" or can "change the code" whenever he wants. Best he remains silent.

 This is Satoshi:



http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/47/Starved_girl.jpg/394px-Starved_girl.jpg


We are all Satoshi

I would like to see them come forward and say something, even if it's just as an anonymous message with proof.

i disagree. if satoshi came forward than the story about bitcoin would disappear and be replaced by a story about satoshi. just like the media did with the snowden revelations which quickly became a story about snowden, and his girlfriend, and his dog, and his lost sock, anything other than the revelations themselves.

this just shows that you have not read the white paper or personally grasped the concept that bitcoin potential far exceeds what satoshi first envisioned, so there is nothing more that satoshi could add to the community, then the developments the comunity have comeup with after he done his Houdini act.


this just shows you have not seen the history of conversations by satoshi and others, and that its more plausible he just moved off the bitcoin project, rather then being murdered.


we already know that Gavin A, satoshi and a few others worked together to make the first QT clients. but satoshi was not the title of the group. it was the handle of a individual with a consistent British based writing style, which is more evident to be one person than a group name.



who was behind the first ever printed bank note of your country? and if you could meet that person is there any information you would want to know, that maybe an economist or a over-average intelligence person, could not answer.

i personally think that the majority do understand bitcoin, the do understand satoshi's white paper and they see the potential satoshi seen, as well as the new potentials that have come to light now that bitcoin is actually in use.

So what happens if someone came forward and claimed to be Satoshi, even though they really weren't.

They would be asked for proof.

https://twitter.com/JustusRanvier/status/393573435600678912

Just no.

They would have either tried to have him assassinated or get him in jail as a warning to others, if there were ever a reason for anonymity and secrecy it would be that and no I'm not joking. Going up against an empire like America publicly means becoming a criminal in their eyes so the only way you can live a normal life is by staying hidden while you fight them. As Ron Paul has said "When you have a dictatorship truth becomes treasonous" and Bitcoin is showing the truth to people of how badly fucked everything is with mathematics as well which Gold/Silver haven't been really able to do in the past.

He is probably among us.

No! It's far better a secret  :D

Every creator of any alternative coin is know and nothing terrible has or will happen to them.
Anyway Satoshi is know. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=311328.0)

idols will never live up to everyone's expectations and nor should people idols others.
I'm sure he will read posts here, and is clearly choosing not to reply....

personally im tired of seeing people trying to guess who "he" is. It is the same as the press hounding people that dont want to be hounded....

I think to stop this "hounding" ALL members of this forum (and anywhere else) should claim to be Satoshi.  This way it will help hide his ID by no one knowing who is telling the truth, even if Satoshi himself also claims to be him....

I will start of by : I am Satoshi...... and as are we all....

Best Regards
Satoshi (or Ford)

Maybe Satoshi read "The Grand Inquisitor" from Fyodor Dostoyevsky's "Brothers Karamazov," in which the lesson is... there are three things man bows to: authority, mystery, and magic. In the context of Satoshi, the paper indicates this individual is well versed in cryptography and the maths (authority), they are unknown (mystery), and bitcoins can be arguably said to be mined from nothing (magic). Or, otherwise put, part of the allure to bitcoin is the legend at its foundation.

Spoken like a true creator of religion!! Well done!

Can you explain to me why? Im sorry i dont know how to say it nicely but i doubt you can.... because its the dumbest thing i've heard.

Even if Satoshi turned out to be this awesome person who would interview perfectly, all that has to happen is for him to be caught with something unmentionable (planted or real) or framed for some other unmentionable crime and then Bitcoin would be endlessly dragged through the mud. It'd be a terrible move for him personally and for Bitcoin in general.

Staying anonymous is probably more foresight than I would have had. Then, I didn't invent a way to have money without central governments either.

Bad idea, who knows if the government wanna catch him and ask him to take his whole bitcoin down...

Religion - it's where the real money is.

It was the Satoshi mystery which intrigued me to get into bitcoin, and now it's the last thing on my mind as far as bitcoin is concerned. It should stay this way.

She is probably among us.

i rusia but intelectual intuition i understand and realy suport you my brother same here in rusia coruptions,drugs,wars,crime,prostitutions,etc...
this situation must be true
all poor guys try get money earnings difirents methods in web internet space

the world just isn't ready for a talking al paca that can shoot lasers out of his eyes.  Satoshi remains anonymous for our own good.

+ graham's number

As much as we all would like to know the creator(s) of Bitcoin, it would almost certainly be burdensome to Bitcoin's future.  If Satoshi wasn't anonymous, it's very likely Bitcoin would have never gained as much traction as we have so far, and arguaby, would likely dampen future traction.  

Satoshi's authority was a flaw in the Bitcoin protocol, and whoever could control him would likely be able to inluence Bitcoin's evolution and eventually disrupt the network.
For his own security and that of the network, Satoshi had to disappear and destroy the only thing that could assert his identity: the private key that he used to generate the genesis block and all the private keys of the coins he mined.

Satoshi should do what his invention has helped so many to do:  whatever the hell he feels like.

At this point no one is going to believe the person who claims to be Satoshi. There is no need for this person to come forward regardless. Bitcoin is in the communities hands.

It's not a matter of belief.  Whoever would make such a claim would not be believed, unless they could sign a message with Satoshi's key.  If they could, they're probably Satoshi.

no, all the women flocking to him would be too much to handle

no, i dont think he should

but im wondering how many BTC does he have ?  :-\

I would. I have many communications with him from years ago that only he would know about and has never been made public. If someone came forward claiming to be him, I could easily verify since I know what PC he was using, what part of the world he was living in, etc. before he started to actually try to be anonymous on the net. I can't say if he is alive or dead right now, but he could easily verify being alive at least with me because he would still know how to contact me. I do respect him wanting to be anonymous though. If there ever was a real search for him I probably have enough info to get any team on a really good start to finding him.  ;D
But... respect his privacy.

I leaned toward no.

but then we have to consider the pros and cons and even the interesting parts about this question.

Pros

If they come forward they know the entire system and could begin making changes to the kernel with surgical precision.
Their appearance will show the face of Bitcoin, who created it.
It would be nice for marketing.
If they got sued by the banks, the different paradigm in which Satoshi works would render all attacks on them pointless(Satoshi built it by themselves, their iniciative shows they'd do it again anyway.)

Cons

They are falable human beings; Character assassination would be innevitable, the vision in everyones mind of Bitcoin would fade, only satoshi's vision would prevail.
They would get sued by the banks guaranteed.
A lot of the creative work on Bitcoin may be subdued
Some may not like a concise solid vision, would not think to alter it, even though satoshi encouraged it.

Interesting

They may have some pretty crazy ideas never seen before
What if satoshi rallied the millions of Bitcoin users, considering we comprise the top 1% in intelligence in the planet it could change the world... they could act like a General organizing the Bitcoin collective into a cohesive group... forming the largest corporation on earth.
What if Satoshi is just a regular guy, an autodidact? who learned everything on their own and has no accreditation?
What if they are a she?
What if it is the NSA?

The code is so different to how Satoshi left it. Sure he would know a lot about it but not really enough to give himself an intellectual advantage over the system.

However his popularity and the authority he would command could be dangerous, especially if he rallied against Bitcoin. A lot of people would stay, but some might lose confidence.

The big danger is the amount of Bitcoins he holds, anywhere from 500,000 to 3,000,000. If he wanted he could carry out any type of market manipulation. You might see this as a non-issue, and I agree Satoshi is probably not going to destroy us, but he would then be the target for many Governments.

If Bitcoin rises to a trillion dollar economy, Satoshis stash will make him the richest person in the world. That is true absolute power, you can raise an army with that much "gold", look back at history. All the powers of today will want that gold and Satoshi will be at risk for his life and we will be at risk some power getting those coins and ruling the world.


If this is the case I will be really happy!


No need to rally us. I am sure we will all eventually help shape a bright Bitcoin future that changes the world. Hopefully we do not need to be in the top 1% of intelligence though, as I will be left out!


This will be sad, but its probably something that would happen. If Satoshi becomes known his image will be attacked if he turns out to be some smart lone hacker.



If they are the NSA, lets hope the crypto used is not compromised. If not then I don't see how they hope to hold back the monster they have created.

If Satoshi is a woman? That would be very awesome and would get a lot more girls into math and computer science. The sausage fest must end!

Well, smarty-pants, I hope you still think it's as clever to say that when the Men in Black are beating you in the kidneys with iron rods, yelling "What's the frequency, Kenneth?"

This man oughta use that money to bring heaven to earth via music festival.  Way more cool things in the higher dimensions than on earth.

Doesn't the government have access to all your communications (for those not in the know I'm not referring to Prism, I'm referring to the confiscation of all KnightMB's computer equipment)?

Won't that mean that they could pose as him using the information gleaned from you?

To answer your question. I voted YES, he should come forward and take the compliments.

As for your entire post, the word "kill" and "murder" holds special prominence. Why is murdering of a tech god necessary to pass on a point?

:)

but its open source, for every programmer to inspect

I think if he is known to the world. He will be on the US's most wanted list. And all the player in the central bank would find some law to lock him up. Because he is a threat to the United State of America.

We should all start assuming Satoshi is dead.

So that when (not if) he comes forward, he is rising and not just "coming forward".

No body would believe even if the creator come forward and most importantly no body cares. Everyone just wanna make money from Bitcoin...

And if they somehow didn't get that information in the raid... are you trying to entice them or another government agency to raid you again?

No we shouldn't.

Also, is that a death threat?  Because I'm Satoshi, you dick!  How dare you try to take out a "clean hit" on me with the very currency I created?  You damn pirate!

Wow. That's all it took guys.

And here I present, Satoshi.

Well I guess it's settled then. Let's phone the press!

Yepyep.

It is the people, that:

- reflect upon the mechanics of bitcoin and try to contineously improve it
- create all those startups that will be the base that will be needed when bitcoin will be used mainstream
- talk to people that do not understand the concept, explain them and calmly show them why their fears are not really valid
- OFC all users/miners/geeks of Bitcoin :)

I think Satoshi should come forward... is everyone ready?

WE are Satoshi Nakamoto, founders of a decentralized, peer to peer, revolutionary vision of the future.

Our individual vision as users and thinkers is what makes this revolution so powerful, Our combined imagination, the
totality of our collective thoughts developing along the lines of the software that inspired us. WE are decentralized, peer to peer at every level from the creation of the protocol, to our organization and function as a community working toward our individual vision, creating all possibilities apparent and reproducible at the same time.

Its true: Satoshi, in his alpaca socks:

https://i.imgur.com/kb7hMvz.jpg?1 (http://imgur.com/kb7hMvz)

I like the idea that the creator is unknown. This makes Bitcoin more mysterious, like from a movie. For investors you have many people who can answer every question which is relevant. And you have the Bitcoin foundation.

I voted for no.

PS: But for sure I would be interested who this guy is (or girl or people) :)

I'm Spartacus.

I voted NO.

The main reason from my point if view is that not knowing makes it more interesting and mysterious. I also think it will keep people going forward with a courious mind in the bitcoin community.  :)

There is no mystery its a proven fact that as early as 10 days after the creation of the blockchain the US Department of Defence had this bitcoin thing under control.
Proof --> HD Moore (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=311328.msg3346240#msg3346240)
Every alternative coin creator is know.

Even if the creator of Bitcoin came forward, it wouldn't matter too much. It'd all just be a fight to grab his bitcoin the fastest. There would also have to be some undeniable proof for someone to believe it's really Satoshi.

It's pretty egocentric to say that 'we are Satoshi'. Perhaps only a tiny few of you could haved pulled this thing off so well even if you were able to conceive of the concept. You and me are just the sheep that follow, although perhaps we are a bit ahead of the rest of the flock.

I think the fact that Satoshi remains anonymous with a large amount of premined coins in 'His' posession is a risk to bitcoin. If he has honest motives, it would help if he stepped forward.

Consider if it can be ruled out that Satoshi turns out the be the NSA in a few years time and they reveal a flaw in bitcoin, rendering our entire toy worthless, or a similar scenario. There are many institutions in the world with motives to create something like bitcoin.

It would be trivially easy for Satoshi to prove his/her/their identify. That's one of the things cryptography is really good at.

You mean he might have left backdoors in addition to the "ALERT" one ? :D

Or to make it ultimately unprovable, publishing private keys.

He / she or the group which created and scripted the Bitcoin really should stay anonymous. They should because of their safety I think (and I'm not threatening them by this post).   Unfortunately there are too many people on this planet who will kidnap Satoshi or harm him/her/them or their family just to earn some bucks. I assume Satoshi is millionair.

The creator of liberty reserve just got 75 years in prison, only 25 years of which were for money laundering.

Satoshi would get royally fucked in the arse. And before he even got to the court room he would be robbed for his wealth.

No.

It is irrelevant.

Bitcoin does not need Satoshi anymore, hence why he left (one reason).

I don't think they have any real reason to come forward. I don't think it would help anything.

Who says Satoshi lives in the States?  ???

If he ever does come forward, I highly doubt it would be from an extraditable country (I don't believe he's done anything wrong, tho)

The US does not care, he would go missing or be turned in due to politcial pressure. Thats assuming he's not tortured and killed for his privkeys first.

They should make him a job offer he can't refuse. Makes much more sense than beating the crap out of him and locking him up. Granted, law enforcement often does not make very much sense.

I think Satoshi has nothing to fear from the legal authorities, unless he plans on doing something like converting those premined coins into fiat without paying taxes.  Otherwise, he can basically sit on them forever.  There's nothing illegal about creating Bitcoin or using it, and retaliating against Satoshi wouldn't harm the network in any way. 

About the only thing I know about Satoshi is he (or she or my favorite theory they) likes his privacy, and has done what is necessary to protect it.  I wouldn't be surprised if it was a small cartel including, perhaps, even David Chaum himself, and I'd be quite surprised if whoever Satoshi is, his name is unknown in the crypto community.

If I were profiling Satoshi, my guess would be an early participant on the cypherpunks list, and/or an author of early published work on digital currencies.  I would not be surprised if he has done federally funded research at an academic institution, or perhaps has some other personal or political reason that having a high profile is inconsistent with either his job (or just his preference for privacy).

The pool of people capable of creating something like Bitcoin is so small I think it may have been a group of two or three people, maybe one the initial researcher with the big idea and one or more coders who actually put together the nuts and bolts.  I could easily imagine the "members" of the Satoshi team not knowing each other's identities.

Anyway, the secrecy of Satoshi's identity makes a cool story, and makes Bitcoin look mysterious and James Bond-ish.  I like that.

I've noticed a disturbing trend of trolls casually accusing Satoshi of premining.

It looks like that particular brand of FUD is starting to become popular again.

yes.

I want to mock him and aspire to be him

I thought it was relatively well established that of the first 32,000 or so blocks, many must have been Satoshi.  Here's one fairly credible (if speculative) look at the early blocks (http://bitslog.wordpress.com/2013/04/17/the-well-deserved-fortune-of-satoshi-nakamoto).

It's possible they're overestimating Satoshi's mining, or that there are a lot of early adopters, but a lot of the early blocks have not been spent.

Why would there be anything reprehensible about it even if he did mine the early blocks and keep them?  Seems to me he'd have to be a fool not to.

Sure, but that's not premining.

He waited until after publicly announcing the currency and giving other people an opportunity to mine at the same time he started.

Only the Genesis Block could be considered "premined", and that's only 50 BTC.

I suppose I misused "premining" as a term, then, since basically any transaction worth anything would be definition be on the blockchain.  But early adopters did get a serious jump on it, and there's nothing wrong with that.

The anonymity prevents characterisation and individualisation. 

Notice how the media will focus on the persona of Snowden to the exclusion of what was revealed.  (the girlfriend, the running, the adventure, the activities, the location, etc)
By coming forward, such treatment is guaranteed.

Satoshi would be able to handle it better than most, but it would not be good for Bitcoin in any case.  Celebrity is more of a cost than a benefit unless you are trying to make celebrity your career.  It would take the focus away from Bitcoin and put the spotlight on the persona.