Satoshi's white paper..."he" said "we", lends weight to the idea it was a group

[jubalix]

Just read the white paper again, and this may have been noted by others, but just in case

The paper reads

We define an electronic coin as a chain of digital signatures.

We consider the scenario of an attacker

We now consider how long the recipient

We have proposed a system

http://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

so unless a deliberate red herring, it is indicative of more than one person.

[oakpacific]

Majestic plural maybe?

[jubalix]

Majestic plural maybe?

perhaps

put I think it seems to read more in the flow of the text as "we" as in a group.

also the paper seems to be a lot different then what I have read of statoshi's in forum posts. Ok the context is different but not that different.

I'm not hard and fast about this, but it is interesting

[FreeMoney]

That's how I was taught to write mathematics papers.

Considering that he was hiding it in every other context it seems more likely that if he were a they they would be self-conscious about using 'we' and avoid it.

[BTC Books]

Majestic plural maybe?

The tutorial plural, I think.

[bg002h]

Yup -- royal we without question. That is the normal way to write formal scientific publications.

[Come-from-Beyond]

Just read the white paper again, and this may have been noted by others, but just in case

The paper reads

We define an electronic coin as a chain of digital signatures.

We consider the scenario of an attacker

We now consider how long the recipient

We have proposed a system

http://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

so unless a deliberate red herring, it is indicative of more than one person.

Here he says "I":

How long have you been working on this design Satoshi?  It seems very well thought out, not the kind of thing you just sit down and code up without doing a lot of brainstorming and discussion on it first.  Everyone has the obvious questions looking for holes in it but it is holding up well

Since 2007.  At some point I became convinced there was a way to do this without any trust required at all and couldn't resist to keep thinking about it.  Much more of the work was designing than coding.

Fortunately, so far all the issues raised have been things I previously considered and planned for.

[oakpacific]

Majestic plural maybe?

The tutorial plural, I think.

Would be crazy if he also wanted it to imply "We the People".

[kokjo]

im also writing math paper with WE instead of I.

[Zangelbert Bingledack]

Yes, this "we" is standard usage (for scientific papers, not forum posts of course) even if it really is just one person.

Nothing to read into this at all.

[jubalix]

Yes, this "we" is standard usage (for scientific papers, not forum posts of course) even if it really is just one person.

Nothing to read into this at all.

Yes I know this is standard paper stuff

but still....

also the I in the forum maybe the coder only answering

[kokjo]

Yes, this "we" is standard usage (for scientific papers, not forum posts of course) even if it really is just one person.

Nothing to read into this at all.

Yes I know this is standard paper stuff

but still....

also the I in the forum maybe the coder only answering

I use I in my forum posts, and WE("vi" in danish) or ONE("man" in danish) in my math papers...

[uMMcQxCWELNzkt]

I often say we when promoting an idea to the public, saying I creates an impression of ownership. My current understanding of Bitcoin is that Satoshi wants it to be a group effort that "we" develop.

[kokjo]

I often say we when promoting an idea to the public, saying I creates an impression of ownership. My current understanding of Bitcoin is that Satoshi wants it to be a group effort that "we" develop.

this is not it!

In academic paper people uses WE.

[noedaRDH]

Just because he used "we" (common usage in academic papers) it doesn't mean that Satoshi is hinting that he is part of some group.

[btcmind]

I think its pretty certain that it was only one person. Otherwise, why release the paper to get feedback and then release the code a few months later?

[charleshoskinson]

All of the math papers I've written have used the pronoun we instead of I regardless of collaboration. It's a standard convention in the sciences. Most discoveries and innovations are based upon prior work thus it is an homage to the community using we.

[franky1]

yep talking about the world economy "we" not a secret tribe of hackers and coders he worked with to create bitcoin

[Stunna]

He's just talking about the collective community behind bitcoins.

[giszmo]

We just decided to write all our forum posts as "we". It helps us get the respect we deserve.