Bitcoin Forum

Following my What if? Satoshi Nakamoto's identity was public information   (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5079489.msg48421929#msg48421929) thread. Despite the conspiracy theories going on in the replies a user pointed out something interesting. That theymos is considering releasing the personal messages of Satoshi.

theymos posted this:

He posted that back in 2013. 8 years from then would be 2021. However I'm a little concerned about exposing personal information just because Satoshi is the one to have created the forum and Bitcoin. His personal data should be handled the exact same as any other user.

Theymos in the past has said that our data is safe from information requests unless he has reason to believe you are scamming or breaking the law. I'm pretty sure I've read that theymos has rejected several subpoenas because he didn't think there was sufficient reason to do so. Taking this into consideration why is theymos willing to release personal messages and logged IPs. Even if he used Tor to connect over the forum his data shouldn't be released. Sure its interesting information but he should not be treated any different.

As you can probably tell from this thread and my what if thread  I'm very against exposing any sort of personal data unless there's a good enough reason. I don't think that historic significance to the cryptocurrency world would be a good enough reason to expose his personal data.

theymos hadn't read Satoshi's PM's up until this quote and he said that he doesn't like to spy on peoples personal business. I don't think Satoshi should be treated any differently. Even if the information was of historic value and would be interesting to view.

Haven't you heard?  Craig Steven Wright is Satoshi.

;D

---

We have information on a lot of personal information from history, people used to write books and letters which were kept over generations/malleniums.

8 years may be a bit short but what’s the harm in posting someone’s pms, a lot of his emails were leaked already.

We don't need to know who Satoshi really is. I don't think there's any information about him in his private messages. He always remained anonymous. I have no reason to mistrust Theymos, he is a man of his word.

Can we leave Satoshi alone! Who cares to identify the person? Focusing on the creation will help the human being than focusing to the creator. What is bad with Bitcoin?

There is the possibility that Satoshi wished his PMs and logged IP addresses released at some point, and considering the reference to the future and the time span of 8 years, could be possible that it would be impossible to track the identity of Satoshi through the proposed details.

I've rethought this, and I won't be releasing the PMs in 2021. I'm convinced that nobody will ever identify Satoshi no matter what info comes out, so I'm not worried about that, but I am concerned about the privacy of those who communicated with him. For example, kiba once said that he tried to send a gift to Satoshi, but Satoshi declined (reportedly saying something like "I already have plenty of BTC"). If the PMs for this exchange exist in the database and hypothetically look like this:

Then it would put a big target on kiba's back. (This is only a hypothetical example: in reality, kiba never published the amount he offered Satoshi, if any amount was even specified.) Even if I screened the PMs in advance for obvious stuff like this, it's impossible to find everything. Eg. maybe someone who talked to Satoshi was trying to be anonymous, but people are able to find him just based on his writing style or knowledge.

I do think that there could be historically-relevant info in there, so maybe if Bitcoin has taken over the world in like 50 years and historians are clamoring to know more about its history, I or my successors could be convinced to revisit the issue. Or maybe not; don't get your hopes up. (I still haven't read the PMs, BTW; maybe they're all really boring.)

Great. AverageGlabella will be happy now... ::)

I used to think Satoshi invented this forum, that he invented the forum to help discuss the promotion of the token and community. If he did, who got the forum administration employed ? and if he was not the one, then there was a link to him along the line of transferring the forum's leadership. He is not actually anonymous, am sure some people or organisation or government are hiding him

As of now and in the supposed year(2021),I doubt there will be any reason whatsoever to reveal satoshi's Pm's for whatever reasons,as such informations remain private as Theymos has reiterated numerous times,but you just get that feeling that with satoshi things will be a bit different as we've got numerous groups clamouring for his identity and probably an inkling could be gotten from his private messages.
And this I think this settles it all, for now at least

I think theymos probably knows satoshi's identity. Although it's quite easy to remain anonymous on the internet so it might not be true.

Satoshi originally published bitcoincore on sourceforge and there was a forum there but the forum was moved here (for obvious reasons). Theymos took over control of the forum after satoshi gave him ownership privileges. I think sirius was also quite heavily involved in the forum at the start (not sure where badbear came into the equation though - the old admin here).

Also, anyone know where the forum was before it got moved to amazon aws?

So it means that Theymos and other admins who were involved in this forum startup know about satoshi but they dont want to reveal themselves and what who know that who are this admins can also be one of the associate of satoshi or they are itself the group who are involved in cryptocurrency development and then wanted to be anonymous

I dont think somebody will find out who Satoshi was =D Maybe in future when new hacking methods or stuff like that come out . And speaking about Craig s wright , im 100% sure his not Satoshi . Imagine what will happen with News channels when somebody publish info about Satoshi nakomoto and who he is . He is / was really clever at start and knew he will need to hide

It would be funny if satoshi's dox and home address were just sat in those PMs all along  ;D. Maybe he did an Ulbricht and colossally screwed up right at that start (I seriosuly doubt satoshi was as dumb as Ross)


I think satoshi is probably safe, but it's surprising how much the way people type gives them away sometimes (especially if they're still active on another account or elsewhere... would be hilarious if satoshi was still on the forum trolling on another account haha. Maybe he's one of the fud trolls  ;D.).  Most people have mannerisms or some identifying marks when they talk and especially type - typos, grammar mistakes, sentence/paragraph structure, specific slang or usual words they use. I've spotted quite a few alts (or suspected ones) over the years just by the way they type. mdayonliner fairly recently created a new account that he purposely wanted to keep separate and anonymous from his original and within a few days I had an inkling that it belonged to him. He then referred to me by a variation of my name in a specific way that I had only ever seen him use that gave the game away fully. A few other people have since noticed it. A similar thing could be used on satoshi, but again, I think he probably took this into consideration. The fact that he wasn't around for that long also helps. The longer people are here the more evidence and personality traits they leave behind and it becomes easier to identify them.


Why would you think some government would be hiding him and why would they be doing that? I think he just took sufficient steps to remain anonymous. Probably not that difficult to do if it's something you're conscious of before the get-go. Most of us here after all are mostly anonymous but with a few additional steps most people could leave little trace of things that could be tied back to them.


Why would he? I believe theymos has said before he doesn't know who he is, but whether you believe him or not is up to you. Satoshi seems to have taken sufficient steps to tell nobody about his identity and remain anon for obviosu reasons so I'm sure even theymos doesn't even know.

So I can start PMing my secrets to satoshi :D

I can think of a few reasons, for example: "Tell us where your private keys are or you'll be in this hole for the rest of your life".
Satoshi's last posts didn't look like someone who was going to leave the forum. There's a chance he's dead, he could have been hit in traffic. He could also be in jail.
On the other hand, if "Satoshi" was not just one person, but a group of people, it's much less likely they all had accidents. That means there was a reason to disappear into hiding.

I'm more curious why satoshi was hiding his identity from the start: did he know how big Bitcoin would get?
I don't think it's common for programmers to take measures to protect their privacy when they post a beta on SourceForge.

Nobody could have predicted where bitcoin would go but I believe he did say something along the lines of (and I'm colossally paraphrasing here): In ten years time either nobody will be using it or everybody will be. There are a lots of potential reasons why he may have wished to be anonymous, but we'll probably never know his true reasons. Maybe he wasn't sure of the legality of it or didn't want to run into any potential legal problems in the future. I'm sure governments would have wanted to talk to him at least. If someone knew who he was then they could certainly pressure him to take bitcoin in a certain way or even try to sabotage it. Maybe he just didn't want the attention or hassle of being the founder/figurehead of it. Being famous in any sort of capacity for me would be a nightmare. I like my anonymity. I like being able to walk down the street and nobody hassle or bother me for anything. That changes when you're famous. Maybe satoshi also felt this way.

I do not deny that it's not possible to identify an account using the writing style (grammar, typos, sense of humour etc etc) however excuse me (LOL) please.

May I ask to PM me the account username please? I am really interested to see your skill.

Or may be digaran (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=806776) was him and now the Dig Bicks¹ (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2282043) LOL

¹ _{I read it Big Dicks}

You're welcome OP  ::)

Guess I have to wait another 50 years...

Yah... Marina5, i.e. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1142505

I think I recall Gavin Andersen meeting with the government. I can't remember if it was the FBI or some other section of the government but he did definitely meet with someone to talk about Bitcoin. I don't think the talks were all that successful and actually made the community question Gavin. I think this was around the time Satoshi went quiet on Gavin too and just up and left although I can't be sure. I'll try and find the thread that was here on the forum but it was a number of years ago. Speculation is speculation but one could assume Satoshi didn't want Gavin to go to the government whatever the meeting was about. Satoshi didn't seem comfortable with that and up and left. I think its fair to assume Satoshi wouldn't want his personal informaiton leaked to the public to as he has taken every precaution to do so. Although it must be said if Satoshi didn't trust theymos judgement he would of likely deleted the pms permanently. Especially if there were sensitive information in them.

Sorry I kind of went off on one there but my point being was the government would of defintely wanted at least a word with Satoshi because they did so with Gavin. They probably tried getting in contact with Satoshi many times but maybe he didn't answer. What could be interesting is whether the government signed up on this forum and messaged him asking for a meeting. I agree with a lot of people that its unfortunate that the pms wont be released but at the same time its only fair to those that he was in contact with.

I see no reason why someone who appeared from nowhere on a cryptography board would ever let anything slip to anyone under any circumstances.

For all Satoshi knew Theymos might have operated out of an internet cafe and went off to dinner leaving the screen open or let his roomies handle PMs when he was off on a hot date. One person knowing who you are is infinitely more troublesome than no one knowing who you are, let alone more of them.

What about destroying everything that is not in public view and end the debate ?

What if a user wants to come back? Whether this is Satoshi or someone else. I hate when email providers deactivate your account and don't allow you to reactivate it and delete all your data. That's silly to me when it literally takes up kbs in their database. I've lost some important information before because of this.

The historical significance will be epic. Historians will certainly want to know more about the "father of bitcoin". If you are right, and BTC takes over the world in 50 years, it's fair to say that humanity will want to know as much as possible. I guess it's a matter of balance the potential damage from disclosing and the benefit of humanity. It's a big decision. I'm excited to see them myself.

That makes a lot of sense. It does seem like an abrupt departure. I read an article of Wright claiming he and someone else he would not mention was terminally ill, and this unmentioned person died. If he left the forum without any indication, then I doubt it was a terminal illness.

Super fascinating.

The Satoshi Nakamoto Institute is compiling a library of all known Satoshi emails, code, forum posts, and quotes.
https://satoshi.nakamotoinstitute.org/

Well we could probably say the same for Ross Ulbricht  ;D. I think it's relatively easy to remain fully anonymous if you set out from the start to do so, but it's also relatively easy to screw up just that once... or twice. Satoshi used tor if I remember correctly, but I'm sure there's ways that can leak your IP occasionally, or if the FEDs are controlling certain exit nodes maybe they can grab your IP somehow. You could further mask this though by using tor via public wifi, a proxy or connecting via a throwaway simcard. You can still screw up in other ways though, but if you're committed to privacy and remaining anonymous it shouldn't be that difficult. I think the biggest way satoshi could be discovered was if he was a person that was already public known in the crypto-sphere and his writings could be compared to that person, but if he was a relative nobody then that's pretty much impossible, and if he was somebody he would have probably been linked already.


I don't think this should happen. As r1s2g3 said, it's possible (though not probable) satoshi could return one day and he may wish to find some information from his PMs (or maybe even delete it himself, but that should be left up to him). I'm sure satoshi was smart enough to not leave anything incriminating behind though, but even if he did then maybe fair game to anyone who did manage to get access to it.

Haven't you heard?  Craig Steven Wright couldn't prove he is Satoshi. So, he isn't. Even a message with the bitcoin security keys was released at the start of this year to reaffirm that CSW isn't satoshi.

If in any way Satoshi's PMs are worded this way, you should release them for a healthy dose of laughable enjoyment for everyone.

All I want for the BTCT 10 year anniversary is to have Satoshi talk like they're a founding member of TLC.

I think if the gov't wanted to read Satoshi's PMs they would have just hacked them out of BTCT and Theymos would never know/have known (unless they wanted him to).

And the people who exchanged private messages with him. Did any of them ever decide to reveal these messages? Several emails and conversations have been published, and many of those help us to better understand why certain functions or decisions regarding Bitcoin.

Maybe some of the people who exchanged messages with Satoshi using the forum could post those messages.

I believe that if some countries’ intelligence organizations really want to find Satoshi’s identity is possible.
This is not a difficult thing for the CIA, NSA，MI6, KGB, Mossad or other Intelligence agency.
Maybe someone is doing this, I even think that some countries may already know who Satoshi is, but for some purposes it is classified as confidential.
If Satoshi's identity is locked, someone who knows his identity may threaten him to hand over Bitcoin, and anyone who knows his identity may also be in danger.
Maybe Satoshi has been secretly imprisoned/killed, who knows?
Sometimes curiosity may not be a good thing. When you really know who is Satoshi, it also means you will be in danger. So I don't think we should do something like this, we just need to continue our bitcoin journey.

They could all have been in a car though? Then the team of satoshi could be taken out in one instant. It would have to have been someone who was known to have sufficient knowledge in hashcoins and data mining/hashing algorithms (although let’s assume they’re still alive). I’m starting to wonder how many people satoshi was, in his emails to hal and other people he always seems like he’s just one Pierson but the white paper refers to a we. I know at least one of the known bitcoin devs is said to look like they’ve co authored that white paper though.
He created something that’s sort of anti-bank anti-government. It’s orobably the reason why they wanted to remain anonymous.

@InvoKing, maybe he didn’t want to keep his bitcoins but needed to give the network a bit of a kick-start.
There are a lot of extremists against governments and central banks so he might have just been giving them a tool they could use to continue. Maybe he came back after the premise and is gosling 50 bitcoins now to this day, he’ll still make a nice amount of profit for his work...

The true optimist :D Now you know, if you're going to create a world-changing cryptocurrency: don't carpool.

That seems to be quite common in scientific papers.

Satoshi was Killed By the Government or was so in fear for his life that he went into Hiding.

David Chaum creator of Digicash and Ecash wrote an article in 1985 and  and the Title says it all - SECURITY WITHOUT IDENTIFICATION: TRANSACTION SYSTEMS TO MAKE BIG BROTHER OBSOLETE

Satoshi BTC program Eliminated Banks,Governments and Rich Elites Which made him more of a target to the financial system of the world. His program put the People back in control of their own finances.

When you fuck with the powers and finances of the Worlds Governments you are bound to have an "accident" along the way.

You can’t say you didn’t picture the scene.
Satoshi[0] I have got core running have you all got it working
Satoshi[1:5] Yes!
Satoshi[4] I’m hungry, fancy a (whatever satoshi likes: ice cream, chocolate cake, coffee)
(All get in a car)
(Too hyped from getting bitcoin core to work, the driver floors it and forgets the work on the road ahead)...
[they all survive obviously - I don’t want to be added to any registers]

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Undergrads make the discoveries in science and their funding supplier or funding getter normally take the credit for it. It’s not malpractice it normally counts towards 1/14th of the undergrads degree...

you dont have to read them or make them public. but i think you should take care and not lose them.

Looked out the window, no Starbucks, the ING branch is still there with its dam orange and blue lights
Slowly this has turned into another hunt for Satoshi topic with the usual "trust me I know who he is" proofs.


I think the chances for that happening when he left are slim but the chances that something really bad happened to him after that are far greater. After all, almost 10 years have passed and that's a lot, with that many accidents, crimes,  health problems and many others happening all over the place and not excluding he might have been in his 40s or 50s...who knows.

But, as far as the OP was concerned, the issue is solved....till somebody hacks theymos's mail :P

I’ve been going over @xtraelv’s post  Bitcointalk history of hacks and vandalism (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4405796.0), wondering if the subject PMs could have been accessed on any of the known 2011, 2013 or 2015 Bitcointalk hacks. In the referenced post, @theymos mentions that the attacker may have accessed PMs (in general) during the 2011 and 2013 attacks (during the 2015 attack he indicated that it was unlikely). Someone may (or may not) have the PMs without knowing what he has in his hands ...

It was grateful my hacker did not read my pm's I never put any info in there now that is valuable.
But for sure those PM's would be super valuable and of interest to many.

I am glad Theymos has decided not to reveal anything about satoshi but  if I am honest I would have liked to have read the pms, and would be hard to resist for myself just a quick glance over satoshis pm's if I was admin.

theymos is a man that changes his tune over time quite frequently based on the circumstances at the moment. A pre-2016 theymos quote is basically irrelevant today in most cases. A major change in thinking happened along the way and I think it’s highly unlikely theymos will release the information that he stated he would.

The actual quote is: "I'm sure that in 20 years there will either be very large transaction volume or no volume." -- Satoshi
The above is per what is on one of the factoids (https://bitcointalk.org/adrotate.php?adinfo) that are displayed in an ad slot in 10% of page views of people that display ads.

Even if bitcoin did not have the success that it did in 2012, there are plenty of reasons why governments would have frowned upon those who had created it, as in 2012 it allowed people to get around AML and tax rules. Obviously, now in 2021, bitcoin is much more successful than it was in 2012, and the success of bitcoin in 2021 is probably a once in a multi-lifetime event.

Would you consider releasing satoshi's PMs with the sender/recipient anonymized? For example, if kiba exchanged PMs with satoshi, you could change "kiba" to a random handle. It would not necessarily need to be a random string in order to allow for readability. You could also redact things such as names, addresses, bitcoin addresses, email addresses and similar. When discussing amounts of coin an individual has, you could redact the specific amounts. You could also only release PMs that were received by satoshi up to x time after he last logged into his account, as I am sure that a lot of crazy things have been sent to satoshi since he left the forum.

What I don’t quite understand is, does Satoshi Nakamoto really matter so much? People who are curious about Satoshi Nakamoto may be more concerned about the bitcoins in Satoshi Nakamoto's wallet. For a decentralized system, the great Satoshi Nakamoto has achieved decentralization from himself. Maybe Satoshi Nakamoto is a person who travels from the future or an alien, hhhhh.

I'm still disappointed with Yahoo about my deleted geocities websites...

I miss those under construction signs and the fire gifs.

I used to be really interested in finding out who Satoshi was as a person (not really doxing) and if he was still around and if he would come back..

Not so much anymore..

I think if Satoshi never requested any of his PMs to become public ever after a certain amount of time, or god forbid his IP history, then wipe them all..

Wipe em like the dust cloth Hillary used on her servers..
(They acted like those free programs were such expensive high tech)..

Rewrite those drives 50 times over with the spammers threads you can find on this forum.. Destroy it..

Unless you, theymos, think it is really historically significant, then just wipe it..

If not, monetize it..
When you feel it is enough time to release it, sell it to the highest bidder on a 1 year, 2 year, 5 year contract, that you will give it to them NOW, but hold off making it public for a set amount of time, to continue ensuring the continuance of his forum..

Whoever wants it so bad may be out for no good, but make them pay big to put towards good..

I think someone would pay $1mm+ to have access to this information a few years in advance of its public release, and if it is inconsequential anyway, take their money..

Long live Bitcoin and internet freedom!
Whatever suits these goals best..

I don't think any of those would necessarily identify a user. At least not with any amount of certainty. Also, the reason why someone might be targeted is not that they were talking with satoshi, it would be because someone might be able to infer how much coin they have, and the redactions I proposed should remove that risk.

IIRC, theymos has said in the past that satoshi always used tor to access the forum. So any IP logs would be from what was at the time tor exit nodes.

This thread should probably be locked. Theymos isn't going to do that. Private messages are and should remain private. That goes without saying. If satoshi or anyone else wanted his private correspondences to be read by everyone, he would have posted them out in the open. He didn't. Doing things like that would set the forum back.

I would like to know who satoshi is as well, but because I am curious. Not because I want to mess with him, doxx him or interfere with his life choice.

Most likely signature campaign participants getting their weekly/monthly posts in. I don’t know why anybody would want Satoshi to be somewhat doxed. It wouldn’t do any good for anybody.

Tor is pretty much expected, don't expect anything less from a man (I guess) who created BTC, don't think ip addresses would be helpful. But I'm curious about PMs. Theymos should reveal it before this information is gone with him.

I have not had so much personal interest about Satoshi. I am also very new in the forum to know how things had been before now and how they are now.
But I am personally convinced that Satoshi has not moved on, he is actively involved in Bitcoin things and also still present in the forum.
Someone can be 100% anonymous in the internet and not in real life.

I use myself for instance;
I am few months old in the forum and I am just a mere Full member. But even if I want to quit bitcointalk today, I will never hand my account over to an unknown person. I'll rather give a friend who is knowledgeable in the forum, to be sure that my account won't turn spam or red tagged before I could return.
Compare it to a whole forum. Satoshi should know Theymos identity to an extent, vice versa before the hand over.

hahahaha... Take this shit away man, you are only getting yourself more humiliated and believing that this man is Satoshi leads to no good.
More than 100 addresses from his "tulip trust" signed that he is not satoshi what else you need?
Just quit with the Off Topic.

This guy is way more "satoshi" than CSW

https://steemitimages.com/DQmcp5RyxRzQWVFajWWJbcc7uucB7NXd5HybM5fLJ3uYaJB/Dorian%20Nakamoto.jpg
Source of the image Steemit (https://steemit.com/doriannakamoto/@haberci/dorian-nakamoto-bitcoins-after-sales-possibly-usd-273-000-richer)