[2015-12-09] Time: The One Big Reason Why It Matters Who Invented Bitcoin

[pawel7777]

The One Big Reason Why It Matters Who Invented Bitcoin

http://time.com/4142523/bitcoin-inventor-satoshi-nakamoto-craig-wright/

It's about more than mere curiosity

Australian police raided the home of one Craig Wright Wednesday, mere hours after two publications alleged that he is the secretive inventor of Bitcoin, a decentralized digital currency that’s become a darling of tech-savvy libertarians seeking an alternative to dollars, euros and so on.

So far, Australian authorities say the raid against Wright has nothing to do with reports in Wired and Gizmodo suggesting he is Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator. Those publications provided ample evidence tying Wright to Nakamoto. But they also stressed that Wright could be trying to trick journalists and the legions of other Bitcoin-watchers who have made a hobby of seeking Nakamoto’s true identity.
...
Assuming Wright is indeed Bitcoin’s creator, that leaves him with an interesting conundrum. Bitcoin is beloved by free-market types because it has no central bank, no Fed, no Janet Yellen controlling the money supply. But if Bitcoin’s alleged creator really is sitting on a half-billion dollar stockpile of the stuff, he will have become the kind of central banker archetype that Bitcoin’s die-hard fans consider their personal boogeyman. Should Wright cash out and make off with a more widely-accepted currency like dollars, Bitcoin may never recover from the price shock triggered by the sudden glut in supply. Thus, the destiny of a supposedly decentralized currency may rest in the hands of one person — exactly the fate it was created to avoid.

[5w00p]

Did you read the caption below the photo? 

[pawel7777]

Did you read the caption below the photo? 

This one?


A pile of Bitcoin slugs sit in a box ready to be minted by Software engineer Mike Caldwell in his shop on April 26, 2013 in Sandy, Utah.

[pawel7777]

Fortune has different opinion on the subject:

Who Is Satoshi Nakamoto, Inventor of Bitcoin? It Doesn't Matter:

http://fortune.com/2015/12/09/bitcoin-satoshi-identity/

[Carlton Banks]

if Bitcoin’s alleged creator really is sitting on a half-billion dollar stockpile of the stuff, he will have become the kind of central banker archetype that Bitcoin’s die-hard fans consider their personal boogeyman. Should Wright cash out and make off with a more widely-accepted currency like dollars, Bitcoin may never recover from the price shock triggered by the sudden glut in supply. Thus, the destiny of a supposedly decentralized currency may rest in the hands of one person — exactly the fate it was created to avoid.

There's some technical quirk whereby those coins, or at least a substantial amount of the earliest Satoshi coins, cannot be spent. Escapes me what that quirk is specifically, someone will probably remember before I find it in search though

[5w00p]

Did you read the caption below the photo?  

This one?


A pile of Bitcoin slugs sit in a box ready to be minted by Software engineer Mike Caldwell in his shop on April 26, 2013 in Sandy, Utah.

I can imagine that photo/caption combo would likely confuse a cryptocurrency neophyte, as it isn't made clear why an exclusively-digital currency would entail "minted" physical coins.

[Bitware]

lol @ bitcoin slugs waiting to be minted.

[harrymmmm]

if Bitcoin’s alleged creator really is sitting on a half-billion dollar stockpile of the stuff, he will have become the kind of central banker archetype that Bitcoin’s die-hard fans consider their personal boogeyman. Should Wright cash out and make off with a more widely-accepted currency like dollars, Bitcoin may never recover from the price shock triggered by the sudden glut in supply. Thus, the destiny of a supposedly decentralized currency may rest in the hands of one person — exactly the fate it was created to avoid.

There's some technical quirk whereby those coins, or at least a substantial amount of the earliest Satoshi coins, cannot be spent. Escapes me what that quirk is specifically, someone will probably remember before I find it in search though

Are you thinking of the genesis block coinbase?
There is a 50 coin glitch there, but I don't recall any other problems.

[hiddensphinx]

If it is true according to Gizmodo that Dave Kleiman

kept a heavy-duty USB drive on his person at all times. Paige believes it might have been made by the brand Corsair — which boasts that its products are encased in “an anodized aircraft-grade aluminium housing.” If he really did possess a Satoshi Nakamoto-level fortune, it may have been sitting on that drive.

Also that his business partners

Paige and Conrad recall watching him type in 40- and 50-character passphrases to access his devices and files

So if wallet.dat containg 1 million Bitcoins was on that USB then we can assume those coins dies with him if he never revealed his pass phrases to anyone.

http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2015/12/the-strange-life-and-death-of-dave-kleiman-a-computer-genius-linked-to-bitcoins-origins/

Also an error in the Time article

Indeed, there’s a mysterious cache of 1.1 million Bitcoin, worth about half a billion American dollars as of this writing, visible on Bitcoin’s public ledger.

The largest wallet on the Blockchain is 169,732 BTC   

[Kakmakr]

I cannot see how they can link a value to those coins, if a once off dump would crash the price, and it would be worth much less than it is now. Even if 1 bitcoin is spend and it gets picked up by the Bitcoin community, the price will drop, because a lot of people would start selling, in anticipation of a once off dump.

This is a lot more complex than what most people think. The best thing for all of us, is if Satoshi would just burn those coins and he or she or they or it, sell the coins they mined after that.

[Carlton Banks]

if Bitcoin’s alleged creator really is sitting on a half-billion dollar stockpile of the stuff, he will have become the kind of central banker archetype that Bitcoin’s die-hard fans consider their personal boogeyman. Should Wright cash out and make off with a more widely-accepted currency like dollars, Bitcoin may never recover from the price shock triggered by the sudden glut in supply. Thus, the destiny of a supposedly decentralized currency may rest in the hands of one person — exactly the fate it was created to avoid.

There's some technical quirk whereby those coins, or at least a substantial amount of the earliest Satoshi coins, cannot be spent. Escapes me what that quirk is specifically, someone will probably remember before I find it in search though

Are you thinking of the genesis block coinbase?
There is a 50 coin glitch there, but I don't recall any other problems.

No, I'm using specific language like "at least a substantial amount of the earliest Satoshi coins, cannot be spent" because I definitely recall someone very technically knowledgeable saying that. I will have to look.