Why did Satoshi use GB British English and international English ?

[arabspaceship123]

I've studied some of the 575 posts Satoshi made. Satoshi's used international English and GB British English so is Satoshi more than one person living in different countries? It's a mystery that's not going to be solved soon but here's some of Satoshi's words that I've picked up on

criticised/criticized
serialisation/serialization
optimised/optimized
optimisation/optimization

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2162.msg28549#msg28549
December 09, 2010, 03:17:53 PM
I came to agree with Gavin about whitelisting when I realized how quickly new transaction types can be added.


https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2151.msg28228#msg28228
December 08, 2010, 08:21:49 PM
I know I've been criticized for being reluctant about listtransactions.  Let me explain my reluctance


https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=632.msg7090#msg7090
August 02, 2010, 08:22:08 PM
The reason I didn't use protocol buffers or boost serialization is because they looked too complex to make absolutely airtight and secure.  Their code is too large to read and be sure that there's no way to form an input that would do something unexpected.

I hate reinventing the wheel and only resorted to writing my own serialization routines reluctantly.  The serialization format we have is as dead simple and flat as possible.  There is no extra freedom in the way the input stream is formed.  At each point, the next field in the data structure is expected.  The only choices given are those that the receiver is expecting.  There is versioning so upgrades are possible.

CAddress is about the only object with significant reserved space in it.  (about 7 bytes for flags and 12 bytes for possible future IPv6 expansion)

The larger things we have like blocks and transactions can't be optimized much more for size.  The bulk of their data is hashes and keys and signatures, which are uncompressible.  The serialization overhead is very small, usually 1 byte for size fields.


https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2162.msg28302
December 08, 2010, 11:19:24 PM
Changes:
- Fixed a wallet.dat compatibility problem if you downgraded from 0.3.17 and then upgraded again
- IsStandard() check to only include known transaction types in blocks
- Jgarzik's optimisation to speed up the initial block download a little


Do you believe Satoshi was a pseudonym used by more than one person that's why there's differences in written English ?

[kaggie]

Do you believe Satoshi was a pseudonym used by more than one person that's why there's differences in written English ?

Opsec.

He was trying to throw people off his scent.

Satoshi was a pseudonym -- this person does not exist under this name. He used disposable emails. He paid for the domain with an anonymous registration agent. Presumably he only connected with tor.
He didn't want to be found, and he went to great lengths to ensure that.

So, 'z' versus 's' was a way to throw people off his scent.

The way to analyse this would be to graph is 's' versus 'z' over time. Did he use 'z' for the first half of his posts, or the last half? Are they consistently mixed at all times?
And no, I don't believe that Satoshi was a team of people. Single, clever individuals do great things all the time by finding combinations of old ideas into new.
Very few people in the world could keep a secret like this for so long if they were a team.

[titular]

The more that I read about Satoshi, the more I feel as though he/she was more than one individual.

My own problem with this presumption is that this relies on all of those individuals having perfect OPsec.

If it was one person, he likely had the most bizarre sleep schedule of all time. His posting hours were never consistent.

[kaggie]

The more that I read about Satoshi, the more I feel as though he/she was more than one individual.

My own problem with this presumption is that this relies on all of those individuals having perfect OPsec.

Pulling the concepts together took a clever individual, but the basics were already there with hashcash.
Programming for a skilled person isn't so difficult. Here's a tutorial that you might be able to do at home: https://levelup.gitconnected.com/creating-a-blockchain-from-scratch-9a7b123e1f3e
 

If it was one person, he likely had the most bizarre sleep schedule of all time. His posting hours were never consistent.

For sleep schedule, it wasn't so inconsistent with any internet denizen. This is where his opsec failed.

[Rikafip]

He/they probably mixed it up so people can't easily figure out nationality.

With that being said, I honestly don't get the people's obsessions to figure out who is behind Satoshi Nakamoto name. Sure, all of us spend some time thinking who could that be, but I dont think that it could bring anything good to bitcoin, and I think that's exactly one of the many bitcoin's strengths.

[BrewMaster]

- Jgarzik's optimisation to speed up the initial block download a little

do you have any other example where Satoshi uses "s" instead of "z" because this is the only single example you posted with an "s" and it looks like change-log which might have been written by someone else (like Garzik) and copied here.
even still, one example is hardly proof because it may have been autocorrect tool setting one variation over the other.

[so98nn]

- Jgarzik's optimisation to speed up the initial block download a little

do you have any other example where Satoshi uses "s" instead of "z" because this is the only single example you posted with an "s" and it looks like change-log which might have been written by someone else (like Garzik) and copied here.
even still, one example is hardly proof because it may have been autocorrect tool setting one variation over the other.

Endless possibilities here. How can we predict someone's nationality entirely from their typing habits alone? What if he was from GB English background but just used the words alternatively and he had habit of doing so? We can't say anything for sure how anyone type the stuff. In extreme cases what if he had his assistant behind the screen answering others on behalf of him? What if he had dialect behaviour where he used to switch between two different English modes, or may be as OP said having mixed backgrounds?

This study can go anywhere but not to the point proving whether he was X English or Y English country person.

[nutildah]

- Jgarzik's optimisation to speed up the initial block download a little

do you have any other example where Satoshi uses "s" instead of "z" because this is the only single example you posted with an "s" and it looks like change-log which might have been written by someone else (like Garzik) and copied here.
even still, one example is hardly proof because it may have been autocorrect tool setting one variation over the other.

The examples are pretty well documented:

https://ungeared.com/the-strange-story-of-satoshi-nakamotos-spelling-choices-part-1/



Sometimes he even used both spelling variants on the same day:



So Satoshi was either multiple people or one clever person who was pretty switched on about OpSec.

[hatshepsut93]

Do you believe Satoshi was a pseudonym used by more than one person that's why there's differences in written English ?

I believe this doesn't mean much, because there can be many explanations. A non-native English speaker would likely use both spelling simultaneously if they learned English from different sources. Or maybe Satoshi intentionally used many spellings to make it harder to uncover their identity. Or maybe Satoshi used to live in different English-speaking countries and ended up using both spellings without paying attention.

[yhiaali3]

Perhaps Satoshi intended to do this to keep his true identity out of sight, of course there are many theories about the personality of Satoshi and no one yet has evidence that can lead to knowing the true personality of Satoshi, or even if he is one person or a group of people under a pseudonym! !!
In fact, the person who invented Bitcoin had amazing talents and of course he feared for himself if his identity was revealed, so it is likely that he deliberately used different language methods and different forms of communication in the singular or plural to increase the complexity and mystery of this unknown character, and it seems that he succeeded in doing so Brilliantly.

[LoyceV]

Do you believe Satoshi was a pseudonym used by more than one person that's why there's differences in written English ?

Opsec.

There's a third option: he doesn't know and didn't care how to write the words. I'm neither British nor American, but was taught British English on school. Most of the internet uses American English. I couldn't care less I type "optimised" or "optimized", and I'm pretty sure I've used different spellings for the same word once in a while too. I see no reason to assume Satoshi would use perfect English without mistakes.

Or all 3 options could be valid at the same time.

[Vatimins]

     Truth be told, you will never get a satisfying answer for this question that you have. Even when there may be authentic answers from the people who may have known or may have been a colleague of satoshi, there is just no way to confirm such answers. The only thing that asking this question will do is gain even more questions. Unless though if satoshi himself turns up, verifies his identity and speak for these people who responded. Which in my opinion is entirely impossible.

     But for speculations and such, there really is an equal possibility of satoshi being a group of people or a single person. Both of which are indeed useful to hide the true identity or identities of the person/people behind the creation of bitcoin. One thing is for certain though, whoever he, she or they are, it is very evident that through the silence from the creator(s) of bitcoin, the person or the people doesn't want to be found. I hope people would respect such decision and let the matter rest.

[arabspaceship123]

Opsec.

He was trying to throw people off his scent.

Satoshi was a pseudonym -- this person does not exist under this name. He used disposable emails. He paid for the domain with an anonymous registration agent. Presumably he only connected with tor.
He didn't want to be found, and he went to great lengths to ensure that.

So, 'z' versus 's' was a way to throw people off his scent.

The way to analyse this would be to graph is 's' versus 'z' over time. Did he use 'z' for the first half of his posts, or the last half? Are they consistently mixed at all times?
And no, I don't believe that Satoshi was a team of people. Single, clever individuals do great things all the time by finding combinations of old ideas into new.
Very few people in the world could keep a secret like this for so long if they were a team.

I don't believe the OPSEC theory. I don't believe international English and GB English was used to throw people off his scent. I'm believing Satoshi Nakamoto was a pseudonym used by the creators of bitcoin.

The more that I read about Satoshi, the more I feel as though he/she was more than one individual.

My own problem with this presumption is that this relies on all of those individuals having perfect OPsec.

If it was one person, he likely had the most bizarre sleep schedule of all time. His posting hours were never consistent.

If Satoshi was one person it's hard to look past Hal Finney. He died in 2014 but he's standing out the most. If Satoshi was a group he was probably involved in it.

[Darker45]

The possibility that Satoshi is more than one person will always be there. However, it seems to me that Satoshi's use of both GB English and American English cannot be made a basis for a conclusion. It will create a hypothesis at most, one which we might not be able to prove ever.

There are just so many possibilities. Satoshi may be one person who is exposed to both American and GB English. Satoshi may be more than one. Satoshi may be a single person who is trying keep clues away from curious individuals. Satoshi could be Hal, Szabo, and so on, or both of them and 1 or 2 or 3 more persons. This could go on.

[Obito]

Or probably Satoshi is using different computers that have different types of English and he just didn't bother to change it and probably the autocorrect feature for his computer is probably strong. It's just me throwing speculation but I don't think that at that time, the auto correct function is really that good. Maybe Satoshi is doing this on purpose to throw off the scent that he/she is a one man.

[franky1]

common sense
he wrote using british english, but occasionally got annoyed by the red wiggly line that suggests he spelled something wrong. where reality is the spellcheck is set to international(US) english
so occasionally you will see that when he selects the spell checks preference, it makes him look less british

[arabspaceship123]

He/they probably mixed it up so people can't easily figure out nationality.

With that being said, I honestly don't get the people's obsessions to figure out who is behind Satoshi Nakamoto name. Sure, all of us spend some time thinking who could that be, but I dont think that it could bring anything good to bitcoin, and I think that's exactly one of the many bitcoin's strengths.

I'm not obsessed with working out who Satoshi is. If Satoshi's name is made public it doesn't mean it's going to adversely affect bitcoin we don't know what will happen.

- Jgarzik's optimisation to speed up the initial block download a little

do you have any other example where Satoshi uses "s" instead of "z" because this is the only single example you posted with an "s" and it looks like change-log which might have been written by someone else (like Garzik) and copied here.
even still, one example is hardly proof because it may have been autocorrect tool setting one variation over the other.

I haven't look in more of Satoshi's posts but I don't use autocorrect tools set in different variants of English so why would anybody else?

- Jgarzik's optimisation to speed up the initial block download a little

do you have any other example where Satoshi uses "s" instead of "z" because this is the only single example you posted with an "s" and it looks like change-log which might have been written by someone else (like Garzik) and copied here.
even still, one example is hardly proof because it may have been autocorrect tool setting one variation over the other.

Endless possibilities here. How can we predict someone's nationality entirely from their typing habits alone? What if he was from GB English background but just used the words alternatively and he had habit of doing so? We can't say anything for sure how anyone type the stuff. In extreme cases what if he had his assistant behind the screen answering others on behalf of him? What if he had dialect behaviour where he used to switch between two different English modes, or may be as OP said having mixed backgrounds?

This study can go anywhere but not to the point proving whether he was X English or Y English country person.

I'm not saying anything for sure merely curious why Satoshi would use international English and GB British English.

[NeuroticFish]

I'm not saying anything for sure merely curious why Satoshi would use international English and GB British English.

It can be that Satoshi was/is more than one person.
It can be that he was trying to confuse the followers. (I don't think so).
It can be that he was not English native.
It can be that he was British and the exceptions were made by some auto-completion.

Most probably we'll never know.

[aoluain]

Do you believe Satoshi was a pseudonym used by more than one person that's why there's differences in written English ?

Opsec.

There's a third option: he doesn't know and didn't care how to write the words. I'm neither British nor American, but was taught British English on school. Most of the internet uses American English. I couldn't care less I type "optimised" or "optimized", and I'm pretty sure I've used different spellings for the same word once in a while too. I see no reason to assume Satoshi would use perfect English without mistakes.

Or all 3 options could be valid at the same time.

Also if Satoshi was using different computers in different locations with different browsers etc.
there could have been spell checkers used or not. Lets face it whomever the person or group
was the great art was to create and remain anonymous.


Here is an article which is very interesting and pretty much conclude that satoshi was
different people, Its very technical, I found it difficult to read parts.

https://towardsdatascience.com/stylometric-analysis-satoshi-nakamoto-294926cdf995

Some extracts below.

Abstract:
Natural Language Processing tools were applied to the Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin paper to compare it to numerous cryptocurrency-related papers in an attempt to identify the true identity of the unknown Satoshi Nakamoto.

There are two parts to the paper; the first part is stylometric analysis on the linguistic features generated and n-grams of each document in the corpus consisting of the relevant literature listed on Satoshi Nakamoto Institute and using machine learning models of the linguistic features to predict an author/authors on the Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin paper and his personal email texts.

The second part is semantic similarity analysis where the content of each document in the corpus is compared in terms of semantic similarity number using the built-in functions in spaCy and gensim. The results from the two parts suggested which author/authors in the corpus are linguistically and semantically similar to Satoshi Nakamoto.

4 Results
According to the classification algorithms in Table 3, they all predicted that Nick Szabo is linguistically similar to Satoshi who had written the Bitcoin paper and Ian Grigg is linguistically similar to Satoshi who had exchanged the emails.

5 Conclusion
Based on the results, Satoshi who had written the Bitcoin paper may not be the same Satoshi who had exchanged emails. Satoshi Nakamoto may possibly be more than one person; Satoshi Nakamoto is a pseudonym for a team of computer scientists and cryptographers who were involved in creating Bitcoin and blockchain.

Nick Szabo and Ian Grigg are the two authors who are linguistically similar to Satoshi Nakamoto in the Bitcoin paper and his email texts, respectively. In addition, Wei Dai and Timothy C. May are two potential candidates for the Bitcoin paper in terms of semantic similarity.

[davis196]

criticised/criticized
serialisation/serialization
optimised/optimized
optimisation/optimization

This might be just a bunch of errors.
I'm from eastern Europe and sometimes I make the same errors,when I'm writing words like these.
I don't know when to write the letter s or the letter z in some English words.
Does that make me a potential "Satoshi Nakamoto"?I don't think so.
I also think that it is grammatically correct to write the words in your list with z,instead of s.
I'm not an expert in English grammar,though...