Tatsuaki Okamoto = Satoshi Nakamoto?

[flatfly]

This doesn't make sense at all. Why would someone who went to such great lengths to remain anonymous choose a name that is so similar to his real name?

[Severian]

The anonymity is there for a reason: Satoshi wants to left alone.

I have to wonder if he does.

[Severian]

There might be a possibility that discovering who Satoshi Nakamoto really is could destroy bitcoin.

Then Bitcoin wouldn't be a very resilient technology and would need to be replaced with something better.

[Cryptoman]

Normally I don't take "Satoshi is x" threads too seriously, but since Severian started this one, I decided to take a closer look.  If Satoshi isn't Okamoto, he might be one of Okamoto's co-authors.  One could make a list of all of his western co-authors (there aren't that many) and see if any of the names connect with anyone known in bitcoin circles.  He co-authored a paper with David Chaum in 1991 titled "Direct zero knowledge proofs of computational power in five rounds."  The coding style of the Satoshi client is consistent with someone who learned programming before 1990 or so.  I think there's a good chance Satoshi is still active in bitcoin circles, just operating under a different pseudonym.  One could entertain a study of all the pull requests submitted by pseudonymous persons over the last two years and see if any suggest that they came from someone with a very intimate knowledge of the code.

[Severian]

 If Satoshi isn't Okamoto, he might be one of Okamoto's co-authors.  

I'd considered that. Or it might be a few people working through one persona acting as a secretary. I think we're in the right ball park here even if we might be over in left field.

[kayrice]

I don't think Satoshi's goal was to hide forever because that doesn't matter. I think his goal was to hide while Bitcoin was still bootstrapping itself. I think enough time has passed and his risk should be considered lower. If anyone gets him there is nothing he can do to change Bitcoin now.

[Severian]

I don't think Satoshi's goal was to hide forever because that doesn't matter.

Agreed. Looking at this now, he was hiding in plain sight. I want to send the guy a present for giving the world such a great gift. We can only hope that Bitcoin is stronger than the human tendency to screw up good things.

[ViolentDelights]

Regarding the similarity of names, It appears that Tatsuaki Okamoto and Satoshi Nakamoto are about as similar as George Johnson and Dave Richardson.

Sure, they have similar letter strings, and to someone who didn't speak English, it might appear peculiar. I can't help but be curious if someone from Japan finds the names to be as similar as we might.

[glon]

sorry I'm just curious, is it really important we know who satoshi is? Even if someone did know with absolute certainty, who he is... Would he/she even reveal him/her to the world?

I mean think about it. Satoshi gave us this amazing technology. Would anyone really want to expose satoshi's identity? Satoshi invented crytocurrency. A huge part of cryptocurrency is anonymity. The anonymity is there for a reason: Satoshi wants to left alone. Why persue knowing who he/she is?

To paraphrase Mallory, "because he's there".

But seriously, I know he posted in this forum... Did anyone ever look into the forums logs to maybe trace him by IP(s)?

[Bitcoin Roll]

Looking for him is really a waste of time.  Do something better than searching for a ghost with you most valuable commodity (time).

[threeip]

This doesn't make sense at all. Why would someone who went to such great lengths to remain anonymous choose a name that is so similar to his real name?

There do seem to be some connections between the two, but what flatfly said is most probably correct - why not Michael Thompson or Juan Hernandez?

[legitnick]

I doubt it. Satoshi speaks perfect english, and ive never seen him type in japanese I think hes from britian

[glon]

Did anyone ever look into the forums logs to maybe trace him by IP(s)?

[Perseus353]

Here's a paper by Okamoto and Ohta, first published in  1992

Advances in Cryptology — CRYPTO ’91
Lecture Notes in Computer Science Volume 576, 1992, pp 324-337

Universal Electronic Cash
Tatsuaki Okamoto, Kazuo Ohta

http://pdf.aminer.org/000/120/358/universal_electronic_cash.pdf


It would make sense that Satoshi Nakamoto is Okamoto or both Okamoto and Ohta, if they had been thinking about the problem and challenge of making an electronic cash system for nearly two decades before they produced bitcoin.

[Perseus353]

Here is a patent by Ohta and Okamoto from 1990:

http://www.google.co.uk/patents?hl=en&lr=&vid=USPAT4977595&id=AqAkAAAAEBAJ&oi=fnd&dq=electronic+cash&printsec=abstract#v=onepage&q=electronic%20cash&f=false

"Publication number   US4977595 A
Publication type   Grant
Application number   07/500,555
Publication date   11 Dec 1990
Filing date   28 Mar 1990
Priority date   3 Apr 1989
Also published as   CA2013368A1, 6 More »
Inventors   Kazuo Ohta, Tatsuaki Okamoto

Method and apparatus for implementing electronic cash
US 4977595 A
ABSTRACT
In an electronic cash implementing method, a user makes a bank apply a blind signature to user information Vi produced, by a one-way function, from secret information Si containing identification information, thereby obtaining signed user information. Further, the user makes the bank apply a blind signature to information containing authentication information Xi produced, by a one-way function, from random information Ri, thereby obtaining signed authentication information. The user uses an information group containing the signed user information, the signed authentication information, the user information and the authentication information, as electronic cash for payment to a shop. The shop verifies the validity of the signed user information and the signed authentication information, and produces and sends to the user an inquiry. In response to the inquiry the user produces a response Yi by using secret information and random information and sends it to the shop. Having verified the validity of the response the shop accepts the electronic cash."

[Perseus353]

And a few more patents by Okamoto in the same field:

It's seems highly likely that he is Satoshi -- if he has been working in this area for such a long time, and then create such a flawless system like bitcoin.


Electronic cash implementing method using an anonymous public key license (1996)

https://www.google.co.uk/patents/EP0772165B1?cl=en&dq=ininventor:%22Tatsuaki+Okamoto%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=WnnEUb-uMOPC0QWMn4GADQ&ved=0CFYQ6AEwBA


Electronic cash implementing method with a surveillance institution, and user apparatus and surveillance institution apparatus for implementing the same (1997)

https://www.google.co.uk/patents/EP0807910B1?cl=en&dq=ininventor:%22Tatsuaki+Okamoto%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=WnnEUb-uMOPC0QWMn4GADQ&ved=0CEgQ6AEwAg

Method and apparatus for implementing hierarchical electronic cash (1997)

https://www.google.co.uk/patents/EP0810563A3?cl=en&dq=ininventor:%22Tatsuaki+Okamoto%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=WnnEUb-uMOPC0QWMn4GADQ&ved=0CGsQ6AEwBw

Electronic cash implementing method for issuer having electronic cash balance counters, corresponding issuer equipment and recording medium having recorded thereon a program for execution of the method (1998)

https://www.google.co.uk/patents/EP0926637B1?cl=en&dq=ininventor:%22Tatsuaki+Okamoto%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=WnnEUb-uMOPC0QWMn4GADQ&ved=0CGQQ6AEwBg

[marhjan]

Can we PLEASE stop with these threads???   It's 99% likely in my opinion that Satoshi is still on this forum under a different name or names.  It's also highly likely that if people ever found out who Satoshi REALLY is/was there would be major ideological splits which could only be bad for the future of btc.

Satoshi is Atlas (or whatever Atlas goes by now)
Satoshi is Matthew N. Wright....
Satoshi is Theymos....
Satoshi is BitRebel....
Satoshi is me and Satoshi is you, Satoshi is all of us - and it's better left that way

Peace, love, bitcoin and all that jazz lol

[glon]

Can we please stop with people who have no desire to find out who Satoshi is, posting in threads for people who are genuinely interested in his true identity? Thanks!

[RodeoX]

I speak and read a little Japanese and find this very interesting. If I remember correctly, "Satoshi" means something like wisdom. A little like "sophia (Σoφíα)" in Greek.  "Nakamoto" is formed by the characters for inside, or sometimes entrance(中)-the character is a mouth with a line going inside; and cause, foundation, or origin (元).-Not to be confused with the character for origin that is the root of a tree.
So Satoshi Nakamoto roughly translates to "Wisdom inside cause".

Now "Okamoto" I am not sure about. I think as a family name I would interpret it to mean "from Okinawa". Tatsuaki is a common boys name meaning something like "attaining the light". So together it might read "Reaching the light from Okinawa".

like the Chinese it is based on, Japanese characters are whole ideas and as such they can be interpreted in different ways. These are also common names and all this may mean nothing. Still kinda cool. 

[franky1]

i dont like to be dragged into these identity threads but many have asked me for my input..

so here goes
Tatsuaki Okamoto is not the guy that alongside gavin andressen helped program early bitcoin. due to factors such as Tatsuaki Okamoto is very much american english and the guy gavin spoke to is very much british english.

that being said...

there is nothing stopping a think tank of people before 2009 to have got together and combined their idea's into a final paper. and then combined their names into one pseudonym

maybe the english guy that helped finalise the collectives idea's into a white paper and then progressed it into helping gavin.. was called:

Satsuya(shortened to Sat)

another was called
Nobutaka (shortened to Naka)

another was called
Nobuyoshi (shortened to oshi)

and of course
Tatsuaki Okamoto(shortened to moto)

combining to be sat - oshi naka - moto.

where as i said above. Tatsuaki Okamoto moved onto other things but one of the other 3 that has a british English based understanding went on to continue the work along side gavin.

now thats over with.. can we all try putting in as much effort into expanding bitcoin from a business prospective and use your time productively.

you can spend 20 years finding out who it is.. just for you to meet them and in 3 seconds they say "nope, not me, sorry" and your no where closer to solving the puzzle