What if? Satoshi Nakamoto's identity was public information

[AverageGlabella]

I'm going to be looking to write some what if threads which I'm going to be using to write research papers along for my degree. I thought it might be a good idea to look at the fascination that some people have with the identity of Bitcoin's creator. As far as I know there has only been two people on this forum which had contact with Satoshi. Gavin Andersen and theymos. I don't know the exact involvement or contact theymos has but he definitely has access to some of Satoshi's hidden posts on this forum and the whole history of the account. From password changes to ips logged. Yeah its certain that Satoshi used Tor or something similar. But theymos definitely knows a little more than the average person. I think Satoshi was active for around 2 years until one day he decided to up and leave. Theymos have you done any research on Satoshi's account data yourself or do respect his privacy and haven't really looked into it?

I can understand the fascination of solving one of Bitcoin's biggest mysteries but anyone thats interested in exposing the identity of someone who clearly wants to staya anonymous has to consider the pros and cons. You would shortly come to the conclusion that revealing the identity of the mysterious creator of Bitcoin would probably be detrimental to either Satoshi or Bitcoin.

First of all lets start off with the obvious and that Satoshi's health and well being could be put in harms way if his identity was revealed. He's an enemy to the banks and to the government. Probably why he remained security conscious when creating Bitcoin. Bitcoin has the potential to topple the control of the government and provide a decentralized way of trading goods. Most of the time anonymously. Therefore I think that the government and banks would not take it lightly into knowing the identity of Satoshi and could lead to assassination attempts and all sorts. Though the damage is done they would likely just pin some shit on him and lock him up for life preventing him from working on any other projects that may or may not be doing. Satoshi holds a great amount of coins which would also expose him to harm from the public.

Secondly the image of Bitcoin. What if Satoshi is criminal with very serious convictions? What if the government makes it seem that way? Would this not hurt the image of Bitcoin? Yes Bitcoin is completely independent from Satoshi but if he was involved in some serious crimes the news agencies around the world would lap this up and spin a story to negatively effect Bitcoin. Plus governments might actually have a legitimate reason for banning the cryptocurrency and imprisoning those that use it. Probably not and thats probably a over exaggeration. But its a possibly.

Now I'm obviously against the idea of exposing Satoshi's identity to the public. But what are the pros of doing so? I can't really think of any except for the satisfaction of being the guy that exposed it. There is no benefit and no reason why a Bitcoiner would want to expose it. Journalists, government and news agencies would want too of course to spin a story of Bitcoin to put it in a bad light.

So does anyone have any benefits of finding out the identity of Satoshi? Because all I see is cons to it.

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[mdayonliner]

Since the very beginning we are interested to know about Satoshi's identity. Does it really matters? IMO the legacy Satoshi left for us that only matters. Let's focus in Bitcoin (if we really understand and like decentralized technology and freedom), it's improvements and adoptions. Let's respect Satoshi's privacy by leaving it as it is.

So does anyone have any benefits of finding out the identity of Satoshi? Because all I see is cons to it.

Each full node is a Satoshi I guess. I am not a conman (at-least I believe) so my node is not a con as well.

[Pmalek]

If Satoshi wants to stay anonymous he should be allowed to do so. He gave us all these options and freedom with Bitcoin and the least we can do is allowing him the right to live his life in peace

[Last of the V8s]

... There is no benefit and no reason why a Bitcoiner would want to expose it. Journalists, government and news agencies would want too of course to spin a story of Bitcoin to put it in a bad light.

So does anyone have any benefits of finding out the identity of Satoshi? Because all I see is cons to it.

Not all bitcoiners are perfect. There may well be idiots out there who, along with your journos and govts, would be quite happy to expose satoshi. Not that I believe that's possible in the sense of 'oh hey it was John Smith of 123 Partridge Way Birmingham all along.'
People are stupid and greedy. Expose satoshi, the price 'gotta' tank, buy a shed loads of coins. ?? Profit.

If it really did turn out to be John, he might well have plans for such an eventuality. Damn good plans, I'd bet.

[elastiman]

I am starting to believe that Satoshi Nakamoto it is not a person it is a group of engineers and economist and brokers that came up with the idea of a digital currency and they need it a face for this

[joniboini]

But many people can't respect it, even though all they need to do is by do nothing

Humans always love to know more, especially if something is a big secret, regardless of what the results of their finding. Satoshi identity is a big mystery, just like one of those conspiracy theories that there is a small group of crazy rich people who can control every country with their 1 or 2 sentences. Or, something small such as "Why did my hair keep growing up? How come a "toe" is called a "toe"?" etc.

At this point, their curiosity is just way too big to handle, they fall for it and therefore "doing nothing" is basically something they find very hard to do.

[r1s2g3]

I guess instead of Gavin Anderson who got invite to CIA, Satoshi might got that invite.

I see lot of stupid people might be chasing satoshi for stupid reason like:

1. BTC price dropped, I lost saving.
2. Somebody stole my BTC.
3. I lost my private key.

[soulcancer]

I guess instead of Gavin Anderson who got invite to CIA, Satoshi might got that invite.

I see lot of stupid people might be chasing satoshi for stupid reason like:

1. BTC price dropped, I lost saving.
2. Somebody stole my BTC.
3. I lost my private key.

speaking of the cia...i believe that satoshi was in fact the cia or some other such secret agency...he/they disappeared because the purpose was served...that being the introduction of a form of currency that is totally traceable...and better yet, it is believed to be to be anonymous by the avg retard...ask yourself how useful this can be in the not-so-distant dystopian future...i have a dollar bill in my pocket...can u tell me everywhere its ever been simply by running a piece of software...nope...some day ppl in the tech world will realize that anything that is "privacy" oriented is not only easily hackable by the powers-that-be (with an unlimited budget) but was probably developed by those same powers to give privacy seekers a false sense of security

[eddie13]

One PRO of Satoshi's identity/story becoming known is that I would then know who really created BTC and that is good because I would like to know
The biggest PRO of that would be that I know that Satoshi is NOT the CIA and it would shut that whole theory down. It wouldn't be too bad to disprove that one.

I don't think Satoshi should be exposed against his will but I hope that one day he will come out and tell us everything from his inspiration to his motives, including his motives to have remained anonymous all this time.

Satoshi has crossed my mind lately actually.
IIRC Theymos (someone?) said some time ago that he has a bunch more Satoshi emails/PMs that he would release in a couple years and I think that time might be coming up relatively soon. Maybe 2019 but I'm not sure.
I will look and see if I can find some reference.

Edit:

I've never read Satoshi's PMs.

Can't find it, maybe I remember something wrong.

[mdayonliner]

Edit:

I've never read Satoshi's PMs.

Can't find it, maybe I remember something wrong.

What if theymos is Satoshi  

Satoshi started the forum and continued as satoshi. Later he realized that he needs to hide (whatever the reason). He started to plan for it. He created the account theymos and established it (publicly trained the account). Once, Satoshi found the theymos account is good enough (publicly) to make it an admin then he retired from the satoshi account.  

Would you make a complete stranger the admin of your site (?) no matter whatever level of excellence they have?

[Jet Cash]

If it became general knowledge that Bitcoin was created as an experimental project by the Fed and the central banks, would it impact the creation of their new digital currencies?

Alternatively, is it another way to create a massive store of wealth to counter the gold reserves being built by China and Russia?

[ibminer]

Can't find it, maybe I remember something wrong.

It took a little digging, but:

I'll probably release Satoshi's PMs and logged IPs addresses in ~8 years. This'd probably be of great historical interest. (Though he always used Tor, as far as I can tell.)

[eddie13]

Can't find it, maybe I remember something wrong.

It took a little digging, but:

I'll probably release Satoshi's PMs and logged IPs addresses in ~8 years. This'd probably be of great historical interest. (Though he always used Tor, as far as I can tell.)

Awesome man great job and thank you for renewing my confidence in my recollection!
I dug for a while too but didn't go that far back. When I came across his statement of never even reading his PMs I thought I must have been wrong.

So it isn't that close yet but a heck of a lot closer. About 2 years and 4 months left to look forward to possibly a greater understanding of what is Satoshi. Around 4-2021.
 
That is if the deal Theymos mentioned is still on. In all that time passed who knows what could have changed or what new dangers could have presented themselves.
I wouldn't blame him a bit if he had to rescind or further extend the offer but it is something we can look forward to some day legitimately finding out more about the great creator.

What if theymos is Satoshi  

I really don't think so but I suppose it is a minute possibility. Not one of the best theories IMO.

Would you make a complete stranger the admin of your site (?) no matter whatever level of excellence they have?

Well, I have sent "strangers" on this site thousands of $ on faith in their reputations, and Theymos has handed members hundreds of BTC to old for the forum though I don't know how much of "strangers" they are or are not to him.

If it became general knowledge that Bitcoin was created as an experimental project by the Fed and the central banks, would it impact the creation of their new digital currencies?

Alternatively, is it another way to create a massive store of wealth to counter the gold reserves being built by China and Russia?

One of many plausible conspiracy hypotheses but if this is the case they surely went ALL OUT to make it look grassroots. Do you think they would have had the patience to let it slowly grow for so long vs pumping it to the public if that's what they ultimately wanted? All of the negative propaganda they spew from their outlets is just a facade?
Assuming you are speaking of the likes of the Rothschilds they surely have the patience to work toward a goal for a long time, generations, but their usual MO is more along the lines of usury and fractional reserve banking and BTC is quite a leap away from that.  

If it was done to counter China then why have they been allowed to dominate the POW aspect of BTC? They seem to stand just as much, if not more, to gain from mass adoption of BTC than any other entity. They also seem to be the most well set up to control their peoples use of crypto with their Orwellian grip of their subjects use of all things technological.


I prefer the (my) theory that Satoshi is just one person, a very intelligent ancap cypherpunk who had a great epiphany of how to give all people worldwide one of the greatest tools of individualistic liberty the world has ever seen. That he did it for the purpose of good for all humanity to decrease authoritarians ability to completely dominate and control their subject masses.
Optimistic fairy tale.

[DaCryptoRaccoon]

There is a lot of interest behind the who was Satoshi.
I would have to agree that it would be best to leave it down to Satoshi himself to either come forth or to remain private that is his right and should be respected.

Thought many people would love to see more of the Satoshi content again this might not be a good idea to release private correspondence.

Food for though :
Do any of you believe that Satoshi may have worked on another project after leaving bitcoin?

Or do you think he went full-time AFTK?

[chenille]

It's possible that Satoshi's identity was public information some time ago but got deleted. This quote is from topic number 5 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5), it's now the first one in this forum after topics 1, 2, 3 and 4 were archived or deleted:

Is this the first bitcointalk.org topic?
What happened with topic 1,2,3 and 4?

1, 2, and 4 exist in the staff forum. 3 was permanently deleted at some point (it must have contained Satoshi's real name and address).

Maybe theymos knows about this post, but "it must have contained" doesn't sound like this. It would be interesting to know who else read this topic but I'm sure if someone did and there was Satoshi's real name and address, there would be screenshots or at least stories about it.

And if someone is interested in the topics 1, 2 and 4: They are still available to the public, theymos has posted a link in 2012:

https://bitcointalk.org/first_topics/

But it's only about configuration and testing of the new forum.

[BitcoinCurve~]

It's possible that Satoshi's identity was public information some time ago but got deleted. This quote is from topic number 5 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5), it's now the first one in this forum after topics 1, 2, 3 and 4 were archived or deleted:

1, 2, and 4 exist in the staff forum. 3 was permanently deleted at some point (it must have contained Satoshi's real name and address).


But it's only about configuration and testing of the new forum.

This is complete speculation on theymos part and yours though. There is no real reason for us to think that posts contained his real name or address. That doesn't sound like Satoshi at all and its much more likely that the posts contained test posts such as "test" or "hello world" to test the forum software. I know people like to jump to exciting conclusions and discuss conspiracy theories but lets have a look at the facts here. Satoshi started the forum with the name Satoshi which he intended on keeping as his identity. Google search results show no usernames on other sites that are even close to it. We know this because experts in the field have already researched into this. Do you really think someone as privacy conscious as Satoshi would put his identity on the forum? I don't think so not even for a minute. It was far more probable that the first posts of the forum were of low content and for testing purposes. The current first post (number 4) makes sense as a introductory to the forum because current members will always be interested in the first post of the forum. Just look at the merit received by the first post and you will see that people do check these things.

[chenille]

This is complete speculation on theymos part and yours though. There is no real reason for us to think that posts contained his real name or address.

Well, the name of the topic says it all. What if is a speculation and there will always be speculations about Satoshi's identity. There were and there are also many people claiming to be Satoshi. But actually, this was not the point of my comment, it was about theymos' quote 6 years back.
Of course, we don't know the reason why theymos said this and it looks like he was informed about it by third party (it must have). I also doubt that Satoshi who planned everything here very well, would leave informations to track his identity. But on the other hand the topic must have been deleted for a not trivial reason - otherwise it would be still available like number 1, 2 and 4.

That doesn't sound like Satoshi at all and its much more likely that the posts contained test posts such as "test" or "hello world" to test the forum software.

Agreed, that leaving his personal address doesn't sound like Satoshi but why topic number 3 was deleted? And theymos leaving this comment in 2012? Topic number 3 must have been an interesting one.

It was far more probable that the first posts of the forum were of low content and for testing purposes.

Then, the other topics would have deen deleted as well.

The current first post (number 4) makes sense as a introductory to the forum because current members will always be interested in the first post of the forum. Just look at the merit received by the first post and you will see that people do check these things.

It's topic number 5:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5

[Sali200]

i think Satoshi wants to stay anonymous, and we want it to, becouse this is BIG question, who is Satoshi Nakamoto?  and people are tolking about satoshi nakamoto, and if it will not question. i think it will not good.

but if satoshi nakamoto will make Updates on Github, with Satoshi nakamoto Reg, and update bitcoin for Fast transactions, i think it will be big gift for crypto market. and bitcoin owners to.

He Can Update Bitcoin with anonymous

[OlegChernenkov]

For example, I know who was the creator of Bitcoin.
And there are already a bunch of factors that confirm my guesses.

But, it makes no sense to write it, no one believes anyway.
And it makes no sense to prove, just like an atheist about the existence of religions.

Already many times it has been written about it in the media.
But when the information lies in front of people, they stubbornly do not see it.

[ibminer]

Satoshi obviously wanted to remain anonymous, and knew the best ways available to do it. I don't believe Satoshi was a fan of governments or banks, in general. Someone like that, when bringing something like Bitcoin to the public as the main creator, would certainly want to be cautious, given all of the special interests involved. I believe Satoshi left on his own, to protect himself and/or the Bitcoin project.

Once "the hornet's nest" was kicked (2nd to the last Satoshi post on Dec 11, 2010), Satoshi had concerns over the vulnerabilities of Bitcoin, which he touches on the next day: Satoshi's last forum post on Dec 12, 2010, when releasing a version not fully complete yet, primarily involving DoS controls, and expresses his concern over the amount of vulnerabilities Bitcoin had (I would guess this release was a defensive measure to any attention which could be coming soon due to the article).

Satoshi had worries Bitcoin wasn't ready for this sort of attention, but this isn't something someone like Satoshi just walks away from because of potential attacks. He decided to be less public with communication and moved behind-the-scenes, but was still intending to remain active in development. It appears that changed in April when learning that Gavin was going to talk with the CIA (a.k.a the "hornet's").

Mike Hearn claims his last communication was April 23rd when Satoshi stated he was moving onto other things and the project would be in "good hands with Gavin and everyone". Although, it appears Satoshi communicated 3 days later to Gavin expressing frustration as to how Gavin was portraying Satoshi in public, and stated he should make it more about the "open source project and give more credit to your dev contributors". (<-Good advice Gavin did not seem to heed during consensus debates). Gavin's response was to let Satoshi know he was invited to visit the CIA, and Satoshi doesn't reply after that.

I've always believed Satoshi was not happy with the CIA visit because 4 months prior he was calling them "hornet's", so I can't imagine him being comfortable with his lead developer walking into the "hornet's nest" at this time in its development. But it seems like he also generally wasn't happy with the fact that Satoshi's perception in the media was being portrayed as a "shadowy mysterious figure" which I believe hurt how he wanted others to perceive Bitcoin... so, maybe "Satoshi" had to go. It may have just been the safest decision for himself and Bitcoin.

He certainly didn't want his identity known back then, and it could have had a greater impact back then, although, will he care as much in the future? ... I'm not sure. IMO, if he is alive, I'd guess he has managed to still stay involved one way or the other.

Regardless of whoever he is or wherever he may be, Satoshi's virtual spirit lives on!  

And BTW, Satoshi != Craig Wright. I could go on for another page of text about CW, but I'm sure I'm past the TL;DR threshold.