RIP - One of the first Bitcoin code reviewers dies

[twiki]

Renowned American cybersecurity researcher Dan Kaminski has passed away at the age of 42. This was reported by white hacker and DEF CON conference organizer Mark Rogers. In 2011, Kaminski, already widely known for discovering a critical vulnerability in the DNS protocol, decided to hack Bitcoin.

I don't think we can hide it now. We lost Dan Kaminski yesterday. One of the brightest lights in information security and probably the kindest soul I've ever known. The vacuum it leaves behind is impossible to measure. Please keep the speculation to yourself and treat his family and friends with respect

The expert developed nine approaches to attacks against the cryptocurrency protocol, but none of them worked.

The formatting of the code was just insane. Only the most paranoid and painstaking programmer on the planet could avoid mistakes. I've never seen anything like it. He is a world class programmer with deep knowledge of C ++. He understands economics, cryptography and peer-to-peer networks. Either it's a whole team or this guy is a genius.

A source forklog

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[giantrobot]

Renowned American cybersecurity researcher Dan Kaminski has passed away at the age of 42. This was reported by white hacker and DEF CON conference organizer Mark Rogers. In 2011, Kaminski, already widely known for discovering a critical vulnerability in the DNS protocol, decided to hack Bitcoin.

I don't think we can hide it now. We lost Dan Kaminski yesterday. One of the brightest lights in information security and probably the kindest soul I've ever known. The vacuum it leaves behind is impossible to measure. Please keep the speculation to yourself and treat his family and friends with respect

The expert developed nine approaches to attacks against the cryptocurrency protocol, but none of them worked.

The formatting of the code was just insane. Only the most paranoid and painstaking programmer on the planet could avoid mistakes. I've never seen anything like it. He is a world class programmer with deep knowledge of C ++. He understands economics, cryptography and peer-to-peer networks. Either it's a whole team or this guy is a genius.

A source forklog

We would like to conduct condolences to the family of famous network security researchers Dan Kaminski. We lose a most reliable, good and reliable network representative in Bitcoin safety protection. Dan Kaminski is known among computer security experts with DNS cache poisoning research. Who can tell me why he dies?

[aoluain]

Sad to hear that.

Reading more about his attempts to hack Bitcoin its really encouraging to hear
that he couldnt and his thoughts on its code.

https://www.businessinsider.com/dan-kaminsky-highlights-flaws-bitcoin-2013-4?r=US&IR=T

Dan Kaminsky , DanKaminsky.com Apr 12, 2013, 3:45 PM

Two years ago, I tried to hack BitCoin.

I failed.

as an engineer and as a hacker (and I promise you, these are two very different things), BitCoin surprised me.

BitCoin is a rejection of the regulation of monetary flows.

if it was truly threatened, the cost to add more nodes — people participating in the Bitcoin experiment — is much lower than the cost to prevent the addition of new nodes.

[dkbit98]

Kaminski was a great developer and freedom fighter, some people even suggested that he could be one of the candidates for Satoshi Nakamoto, but he was also suffering from diabetes and there was some controversies about his death but apparently diabetic ketoacidosis was cause of his death.
I tried to find if he was using some Bitcointalk accounts however I couldn't find anything about that, but I did find his blog website and posts from 2016 claiming that Craig Wright is NOT Satoshi.

1. Yes, this is a scam.  Not maybe.  Not possibly.
2. Wright is pretending he has Satoshi’s signature on Sartre’s writing.  That would mean he has the private key, and is likely to be Satoshi.  What he actually has is Satoshi’s signature on parts of the public Blockchain, which of course means he doesn’t need the private key and he doesn’t  need to be Satoshi.  He just needs to make you think Satoshi signed something else besides the Blockchain — like Sartre.  He doesn’t publish Sartre.  He publishes 14% of one document.  He then shows you a hash that’s supposed to summarize the entire document.  This is a lie.  It’s a hash extracted from the Blockchain itself.  Ryan Castellucci (my engineer at White Ops and master of Bitcoin Fu) put an extractor here.  Of course the Blockchain is totally public and of course has signatures from Satoshi, so Wright being able to lift a signature from here isn’t surprising at all.
3. He probably would have gotten away with it if the signature itself wasn’t googlable by Redditors.
4. I think Gavin et al are victims of another scam, and Wright’s done classic misdirection by generating different scams for different audiences.

https://dankaminsky.com/2016/05/02/validating-satoshi-or-not/

It’s not actually surprising that somebody would claim to be the creator of Bitcoin.  Whoever “Satoshi Nakamoto” is, is worth several hundred million dollars.  What is surprising is that credible people were backing Craig Wright’s increasingly bizarre claims.

https://dankaminsky.com/2016/05/03/the-cryptographically-provable-con-man/



Rest in Peace Kaminski...

[BIN-BIN]

He is one of the world-leading programmers and security code developers and also a bitcoin advocate. The cryptography world will miss his selfless services. Continue to rest in peace, Kaminski.

[lifeforcepools]

This is our life. It is a pity that this happens, but it is inevitable.

[DdmrDdmr]

This seems to be his account here on Bitcointalk: dakami (just four posts made on this forum). The email on his Bitcointalk profile matches that of his blog (https://dankaminsky.com/bio/), so it does look like his account (besides the phrases stating so, on one of his posts).

Could be interesting for Bitcointalk to have a who’s who section, with a brief biopic to core bitcoin/Bitcoin contributors, and their profile here.

[buwaytress]

Have to admit didn't know much about him but guys like these are the ones who really played a big role in early Bitcoin days. Rest in peace. We are where we are because of people like you. So young!

And yes agree. A memorial section for his account, and somewhat of a who's who would be a cool place for newbies to start out.

[dkbit98]

This seems to be his account here on Bitcointalk: dakami (just four posts made on this forum). The email on his Bitcointalk profile matches that of his blog (https://dankaminsky.com/bio/), so it does look like his account (besides the phrases stating so, on one of his posts).

Nice catch!
Same account username as his twitter handle @dakami, newbie account last posted back in 2011 and he was last active and reading in March 2018, but he may used other accounts with hidden email address that we are not aware of.

Could be interesting for Bitcointalk to have a who’s who section, with a brief biopic to core bitcoin/Bitcoin contributors, and their profile here.

I agree and it might be interesting to read if someone could make a post with all known contributors and their bitcointalk accounts.

[pinggoki]

This seems to be his account here on Bitcointalk: dakami (just four posts made on this forum). The email on his Bitcointalk profile matches that of his blog (https://dankaminsky.com/bio/), so it does look like his account (besides the phrases stating so, on one of his posts).

Could be interesting for Bitcointalk to have a who’s who section, with a brief biopic to core bitcoin/Bitcoin contributors, and their profile here.

What a nice catch sir! Now we know that Kaminski becomes part of this forum way back then, yet we are so sad that a bitcoin contributor and a good programmer who knows a lot of languages especially in c++ has died. May his soul rest in peace in heaven. He is a good and well contributor to bitcoin especially from what I've read on his blog. Always remember that some of us here because of you. Another good programmer dies and my deepest condolence to his family.

[sukbir]

May my condolences bring you comfort and may my prayers ease the pain of this loss..

[bitterguy28]

Renowned American cybersecurity researcher Dan Kaminski has passed away at the age of 42. This was reported by white hacker and DEF CON conference organizer Mark Rogers. In 2011, Kaminski, already widely known for discovering a critical vulnerability in the DNS protocol, decided to hack Bitcoin.

I don't think we can hide it now. We lost Dan Kaminski yesterday. One of the brightest lights in information security and probably the kindest soul I've ever known. The vacuum it leaves behind is impossible to measure. Please keep the speculation to yourself and treat his family and friends with respect

The expert developed nine approaches to attacks against the cryptocurrency protocol, but none of them worked.

The formatting of the code was just insane. Only the most paranoid and painstaking programmer on the planet could avoid mistakes. I've never seen anything like it. He is a world class programmer with deep knowledge of C ++. He understands economics, cryptography and peer-to-peer networks. Either it's a whole team or this guy is a genius.

A source forklog

Sad to hear this but life is shorter.

What is the greatest thing here is that what he contributed for everyone before he finally Gone.

Hope that everything that he does will be valuable in the future use of Bitcoin and crypto.

[acener]

A huge respect for all early users of Bitcoin and crypto specially for those who work or help to develop or improve it.
Condolences for his family may he Rest In Peace.

Have to admit didn't know much about him but guys like these are the ones who really played a big role in early Bitcoin days. Rest in peace. We are where we are because of people like you. So young!

And yes agree. A memorial section for his account, and somewhat of a who's who would be a cool place for newbies to start out.

Just like you I didn't know much about him and feel the same way We are where we are because of those early user or developer.
I also agree that it would be great to have that kind of section here,
So we could know who helps crypto in early stage that are also part of this forum or had been part of this forum.

[Swordsoffreedom]

This seems to be his account here on Bitcointalk: dakami (just four posts made on this forum). The email on his Bitcointalk profile matches that of his blog (https://dankaminsky.com/bio/), so it does look like his account (besides the phrases stating so, on one of his posts).

I am deeply saddened for him. Although I didn't know much about him, it's nice to know that he was a member of our forum. He has already tried nine times to hack Bitcoin but failed. By doing these approaches he has demonstrated how powerful and secured Bitcoin technology is! Dan Kaminski is passed away but his contribution to Bitcoin development will be remembered forever. Rest in Peace dakami.

[aesma]

RIP Dan Kaminski

He seemed to think that satoshi was probably a team, if not, then a genius. I tend to agree, although I'm much less qualified than him to decide between the two.

[CryptocurencyKing]

I'm hearing of him for the first time and I've searched his user on Google if I could find out more information on his person but isn't getting anything. His gone and his anonymity is over with his identity going public and viral on the forum.

What a proud and fulfilled life he has lived being part of a treasured and valued system or at least a part of it. To have contributed to a system that is to last true time is a honour of his lifetime and to have left so soon is a sad story to the crypto community. He would be missed and we hope he does rest in peace.

May his family accept our condolences and have the strength to carry on with life without him. RIP Peace Kaminski.

[Husires]

It's the first time I've heard of it. It's unfortunate to see people with technical expertise go. I saw some of his posts denoting someone with good experience and culture in understanding digital currencies and how Bitcoin works.
I'm going to read more about him, so it looks like he knows a lot

[RickDeckard]

Whenever someone passes away, I can't help but think of this poem by John Donne:

No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.

Losing someone is always an herculean task, and losing someone as Dan, who contributed not only to defend Bitcoin as something that was built like a fortress, but who also contributed to other projects such as DNS flaws, is always something that leaves a deep cut in humanity. People on twitter really show that he was kind member of the hacker/Infosec community. May you rest in peace Dan.

Could be interesting for Bitcointalk to have a who’s who section, with a brief biopic to core bitcoin/Bitcoin contributors, and their profile here.

And yes agree. A memorial section for his account, and somewhat of a who's who would be a cool place for newbies to start out.

I agree and it might be interesting to read if someone could make a post with all known contributors and their bitcointalk accounts.

The though of making such a list / thread has came to my mind a few times already, namely due to the fact that I believe we should keep a record/history of the people that contributed to the place where Bitcoin is today, although such action is also dependent on everyone that has used bitcoin to this very day. However while I was searching for the forum for any kind of persons / contributors to add to the list, I was met with two threads that already approach this subject:

• List of people who have had commit access to Bitcoin Core
• Who are Bitcoin's Unsung Heroes?

I think that we can't really update/make any changes to the second topic due to the fact that the last time that the user logged in the forum was December 22th of 2020. However the first thread was made by achow101 and he just logged in today so there are more opportunities to be able to change/update the thread with him. Even so, do you see any benefit of creating a new thread were we would gather all the contributors in one tiddy place? I was in the process of building a table with information such as:

Active?*|

Name|

Alias (Twitter)|

Alias (Bitcointalk)|

GitHub Profile|

Relevant work|

Support his work*

*Yes,No,Deceased
**I was thinking in adding the page where the person gave the possibility for people to donate. I don't want to directly place the BTC address but if you guys don't see it as a negative thing, I wouldn't mind.

This of course is a WIP for some time now, but I would like to know your opinion on this as I also think that this should be kept updated and somewhere in our forum because it would be a nice homage and a way to show new members who came before them (and some are still on the fight).

[DdmrDdmr]

<…>

I’d say that the thread should probably be an informative thread that hangs from the main menu (say something like "History" between "Member" and "More") to give it visibility. The thing is, any thread made by an account, that is not at least pinned, would soon disappear into the depths. Sometimes user created posts get pinned, but it’s rather infrequent.

Ideally, the thread we are talking about should be Forum owned, meaning that the Bitcointalk would be the owner, giving editing privileges to a given person to make contributions or make updates. That would avoid the thread going stale due to the thread owner not being active any more.

[Lorence.xD]

It's the first time I've heard of it. It's unfortunate to see people with technical expertise go. I saw some of his posts denoting someone with good experience and culture in understanding digital currencies and how Bitcoin works.
I'm going to read more about him, so it looks like he knows a lot

White hats don't want the spotlight and it is understandable why no one has heard of him, what I am more surprised is that he died so young in my opinion, 40 is where your life starts. Of course he knows a lot because he tried to breach bitcoin to find vulnerabilities. My condolences to the family of this wonderful person.

[NeuroticFish]

<…>

I’d say that the thread should probably be an informative thread that hangs from the main menu (say something like "History" between "Member" and "More") to give it visibility. The thing is, any thread made by an account, that is not at least pinned, would soon disappear into the depths.

Why not ask for a subforum for this, sort of "Obituaries" (maybe with some restrictive rules for creating threads there)?
The forum is 12 years old. We don't get younger and relevant people - from the forum or from the Bitcoin community - will die now and then, unfortunately.


RIP Dan Kaminski ...

[Ucy]

I guess he was referring to Satoshi in the quote (kaminski's quote) below:

The formatting of the code was just insane. Only the most paranoid and painstaking programmer on the planet could avoid mistakes. I've never seen anything like it. He is a world class programmer with deep knowledge of C ++. He understands economics, cryptography and peer-to-peer networks. Either it's a whole team or this guy is a genius.

A source forklog

Sometimes I think you could achieve similar results if  you're wise and responsible enough, and you're building to escape a serious global threat you understand really well. He may have also seen it as serious crisis that even the world governments may not be able to survive. I remember it was abit like the feelings during the financial crisis back then.
Sorry for the loss.

[bitterguy28]

RIP Legend and Mentor.

See you in the other side, you just Go first but everyone will Soon to follow including me.

May my condolences bring you comfort and may my prayers ease the pain of this loss..

Add more 

[Yavaj]

Rest in peace, sir. He was a spectacular hacker; good programmer, wonderful skills.
I read about his bitcoin hacking attempts; sadly it didn't work for him, but you gotta' give him that respect.