Satoshi might be mentally derranged

[Epicurus]

I think he intended to become rich. I think he intended to remain anonymous to make it easier for people to forget that advancing Bitcoin makes him richer. In fact, all future Bitcoin users are what speculators are banking on for profit. It's not that different from a Ponzi scheme...but it's not technically a Ponzi scheme (Or, it's no more a Ponzi scheme than fiat).

Well, there's a big difference: Fiat currency has governments with big militaries to back it up. They decide who owns what physical property, and they decide what currency you owe your property taxes in. Therefore, there will be a huge demand (by the government) for fiat currency, and that demand is driven by an entity that has a crapload of guns to force you to pay it in its fiat currency. BTC has no such benefactor.

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[Remember remember the 5th of November]

He even knows Satoshi's e-mail

Well anyone can see Satoshi's e-mail.  It used to be located at the bottom of the bitcoin.org page in 2009 and can be viewed with the webarchive tool here http://web.archive.org/web/20090303195936/http://bitcoin.org/

Now, whether or not he'll respond is another question 

Speaking of that e-mail, I also found an old binary of bitcoin 1.3.0 which is from Jan 9 2009, I tried strings to see if I could extract some leftover data from his build environment, but the only thing that came up was MinGW 3.4.5.

Really, the only way to find his true identity, is if someone who has had replies via his e-mail to view the raw headers and his IP should be there, unless he used Tor.

[Hawkix]

Satoshi is a NSA group codename for a plot to explore the space of SHA2 partial collisions.

[flatfly]

He even knows Satoshi's e-mail

Well anyone can see Satoshi's e-mail.  It used to be located at the bottom of the bitcoin.org page in 2009 and can be viewed with the webarchive tool here http://web.archive.org/web/20090303195936/http://bitcoin.org/

Now, whether or not he'll respond is another question 

Speaking of that e-mail, I also found an old binary of bitcoin 1.3.0 which is from Jan 9 2009, I tried strings to see if I could extract some leftover data from his build environment, but the only thing that came up was MinGW 3.4.5.

Really, the only way to find his true identity, is if someone who has had replies via his e-mail to view the raw headers and his IP should be there, unless he used Tor.

He did use Tor. IMHO the only people who might be able to help crack this nut are GMX admins (German company I believe - no time to check this now).

[Its About Sharing]

If Satoshi(s) were publicly around right now, you all realize they would be considered enemies of the State, much like Assange?

Though governments (or rather banks) are not publicly attacking bitcoin right now, if the person or persons behind Bitcoin were public, they wouldn't be safe and for many reasons. And you can all be certain Bitcoin is high on the watch list.

When Bitcoin starts to gain more acceptance they (Satoshi's) would well become public figures with power, sort of how like John Lennon of the Beatles did. And then when he started going against government/wars he was suddenly assassinated by a "crazy fan".

The best thing for Satoshi, is to remain silent. As another poster said, we are all basically Satoshi...

IMS

[Ekaros]

Or maybe it was just a thought experiment for him? A nice toy project?

[Bitcoin Oz]

Maybe satoshi is just a brilliant mind like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Forbes_Nash,_Jr

[rpietila]

It is not inconceivable that the original computer that Satoshi used as the 24/7 backbone of the Bitcoin network in 2009 and early 2010, also happened to mine 1 million coins. Sergio is talking about this.

Now, we know that the genesis block cannot be spent, because Satoshi thought it would be "unfair". Perhaps he thinks the same about these coins. Perhaps not.

Probably he is at this very moment thinking, which would be better for the universe:

- Send a message using those private keys, telling that he is about to never spend them. Possibly the coins would even be collectively banned after such a message. (Some communists have suggested this solution as a forced group decision without asking the owner of the coins.)
- Start spending them, essentially forming the largest bitcoin wealth & power center, far above the Winklevoss and the smaller fish. This comes with both privileges and responsibilities.
- Leave us in the state of confusion for some more time.


At the point when you possess the capability of generating something as valuable as this, you have a very different mindset towards money than that of the ones who want to have more of it, for the reason of getting a better life.

[RoxxR]

It is not inconceivable that the original computer that Satoshi used as the 24/7 backbone of the Bitcoin network in 2009 and early 2010, also happened to mine 1 million coins. Sergio is talking about this.

Now, we know that the genesis block cannot be spent, because Satoshi thought it would be "unfair". Perhaps he thinks the same about these coins. Perhaps not.

Probably he is at this very moment thinking, which would be better for the universe:

- Send a message using those private keys, telling that he is about to never spend them. Possibly the coins would even be collectively banned after such a message. (Some communists have suggested this solution as a forced group decision without asking the owner of the coins.)
- Start spending them, essentially forming the largest bitcoin wealth & power center, far above the Winklevoss and the smaller fish. This comes with both privileges and responsibilities.
- Leave us in the state of confusion for some more time.


At the point when you possess the capability of generating something as valuable as this, you have a very different mindset towards money than that of the ones who want to have more of it, for the reason of getting a better life.

Are you aware that DPR owns 600,000 coins (and that's a very conservative estimate)?

[rpietila]

Are you aware that DPR owns 600,000 coins (and that's a very conservative estimate)?

I don't know who is DPR?

[VishwaJay]

I want to point out something that doesn't seem to be occurring to anyone:

Not all profits are financial in nature. I've done random anonymous things which benefited people and had no expectation of being paid--I've even created a millionaire and live a very humble life. It's why I became a priest. But not all selfless people become priests, and not all priests are selfless people.... the point (before I digress too far) is that we all have our motivations for doing what we do, and starting a currency system which benefits the world is right up the alley of several people I know.

If Satoshi is an individual, I think he/she has earned privacy. Knowing who he/she is will not change Bitcoin, will not alter one bit what has happened so far, and will not create any new and wonderful system.

If Satoshi is a group, I think they are smart to avoid publicity.

In both cases, everyone expects there to be someone with a big ego, a major player, someone who has a lot to gain or lose with the publicity. And in truth, the best cryptographers in the world are people nobody knows the names of. So if this person is simply some highly-talented cryptographer who had never actually put anything together publicly, but in fact had the world's benefit at heart, I wholeheartedly wish him/her the best and reiterate that knowing this person's identity is not likely to be resolved any time soon.

Satoshi very likely crafted the identity to avoid the very kinds of attention that Gaven Andresen is having to deal with, but would have the added pressure of being "the guy who invented it all" and likely would have to take the brunt of a lot of verbal abuse from people who believed him to be the next incarnation of Satan or something. And so out of respect for the obvious talent of this individual to let go of any need to be a central figure, I offer heartfelt thanks for being strong enough to step out of the limelight and just allow Bitcoin to grow "in the wild" as it were, without having to be the one pumping it up into something it's not, or whatever.

Privacy should be observed.

And yes, we're kinda curious, but if we can't handle our curiosity, how can we possibly handle the anxiety of working with a new currency that every financial magazine is cursing out right now? Governments are trying to figure out ways to control it behind the scenes, since they really can't justify regulating something that has no controls on it. And that, perhaps is the biggest favor that Satoshi did to the world: robbing authorities of the ability to place controls, because the originator is simply anonymous in nature.

I believe that this is the very reason that I will never pry into Satoshi's identity. Not that I expect everyone to fall in line behind me, but I do hope that nobody ever finds out the real identity or identities.

[VishwaJay]

DPR = Dread Pirate Roberts = founder and main operator of Silk Road drug trafficking site that buys/sells things with BTC.

Nice article in Forbes about him.

[Herodes]

I think this fucking nut might have just deleted all those early coins he mined in a fit of rage, seriously, starting to think this.  Most of those early blocks never moved. 

Maybe he got off to live as a munk in a mountain somewhere and doesn't know about bitcoins success!

[rpietila]

DPR = Dread Pirate Roberts = founder and main operator of Silk Road drug trafficking site that buys/sells things with BTC.

Nice article in Forbes about him.

I don't have nearly as many. He must be the richest person on Earth, then. Is there anyone else who publicly owns 100kBTC or more?

[oakpacific]

DPR = Dread Pirate Roberts = founder and main operator of Silk Road drug trafficking site that buys/sells things with BTC.

Nice article in Forbes about him.

I don't have nearly as many. He must be the richest person on Earth, then. Is there anyone else who publicly owns 100kBTC or more?

Wall observer thread regular "Loaded", 40K provable cold storage, more than 100K claimed.

About DPR: of course, since when is the world's largest public drug market owner not the richest person?

EDIT: I think there is at least a hint of possiblity that DPR is actually Satoshi.

[jubalix]

I think he intended to become rich. I think he intended to remain anonymous to make it easier for people to forget that advancing Bitcoin makes him richer. In fact, all future Bitcoin users are what speculators are banking on for profit. It's not that different from a Ponzi scheme...but it's not technically a Ponzi scheme (Or, it's no more a Ponzi scheme than fiat).

it's a ponzi scheme (but actually no it's not...anyway), except this time were have better sovereignty/currency so our ponzi scheme will out compete the FIAT ponzi scheme.

[rebuilder]

Are you aware that DPR owns 600,000 coins (and that's a very conservative estimate)?

Is that the Silkroad wallet amount? While DPR probably can control those funds at will, it's not quite the same as saying they own those coins. Those are Silkroad users' coins, right?

[wumpus]

Not everyone cares that much about money and attention. Some people just like to be left alone and and work on interesting projects, some of which may improve the world. That doesn't make someone mentally deranged.

[justusranvier]

While DPR probably can control those funds at will, it's not quite the same as saying they own those coins.

It's all well and good to say that possession doesn't equal ownership in some abstract normative sense, but what's the point if saying that has absolutely no relationship with what's actually happening in the real world?

The empirical facts, and the rules which are enforced by the Bitcoin protocol, are that DPR owns those coins. Most of them are coins he's promised to return to the people who gave them to him. He may or may not keep that promise.

It's the same situation with banks, bitcoin exchanges, web wallets, etc. When you give up possession of your bitcoins (dollars, euros, etc) you don't own them in any meaningful sense any more. You've given them away in exchange for a promise to give them back to you at some point in the future.

Promises can be broken. Better make sure what you're getting in return is worth the risk.

[oleganza]

Satoshi probably would never spend his coins as that may reveal his identity. I wouldn't be surprised if he destroyed the keys for all his early BTC so he wouldn't be tempted to use them some time later. He could still mine a lot of BTC for himself when number of miners significantly increased, but that would not include easily traceable coins from 2009.