Is Ashish Gulhati, et al., Satoshi Nakamoto?

[Este Nuno]

He has what it takes to be Satoshi, but is he?

[oakpacific]

One counter-evidence: Satoshi seemed to be a Windows programmer, rather than a Linux programmer(which I don't think is an identity he needs to hide, after all there too many out there fit this stereotype)

I'm not sure what this means.  A programmer is a programmer is a programmer.  Programming is completely independent of the machine you code on.  A skilled programmer, like Meng Weng Wong, can move between sun/sgi/windows/linux/osx/cpm/macOS without a hiccup because he is a programmer.  We learned on SUN UNIX equipment, but could just as easily use Dr Badler's SGI array down the hall or the windows PC labs all over campus.  

Linux was invented in the 1990's it is far newer than microsoft's offerings.  It is logical to suppose that anyone over 30 started on a Windows PC rather than a Linux PC and might be fluid in either environment.

Ashish is obviously a thorough and thorough Linux/FOSS hacker with a strong ideological leaning if you check the materials provided by Bruno.

[Viceroy]

You are contradicting yourself, you said he did windows now you say he does linux...

I stand by my position that a "true" programmer can do either, the OS is largely irrelevant these days with linux shells in windows and windows power shell trying to be like linux. 

[oakpacific]

You are contradicting yourself, you said he did windows now you say he does linux...

I stand by my position that a "true" programmer can do either, the OS is largely irrelevant these days with linux shells in windows and windows power shell trying to be like linux.  

No, you simply did not carefully read my original post. I said Satoshi was a Windows programmer, while Ashish is a thorough Linux progrmmer(and a very ideological one), so they may not be the same person.

[Viceroy]

Thanks for the clarification.

[kodo]

hmm this is interesting, there are so many people that could be satoshi I dont know if we will ever know for sure, unless satoshi comes out and shows proof

[Phinnaeus Gage]

In case somebody's canonizing a Satoshi Bible: http://www.panix.com/~tehom/quotes.htm

Ashish Gulhati, hash@well.sf.ca.us

7. No plan survives the first contact intact.
13. Natural laws have no pity.
21. Always remember that stupidity is the only Universal Capital Crime.
26. If it's stupid, but it works, it ain't stupid.
36. Opening your mouth does create a space that your foot can fill all too easily.
37. Even Murphy's Law doesn't work all of the time.
39. Discretion is the better part of SURVIVAL.
41. There is a certain freedom in being totally screwed. It means that nothing you do is going to make it any worse.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

https://groups.google.com/group/rec.travel.misc/tree/browse_frm/month/1994-11/345effc2b85863b8?rnum=221&utoken=Dyg4iSgAAAB-Cm_4Vy6NXdGn8Iz_A4rSrjerLTQgi5a18R7AtZrJO2a51OX86NFnmbN1eX6nxYU&_done=%2Fgroup%2Frec.travel.misc%2Fbrowse_frm%2Fmonth%2F1994-11%3Futoken%3DDyg4iSgAAAB-Cm_4Vy6NXdGn8Iz_A4rSrjerLTQgi5a18R7AtZrJO2a51OX86NFnmbN1eX6nxYU%26#doc_e1c00cbea51634ce

Ashish Gulhati     View profile  More options Nov 8 1994, 9:15 am

Slightly wacky 21 year old freelance student, writer, philosopher and
technical consultant from India - on a tour of the US with a $320 USA
Rail pass and 3 shoestrings seeks hosts in S.F. and Las Vegas. If you
can supply this weary traveller with a bed for a night, a place to put
his rucksack, and a power point to plug in his powerbook for
recharging, he will be eternally grateful.

Seriously - I will be in Las Vegas for Comdex around the 15th to the
18th, and in SF from the 19th to the 22nd. If anyone can host me for
this time I will be very thrilled. I am on a zero money budget because
the currency conversion coming from India totally screws things up
financially. I can sing for my dinner and entertain you with
incredible tales from India and from places I have travelled in the US
(I'm interviewing Richard Stallman tomorrow). I also discuss
philosophy and cyberspace issues engagingly, am fully toilet trained,
and never heard of O.J. Simpson.

My itinerary looks like this:

Mon Nov 14-15: 1345-1935 Train to Vegas
Wed Nov 16-18: Las Vegas (COMDEX)
Fri Nov 19:    0830-2135 Train to SF
Sat Nov 19-22: SF

finger hash@well.sf.ca.us to find out more about me, and send me mail
at the same address if you think you can accomodate me.

TIA.

Ashish
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ashish Gulhati                hash@well.sf.ca.us      "Existence Exists"
140 Sunder Nagar,             hash on IRC
New Delhi 03, INDIA           Sysop @ 6:606/7
Phone: +91-11-4615433         FAX/BBS +91-11-4601978            Ayn Rand
------------------------------------------------------------------------

For those aware, Ashish was not making a joke when he penned...

...am fully toilet trained...

...but for those not up to speed, truth is stranger than fiction. Let's just say that nobody may want a guest in their home that doesn't use toilet paper, especially if they don't understanding the concept of it. Think the three shells in The Demolition Man.

I've been to India, and Benjamin will concur with the following: Once, while holding court with several young men, one asked me why all the toilet paper in my case. I had to resort to pantomiming its use, whereupon they were all simply amazed.

[Benson Samuel]

Fat lady sang



Well, doubt he would have admitted it anyways

[Bitinvestor]

Well, doubt he would have admitted it anyways

Yes, until somebody comes up with a better candidate he will remain my favourite.

[PrintMule]

but what will the lost prophet change?

[wtfvanity]

A few more just for fun.

http://www.cypherspace.org/bitcoin/satoshi.html
http://www.cypherspace.org/adam/

Adam Back sure wants hashcash credited with bitcoin's invention. That is enough for me to think it isn't him because he is trying to claim credit for it. But Ashish... that's a little more interesting.

[Benson Samuel]

Adam Back sure wants hashcash credited with bitcoin's invention. That is enough for me to think it isn't him because he is trying to claim credit for it. But Ashish... that's a little more interesting.

Yes, Adam Beck came up as well in Phinnaeus's links.
May have contributed a lot to the build up of the final product as well.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Amazingly, Bitcoin was nearing its first release into the wild shortly after the death of James Orlin Grabbe: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Orlin_Grabbe

James Orlin Grabbe (pron.: /ˈɡreɪbiː/; October 8, 1947 – March 15, 2008)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Orlin_Grabbe#Digital_Monetary_Trust

In November 1999, a series of articles in the Laissez Faire City Times presented the Digital Monetary Trust project, which was a proposed financial trust providing private, anonymous accounts for individuals and entities within the DMT system, in order to securely store anonymous capital or to make anonymous monetary transactions.

That is, the DMT will be in the business of providing privacy, and doing so in a cryptographical framework which provides a more solid basis for customer anonymity than the traditional ones of (allegedly) tight-lipped bankers or (often-leaky) banking secrecy laws.

—Orlin Grabbe

Where was Grabbe during the mid to late 1999? Laissez Faire City.

Where was Ashish during the same time period? Same place.

Who at Laissez Faire City during the same time had the capability to develop such a system? Not Sonny Vleisides and his gang of programmers.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

http://www.hashcash.org/source/CHANGELOG

update everything to point at http://www.hashcash.org now we
     have the domain courtesy of it's previous owner Ashish
     Gulhati <agul@cpan.org> (at no charge -- he declined my
     offer to pay for it and instead gave it to me!)

But hashcash.com is still controlled by Ashish and redirects to his site http://neomailbox.com/

Which begs the questions, was hashcash derived from a play on words since Ashish Gulhati has used the moniker/pseudonym 'hash' since the mid 90's?

Ashish registered in his name all top level domains (.com, .net, .org) for hashcash back in March of 2001, only giving the .org one to Adam Back.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

This is odd!: http://netropolis.in/silklist/msg04198.html

Re: [silk] Free Dmitry Sklyarov!

Subject: Re: [silk] Free Dmitry Sklyarov!
From: Ashish Gulhati <hash@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2001 19:39:28 +0530
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From: Eugene Leitl <Eugene.Leitl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [silk] Free Dmitry Sklyarov!
Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2001 17:18:10 +0200 (MET DST)

> camram-spam folks are working on an implementation. Essentially, you
> refuse mail delivery unless it's paid with a digicash token. If it's not a
> spam, you return the token. If you run out of your digicash stash, you're
> grounded.

As digital cash systems become more widespread, paying for mailing
will become trivial. There are a number of systems that could be used
today.

Also see Adam Back's hashcash (no relation) system which implements a
solution using payment in processing time, which is essentially the
same deterrent that keeps script kiddies from being able to easily
implement remote dictionary attacks against unix system passwords.

#!

Clearly this is written by Ashish. Note his sig that he's used elsewhere--#!.

The hashcash domains were registered in his name in March of the same year the email exchanges took place, yet he's distancing himself from it.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

From the I-can't-believe-what-I-just-found file:

Am the "Ashish Goel" in question. Not sure whether anyone is still reading this thread, but here goes some stuff.

a) I did read everything about bitcoin on its web page

b) Yes, the ripple model is the one I am more excited about. I am not the one who came up with the model (references are in http://arxiv.org/abs/1007.0515) -- I am just developing theory for it with some students and trying to understand applications. So have no vested interest in pushing one model over the other. Also, not saying that ripple will work as a company, just that it is a more interesting currency.

c) There is no need to point guns at anyone in the credit network model (our name for the ripple currency) -- the point of the model is that everyone accepts whatever currency they want, from whatever user, for whatever amount they like.

d) I understand this is a bitcoin forum, so this will be an unpopular view. But I believe that a currency can only work if there is someone backing it. In a true P2P currency, trust must be vested in peers. Bitcoin relies completely on convention, which risks going the same way as the "tulip trade".

e) Lots of nice beautiful stuff about bitcoin. Big fan of the beautiful crytographic ideas. Only disagreeing with the part about it not being clear who is being trusted.

f) Any questions about the math in the paper or comments on the credit network model or ideas regarding the open problems? Shoot me an email at ashishg AT stanford DOT edu. Or just leave a comment here and I will monitor it.

What is it with the name Ashish besides putting an H in front of it and dropping the last three letters resulting in Hash?

[Bitinvestor]

What is it with the name Ashish besides putting an H in front of it and dropping the last three letters resulting in Hash?

You should smoke some then you'll know 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashish

[YaCoinYeah]

...

http://thefree.in/

FREE was created in July 1994 by Ashish Gulhati, Dr. Arun Mehta and Rishab Aiyer Ghosh as an online forum dedicated to protecting and enhancing fundamental human rights in the electronic domain, and representing the interests of the electronic community in India.

http://web.archive.org/web/19970227011758/http://www.netropolis.org/hash/

<follow the link to read the following in its original format>

http://web.archive.org/web/19970418092412im_/http://www.netropolis.org/hash/graphics/hash

My company, Netropolis Technologies, provides consultancy, training and software for Internetworking applications.

...

Rand

IMHO, Ayn Rand was this century's most profound thinker and the greatest literary artist of all time. Her portrayal of man as an independent, efficacious, rational being is worth experiencing, no matter which side you take in the violent controversy that surrounds her and her works.

No matter with an IQ of 180 - anyone who believe's the bolded comments above is either extremely narrow minded or certifiably crazy.

Major in philosophy, and prefers Ayn Rand over giants like Deluze, Nietzsche, Sartre...

[Phinnaeus Gage]

What is it with the name Ashish besides putting an H in front of it and dropping the last three letters resulting in Hash?

You should smoke some then you'll know 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashish

Yes, the full spelling of hash did slightly elude me, only pointing out the term associated with computers--hash.

I took a puff of hash once, thinking at the time that you should take a deep puff and hold it like I've done only a small times before with dank. I learnt afterwards that the shit expands in your lungs. I'm pretty sure it was from that day forward I considerably scaled back my ulta-minor drug habit.

To this day, I never spend money on drugs, with the exception of purchasing a purple microdot (of which I gave away to ?) in San Diego while at Mission Bay after completing Naval boot camp.