Peter Todd In Hiding After Being 'Unmasked' As Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto (wired.com)
- Reference: 0175304527
- News link: https://slashdot.org/story/24/10/22/217235/peter-todd-in-hiding-after-being-unmasked-as-bitcoin-creator-satoshi-nakamoto
- Source link: https://www.wired.com/story/peter-todd-was-unmasked-as-bitcoin-creator-satoshi-nakamoto-now-hes-in-hiding/
> When Canadian developer Peter Todd found out that a new HBO documentary, Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery, was set to [1]identify him as Satoshi Nakamoto , the creator of Bitcoin, he was mostly just pissed. "This was clearly going to be a circus," Todd told WIRED in an email. The identity of the person -- or people -- who created Bitcoin has been the subject of speculation since December 2010, when they disappeared from public view. The mystery has proved all the more irresistible for the trove of bitcoin Satoshi is widely believed to have controlled, suspected to be worth many billions of dollars today. When the documentary was released on October 8, Todd joined a long line of alleged Satoshis.
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> Documentary maker Cullen Hoback, who in a previous film claimed to have identified the individual behind QAnon, laid out his theory to Todd on camera. The confrontation would become the climactic scene of the documentary. But Todd nonetheless claims he didn't see it coming; he alleges he was left with the impression the film was about the history of Bitcoin, not the identity of its creator. Since the documentary aired, Todd has repeatedly and categorically denied that he created Bitcoin: "For the record, [2]I am not Satoshi ," he alleges. "I think Cullen made the Satoshi accusation for marketing. He needed a way to get attention for his film."
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> For his part, Hoback remains confident in his conclusions. The various denials and deflections from Todd, he claims, are part of a grand and layered misdirection. "While of course we can't outright say he is Satoshi, I think that we make a very strong case," says Hoback. Whatever the truth, Todd will now bear the burden of having been unmasked as Satoshi. [3]He has gone into hiding . [...] Todd expects that "continued harassment by crazy people" will become the indefinite status quo. But he says the potential personal safety implications are his chief concern -- and the reason he has gone into hiding. "Obviously, falsely claiming that ordinary people of ordinary wealth are extraordinarily rich exposes them to threats like robbery and kidnapping," says Todd. "Not only is the question dumb, it's dangerous. Satoshi obviously didn't want to be found, for good reasons, and no one should help people trying to find Satoshi."
"I think the idea that it puts their life [at risk] is a little overblown," says Hoback. "This person is potentially on track to become the wealthiest on Earth."
"If countries are considering adopting this in their treasuries or making it legal tender, the idea that there's potentially this anonymous figure out there who controls one twentieth of the total supply of digital gold is pretty important."
[1] https://slashdot.org/story/24/10/09/0157238/bitcoin-creator-is-peter-todd-hbo-film-says
[2] https://slashdot.org/story/24/10/09/1855240/bitcoin-creator-suspect-says-he-is-not-bitcoin-creator-suspect
[3] https://www.wired.com/story/peter-todd-was-unmasked-as-bitcoin-creator-satoshi-nakamoto-now-hes-in-hiding/
There is still no evidence supporting the claim... (Score:3, Informative)
There is still no evidence supporting the claim that Peter Todd is Satoshi. The entire narrative around this guy being Satoshi is just marketing for a documentary. There is no new evidence and no one has actually done the work of proving that this guy had anything to do with the founding of bitcoin.
This guy is a spammer who's getting spammed. From what I can tell, Peter Todd is just one of thousands of generic crypto spammers on twitter. His job has been generating false metrics for false narratives. The documentary is just another version of that. Scammers like
Peter Todd aren't the victims of the internet. They're the predators.
Reminds me of Dan Brown and Linus Torvalds (Score:2)
This reminds me of the time Dan Brown (during the SCO era) went about claiming Linus Torvalds hadn't written Linux because Dan Brown couldn't believe that Linus was able to write 10k lines of code over a summer. And this in spite of the fact that everyone he interviewed told him otherwise. The rest of us just look at this from afar and wonder if this guy did it to himself or if it was just some calamity that happened to him, the metaphorical career equivalent of having your house fall off a cliff.
Victim Predator. (Score:2)
> There is still no evidence supporting the claim that Peter Todd is Satoshi. The entire narrative around this guy being Satoshi is just marketing for a documentary. There is no new evidence and no one has actually done the work of proving that this guy had anything to do with the founding of bitcoin. This guy is a spammer who's getting spammed. From what I can tell, Peter Todd is just one of thousands of generic crypto spammers on twitter. His job has been generating false metrics for false narratives. The documentary is just another version of that. Scammers like Peter Todd aren't the victims of the internet. They're the predators.
If he’s more the predator, he’s in hiding. From the kind of greed that would murder his children in cold blood without a second thought, for a mere fraction of the wealth he allegedly owns.
If he’s more the victim, he’s in hiding. From the kind of greed that would murder his children in cold blood without a second thought, for a mere fraction of the wealth he allegedly owns.
Regardless of the label you want to use, I sure as shit wouldn’t want to be in his shoes. Not on this p
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Not just any kind of wealth. It'd be like having billions in cash or gift cards. Every crooked motherfucker on the planet would be after you.
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Hal Finney or Dorian Nakamoto are almost for sure Satoshi. Remember that Nakamoto seemed to know about it but also completely NOT know about it and his next door neighbor happened to be Hal, who 100% for sure knew who Satoshi was. Both also have demonstrated the math skills.
Nick Szabo also likely knows who it is since it seems likely Satoshi consulted with him.
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lol. I responded to a post by complaining about the proliferation of provocative and unsubstantiated claims without any supporting evidence. Your response to my comment was...*checks notes*...a provocative and unsubstantiated claim without any supporting evidence.
Bake him away toys!
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Peter Todd is just one of thousands of generic crypto spammers on twitter
He was a Bitcoin Core developer. You seem to imply he only has tangential association by being a shitcoin shill
Asymmetry begets asymmetry (Score:1)
The fundamental asymmetry of cryptography, the one way function begets another kind of asymmetry. If he were Satoshi, he could easily prove it by transferring coins from a Satoshi wallet. What he can't do is prove he ISN'T Satoshi. What a giant hassle--all of the fame, and probably none of the money. The exact opposite of what a lot of us want.
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> All anyone would have to do to prove they are Satoshi is sign something with that key if it hasn't already been destroyed.
That wouldn't prove anything beyond the fact the person has access to the key and the passphrase.
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Well, that's sort of the central theme here. That the key and passphrase are considered guaranteed proof of identity which is why no one social engineers money out of the blockchain , just unsophisticated users.
Hoback needs a head shake (Score:3)
Hoback has gone out to everyone on planet earth and said "hey, see this guy over here, he secretly is in control of hundreds of millions of dollars, and acts like he isn't"
This immediately makes Todd a target for theft, kidnapping, extortion, and innumerable other threats.
Now let's assume for a moment that Todd is not Satoshi.
He is in this situation, and, unlike other celebrities and wealthy individuals, *he has no resources to deal with the problem*.
I smell a lawsuit.
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Hundreds of millions? Try tens of billions. If the real Satoshi could slowly liquidate their Bitcoin wallets without creating a market panic (fat chance, but for sake of argument), they would have enough money to be solidly in the middle of the Forbes top 100 list of wealthiest people.
Re: Hoback needs a head shake (Score:2)
Even worse
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People will kill over a card game with just a few thousand dollars at stake. So, yeah
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"I smell a lawsuit." I'm sure that will do his family good after they receive his head in a box if the people nabbing him would be so courteous. For him personally, not so much
The grand master plan of crypto (Score:1)
> "If countries are considering adopting this in their treasuries or making it legal tender, the idea that there's potentially this anonymous figure out there who controls one twentieth of the total supply of digital gold is pretty important."
The plan for all cryptocurrencies isn't what they want to make you think it is. It's more sinister than the egalitarian image the crypto boys portray for it.
After the 2008 financial meltdown, cryptocurrencies were born out of it, declared to be the means by which people
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"After the 2008 financial meltdown, cryptocurrencies were born out of it, declared to be the means by which people could be freed from banks/governments, and promised to avoid any such future meltdowns from happening ever again" Once again people fall for the shiny knight on his great white steed and fail to notice the dragon wearing that armor. "It it sounds too good to be true", etc etc..
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Your ideas intrigue me, and i would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
If countries are... (Score:4, Insightful)
From the summary:
> If countries are considering adopting this in their treasuries or making it legal tender, the idea that there's potentially this anonymous figure out there who controls one twentieth of the total supply of digital gold is pretty important.
That it's even possible for one unknown person to control 5% of the total money supply is a really good reason why countries should absolutely not adopt it. There are many others, but that one alone is enough.
Holback is a shithead (Score:2)
> "I think the idea that it puts their life [at risk] is a little overblown," says Hoback. "This person is potentially on track to become the wealthiest on Earth."
Well, what do you think puts their life at risk, idiot? The fact that they have no money and can't hire a bodyguard means that any crazy with an idea to torture the key out of Satoshi is perking up right about now.
This irresponsible idiot should be framed for something that would put him in a similar target category.
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Lock him up in protective custody. As in actual bars and keys I'm sure a judge could stretch the definition of "material witness" and the laws regarding confining such an individual.
Truly a scummy approach to "reporting" (Score:2)
Of course Todd has to go into hiding, because a documentarist wanted to show off, and apparently didn't even give him advance warning that this was going to happen. This is a terrible thing for someone to do to a normal person who doesn't have an armed security detail on staff because they're not a millionaire.
Declaring Todd to be Satoshi like that just turns the poor guy into a Magic Internet Money Pinata. Any number of criminal organizations now might readily take a chance that if they grab him, dangle
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I would say the accusation rises to the level of criminal - reckless endangerment.
Of course he's not Satoshi. NOBODY would still be sitting on those coins by this point, they'd have been bleeding them off from the first sudden rise in value.
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> NOBODY would still be sitting on those coins by this point,
But we do (or should) know Nakamoto's address. Even if we don't know the individual in meat space who holds the corresponding private key. And it would be a simple matter for people to examine blocks in the blockchain, all the way back to the genesis block, to detect coins being "bled off".
And just for morbid curiosity, or the motivations of numerous regulatory agencies, this activity would not go unnoticed.
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They cannot possibly unload them as people would notice immediately i believe. In that situation, it is far better to have two accounts, or 10 or 100. each with an amount in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. just convert pieces of that when you need some cash.
So he had the first coins. Saw the price going up and purchased a few thousand over different wallets while they were still 19 cents or whatever. Just spends those off one account at a time. Never needs to touch the main account because no one can
Satoshi was actually (Score:1)
Dave Kleiman. See also https://casetext.com/case/kleiman-v-wright-14 - where did all those Bitcoins come from?
Actually there's plenty of reasons to believe Dave wasn't, but until there's a better candidate I'm going with him. The man was Army, supposedly an ex-fed, was on the proper mailing lists to be Satoshi, and knew his stuff when it came to security, given how often he was a technical editor or contributor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Kleiman#Publications
If Satoshi were not dead (as Kleiman is,
Lie down with dogs (Score:2)
...expect to get fleas or maybe a good mauling. Even if he is not "Satoshi", he is a marked man by his former "friends" nonetheless because of this shady shit he's involved in.
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Imagine you're North Korea.
Or just some psycho huffing paint thinner and playing with your knife collection in a basement.
Hey! Look! They found this guy who has billions in untraceable, easily transferrable money and he doesn't seem to have body guards or a secure house or anything. Why not go over there, tie him up, attach a car battery to his nuts and find out the codes. And if he doesn't give them to us, no problem, we shoot him in the head.
I am pretty sure he isn't Satoshi, but other people might have a
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"we shoot him in the head." at that point the ball is ripped up and deflated and everyone should just go home, because there is no getting the codes now. Not that I wouldn't expect one of the theoretical kidnappers to get hyperexcited after one too many "no, not telling"s and do something this stupid on impulse And it would really suck to be that person when the rest of the gang savages him in anger.