Why did Satoshi use GB British English and international English ?

[franky1]

satoshi used british phrases

Sorry to be a wet blanket.  Writing a description for this thing for general audiences is bloody hard.  There's nothing to relate it to.

making him british based.
the other examples in previous post are just the annoying spell check corrections which he sometimes accepts or sometimes ignores

[arabspaceship123]

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

That's based on your theory that Satoshi typed using GB British English but had default autocorrect or spellchecker settings in international English. Deliberate or not the whitepaper didn't use GB British English it used international English.

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.

That's true

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.

Blockstream CEO Adam Back is British maybe he's got some involvement. Hal Finney and Nick Szabo are other names linked to Satoshi.

[LoyceV]

satoshi used british phrases

Sorry to be a wet blanket.  Writing a description for this thing for general audiences is bloody hard.  There's nothing to relate it to.

making him british based.

I could post "splendid" once in a while, but that doesn't make me based in Britain.

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.

I know nullius has always loved his privacy, up to the point that he tries to post around the clock to hide his time zone. Does his writing style really say anything useful about his whereabouts? I doubt it. Same for Satoshi.

[kaggie]

I could post "splendid" once in a while, but that doesn't make me based in Britain.

A splendid few z and s switches are easy. A bloody stereotypical word here is all that's required to confuse origins.
The majority of his language was technical and specific to the field, which have fewer American/British/Aus/Intl splits.
In the end, there isn't enough there. Most word-grams that I look at hint less American and more British.
Every person's language evolves very mildly over time, and they would be less likely to stick to a persona during the hours they are most tired.
If he had talked more about other aspects of life, there would have been other hints.
The question would be whether he uses phrases that a non-Brit or non-American (whichever) would barely recognise.

The writing style doesn't say anything, especially because one can move from locations.

But, his words age him. "inpoint" and "outpoint" (noted by Pmalek) mean that he's older, as these fell out of favour in the past few decades.

I know nullius has always loved his privacy, up to the point that he tries to post around the clock to hide his time zone. Does his writing style really say anything useful about his whereabouts? I doubt it. Same for Satoshi.

If you were to look at any internet forum, you would find that any user don't post as much at their 2am (except for people who work night-shifts, which is very rare to stay consistent).
Satoshi's daily posting patterns put him at about Hal Finney's location (Arizona). (Not to mention that Satoshi disappeared at about the same time that Hal had to quit working due to ALS..)
It is unfortunately very difficult to hide your general location, without scripting delayed responses, and very few people have that ability and are so committed to privacy to consider that.

[Pmalek]

@arabspaceship123
Your thread reminded me of one I created myself last year. My investigation on satoshi.

I was also interested in finding out if he was British or maybe American. Among the things I looked at was also the letters "z" and "s". There is also the letters "ou" in words like colour/color that are spelt differently depending on if you are taught British or American English.  

I really enjoyed reading Satoshi's posts and creating that thread.  

[NeuroticFish]

but that doesn't make me based in Britain.

You said it before me. I do use expressions like "bloody hell", but I'm far from British.

up to the point that he tries to post around the clock to hide his time zone. Does his writing style really say anything useful about his whereabouts? I doubt it. Same for Satoshi.

Not at all. People can easily have strange sleeping schedule if they work on big projects they like, off work. Or people who travel a lot.
I could maybe say, based on such a schedule, that he probably doesn't have small kids at school but not much more.

[arabspaceship123]

It's interesting people think "bloody hell" considered exclusively GB British English when it isn't. "Splendid" is very GB British English but something tells me it's a word that's been used in Hollywood movies. It's getting harder pinning down words and expressions to geographic areas in a modern world.

Satoshi's whitepaper didn't appear to have any GB British English but some of Satoshi's posts did.

but that doesn't make me based in Britain.

You said it before me. I do use expressions like "bloody hell", but I'm far from British.

up to the point that he tries to post around the clock to hide his time zone. Does his writing style really say anything useful about his whereabouts? I doubt it. Same for Satoshi.

Not at all. People can easily have strange sleeping schedule if they work on big projects they like, off work. Or people who travel a lot.
I could maybe say, based on such a schedule, that he probably doesn't have small kids at school but not much more.

[franky1]

If he had talked more about other aspects of life, there would have been other hints.
The question would be whether he uses phrases that a non-Brit or non-American (whichever) would barely recognise.

It would have been nice to get this attention in any other context.  WikiLeaks has kicked the hornet's nest, and the swarm is headed towards us.

That's a good approach for mobile.  Programmatic API used by PHP (any language) to present a web UI covers remote admin, mobile and any other client that can't be online all the time with a static IP.  

mobile. not cellular

We had our first automatic adjustment of the proof-of-work difficulty on 30 Dec 2009.  
..
minimum    00000000ffff0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
30/12/2009 00000000d86a0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
date, difficulty factor, % change
2009           1.00
30/12/2009     1.18   +18%

use of british dd/mm/yyyy format
not american mm/dd/yyyy format

his language was british. but heck im british and pre-pandemic i spent many years abroad. so my language does not = my location
and knowing he is british doesnt reveal any location either

[kaggie]

It would have been nice to get this attention in any other context.  WikiLeaks has kicked the hornet's nest, and the swarm is headed towards us.

mobile. not cellular

use of british dd/mm/yyyy format
not american mm/dd/yyyy format

his language was british. but heck im british and pre-pandemic i spent many years abroad. so my language does not = my location
and knowing he is british doesnt reveal any location either

Fun fact -
The only hornet in the US is the European hornet, which is commonly referred to in the south as the Japanese hornet.

The book, "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest", was popularized in the US and UK in 2009 and 2010, so the phrase would be extant in both locations at the time.

Europeans and Americans has the date formatting backwards. It should be yyyy/mm/dd to make sorting by date easier, like the Japanese do. Still, the dd/mm/yyyy format seems preferable to mm/dd/yyyy for working with data over time since it doesn't require inserting the smallest amount in the centre.

At the end of the day, it is about probabilities, even if hard evidence one day gives new details. The inconsistency of spelling, if taken at face value, points to an international, but the sleep schedule points to an American location.

[suzanne5223]

Satoshi is a mystery person or individual and we can only know who he was if he discloses himself or Theymos show us his PM which could give us a tip of who he was and theymos once said he had no plan to disclose his PM as a sign of respecting his privacy which what the crypto community cherishes the most.
But using his mode of writing in British English to judge where is based will provide false answers cause he may have studied in British, know British English, or borne there and later relocated.

[Similificator]

It is quite difficult to make any good assumptions based solely on the type of English he decided to use since there can be many variables present. Just thinking about the dozens of reasons available as to why he did this or if he or they really were doing this on purpose, makes my head blow steam. Either way, it is a good thing since it misled everyone(maybe) and only made it harder to find the person(s) behind the name satoshi. Or maybe there are people who already know but chooses not to talk about it because they respect the wishes of the person(s) behind the name satoshi to not be found and stay hidden or maybe they are just being ridiculed and do not want to be ridiculed even further who knows? Truth of the matter is that I honestly don't know and can only speculate like most of the people in this industry.

On a side note though, topics about satoshi really piques my interest a lot maybe because of the mysteriousness connected to this name or the success by his/their creation or maybe simply because of his shocking predictions. But as to what I always say, let the guy/them be since if the person or people behind bitcoin is/are still alive after all this time, they wouldn't bother to go to such lengths to stay hidden if he/they really wanted to be found and be famous and take advantage of the success of bitcoin. Although I understand the curiosity and fascination along with the thrill of solving this huge hunt, I also understand that the guy/people behind this big name simply wants to live a peaceful life away from all the noise in this industry. Thus I hope people would respect his/their wishes and let him/them be.

[arabspaceship123]

@arabspaceship123
Your thread reminded me of one I created myself last year. My investigation on satoshi.

I was also interested in finding out if he was British or maybe American. Among the things I looked at was also the letters "z" and "s". There is also the letters "ou" in words like colour/color that are spelt differently depending on if you are taught British or American English.  

I really enjoyed reading Satoshi's posts and creating that thread.  

I didn't know about your thread. That's a good one I like the way you cleanly placed comments you've collected from Satoshi to show examples. In Satoshi's posts "s" and "z" exist so questioning why international English and GB British English was used is right.

But using his mode of writing in British English to judge where is based will provide false answers cause he may have studied in British, know British English, or borne there and later relocated.

He might also be they because Satoshi could be a pseudonym for a team which collaborated in different countries. We just don't know.

[Tim-BTC]

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.

I agree with you that no team can keep a secret for so long. A team will always have disputes, and when there are disputes, there will be mistakes.

[Lucius]

He might also be they because Satoshi could be a pseudonym for a team which collaborated in different countries. We just don't know.

Whether it’s about him, her, or them it’s completely irrelevant, and given that it’s someone above-average intelligent, I believe nothing was done by accident, and that someone wanted to create a lot of false clues and dead ends. The fact that people have been trying to achieve something with their analyzes for 10 years without moving from the deadlock clearly indicates that Satoshi succeeded in his intention to remain anonymous.

Instead of chasing ghosts, it is enough for me to read what Hal wrote about Satoshi - and yet he is a man who was very close to him to be able to evaluate some things.

Today, Satoshi's true identity has become a mystery. But at the time, I thought I was dealing with a young man of Japanese ancestry who was very smart and sincere. I've had the good fortune to know many brilliant people over the course of my life, so I recognize the signs.

[ven7net]

Surprisingly, if you really find out who Satoshi is, then this could clarify a number of important questions, but as I noticed, for some reason this question is not particularly asked, why? I believe that the use of English in writing your messages says a lot, for example, that Satoshi is a person or a group of people from the United States or England, and if so, then this tells us a lot. But unfortunately all these are just our guesses and at the moment we cannot know 100% how everything really is. But I still hope that in the near future there will be more information about who Satoshi is, where he is from and why the blockchain and cryptocurrencies were developed.

[arabspaceship123]

I'm with the theory Satoshi was a team. I'm aware the false clues and dead ends theory is possible because words containing international English and GB British English "s" and "z" could've been put out there deliberately. What Hal said about Satoshi was high level complimentary but imagine how much respect Satoshi would've had for Hal. We'll never know.

He might also be they because Satoshi could be a pseudonym for a team which collaborated in different countries. We just don't know.

Whether it’s about him, her, or them it’s completely irrelevant, and given that it’s someone above-average intelligent, I believe nothing was done by accident, and that someone wanted to create a lot of false clues and dead ends. The fact that people have been trying to achieve something with their analyzes for 10 years without moving from the deadlock clearly indicates that Satoshi succeeded in his intention to remain anonymous.

Instead of chasing ghosts, it is enough for me to read what Hal wrote about Satoshi - and yet he is a man who was very close to him to be able to evaluate some things.

Today, Satoshi's true identity has become a mystery. But at the time, I thought I was dealing with a young man of Japanese ancestry who was very smart and sincere. I've had the good fortune to know many brilliant people over the course of my life, so I recognize the signs.

[ChiBitCTy]

I have read a lot about this and done a lot of digging around to try and see whom I think Satoshi is or was.  I think there are two trains of thought, either Satoshi did a lot of things on purpose to throw people off, or there were a couple individuals who made up Satoshi.  I know Satoshi once used the term "bloody" as in like "bloody hell".  As an American I can tell you we never use that term here. So it makes you wonder.  Personally I think that it was a combo of cypherpunks such as Hal Finney and Nick Szabo.

[temple]

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

Very few people in the world could keep a secret like this for so long if they were a team.

What if it's a government led project. I agree with you that hardly any team would be able to keep such a secret to themselves forever unless it is a government operation. I think it is at least a possibility that can't easily be ruled out. If it was a one man show, what do you think how long it took that person to write the whole code?

From today's perspective it might look easier than it actually was to pull the whole thing off successfully. I mean sure the ingredients were there but when you first sit down and try to make the right decisions and combinations to come up with something of Bitcoin's calibre, that is still extremely impressive.

Also the question whether Satoshi is dead or not, who would be able to refrain from touching a million BTC? Could a single individual resist? I don't know. A government could I guess.

[Renampun]

...

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

Well, this is very interesting to discuss because I personally believe that Satoshi is a group of anonymous people, not one anonymous person...

I still remember very well someone once said that 'it is not difficult to detect the presence of one person but when there are many it will be very difficult'. satoshi is a group or individual, I still admire him and really grateful for making the world a better place.

[Pmalek]

I believe that the use of English in writing your messages says a lot, for example, that Satoshi is a person or a group of people from the United States or England...

There is a big difference between the United States and England when it comes to writing and spelling. The differences aren't as obvious when you consider the other Commonwealth nations such as Canada, New Zealand, or Australia. They use British English there as well. You also have Ireland and Scotland to consider.