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Bitcoin The Almighty Buck

Bitcoin Inventor Satoshi Nakamoto Could Actually Be Group From Europe 186

Posted by samzenpus from the we-are-legion dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto could be a group from Europe which has a strong footing in the financial sector. From the article: 'Josh Zerlan, the Chief Operating Officer of Butterfly Labs and a person familiar with the Bitcoin network, has said it is highly likely that Nakamoto could be a group of people working the financial sector. Speaking to IBTimes UK on the sidelines of a Global Bitcoin Conference in Bangalore, India, Zerlan said: "One of the prevailing theories, I think has credibility, is that it was some group of people from financial sector that created this. They released it and stepped back and let it go. So, Satoshi Nakamoto is a group of people, I think, is a reasonable possibility."'"
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Bitcoin Inventor Satoshi Nakamoto Could Actually Be Group From Europe More

Bitcoin Inventor Satoshi Nakamoto Could Actually Be Group From Europe

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  • Ummm (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Bitcoin Inventor Satoshi Nakamoto is Anonymous-style Cell from Europe

    Anonymous-style??? Slightly biased headline designed to increase FUD about bitcoins.

  • I am ... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Satoshi Nakamoto

    • No, I am Satoshi Nakamoto.

  • Or.. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Errol backfiring ( 1280012 ) on Monday December 16, 2013 @12:13PM (#45704335) Journal
    Then again, it could be not. Interesting. I think I have had my number of conspiracy theories for today.

  • Hey, let's speculate! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by i kan reed ( 749298 ) on Monday December 16, 2013 @12:14PM (#45704337) Homepage Journal

    Rather than engage in actual tech news, let's speculate wildly(second guess in as many weeks) on the identity of someone who explicitly wanted to remain anonymous, and who has committed no crimes. That sounds like a grand engagement in journalistic credibility.

    Anyone who really wanted to could find out my identity, but I wouldn't want them to start posting about their ideas as major headlines.

    • some governments might in fact decide bitcoin is a crime

      • The fact that none has makes your speculation as bad the author of this article.

        • governments are just starting to make laws and bans about bitcoins, some of them very unfavorable.

          • What's the legality of going after said creator?

            At the time of creation there were no laws in place to prevent it, if creator has had zero input since creation is there any culpability there?

            That's about like suing the inventor of the gun for all gun crimes committed.

            • I was not making statement about creator.

              If you want to use your gun analogy, guns are regulated, taxed, banned, etc. in various places in the world. For example, I have to have a license to buy one in my state, and my county charges an extra tax on them.

      • And only the most backwards of government would make that an ex-post-facto offense. The creator would still have committed no crime.

        • I know a large first world country that has done such ex post facto actions even though their constitution forbids it, less than a decade ago. They then siezed gold and silver held by a company that belonged to citizens.

    • Re:Hey, let's speculate! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 16, 2013 @12:26PM (#45704477)

      Without some actual evidence other than just conjecture at a coffee klatsch, there are a lot of parties who could be the BitCoin creator.

      Lets check facts:

      1: It is someone clued in cryptography. This is very rare because most crypto implementations on virtually anything are very basic

      2: It is someone who is clued with regards to the financial sector, perhaps has a lot of coins mined and stashed aside when it took just a CPU to mine them as opposed to ASICs.

      3: It is someone who can code, code well, and distribute things out anonymously.

      After those three items, it could be anyone, and suspicions could be anywhere.

      In any case, the party who made BitCoin is filthy rich, and will only get more so by an exponential margin as time progresses, BitCoins get lost forever, and no new ones are mined.

      • Re: Hey, let's speculate! (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        I think the first several hundred or thousand bitcoins have remained untranferred to this day. So the first miners have not cashed out and are not rich.

        • Wait, so if you have a million dollars worth of bitcoin you are not rich because yo have not converted it to another currency? If you have $1 million worth of gold that you have not sold are you similarly not rich? If you have $1 million worth of stocks that you have not sold are you similarly not rich?

          • Wait, so if you have a million dollars worth of bitcoin you are not rich because yo have not converted it to another currency?

            Not rich, since you haven't cashed out yet. Your bitcoins could be worthless next month. Better sell now.

            If you have $1 million worth of gold that you have not sold are you similarly not rich?

            You are rich, since gold has never been worthless in the history of human civilization.

            If you have $1 million worth of stocks that you have not sold are you similarly not rich?

            Depends on the stock. Is it a solid company with zero chance of bankruptcy in the foreseeable future, such as Apple or Google? Or is it an Enron?

            • Not rich, since you haven't cashed out yet. Your bitcoins could be worthless next month. Better sell now.

              On the contrary, today it seems to have lost a bit of value. It looks like a good time to buy.
              I guess they could be worthless next month. Or they could be worth $1,000 next month. people were saying the same thing two months ago when it was $130, and now even after the dip it is over $750.

            • If you have $1 million worth of gold that you have not sold are you similarly not rich?

              You are rich, since gold has never been worthless in the history of human civilization.

              That's not true, gold only gained value when people got enough real wealth - meaning food, clothes, weapons - that they could start worrying about bling. More importantly, gold price is quite volatile - and, according to Wikipedia [wikipedia.org], is currently at quite a high level, historically speaking.

              Based on the timing of the Wikipedia chart [wikipedia.org], I'

        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          by timmyf2371 ( 586051 )

          If I was one of the early miners who made thousands of bitcoins and still had them, I might decide to sell the wallet itself rather than transferring them.

          Leaves less of a paper trail and makes it somewhat easier to avoid paying capital gains tax on the proceeds.

      • Those facts make it sound like some "Anonymous Coward" on Slashdot. What if we all are suspects here at Slashdot?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by gutnor ( 872759 )
      Not saying it is not garbage journalism, but there is an unidentified guy with a fortune estimated to 1.8 trillion dollar. Much more if bitcoin takes over, up to 5% total Earth Wealth in the unlikely scenario of bitcoin becoming the world currency. I wonder why there is not much more article trying to track him down considering we live in a world that has a fetish for famous people.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by roman_mir ( 125474 )

      Let's speculate! I think Satoshi Nakamoto is actually a space alien, who introduced the Bitcoin on this planet in order to run his personal intergalactic ponzi scam. Bitcoins are just a tip of the GAWAY group (Galaxy Way), next thing you know, you are peddling your kidneys in the back alleys in exchange for Bitcoins, which you are promptly exchanging for the next dose of Jupiter III Moonshine dust so you can snort it off the back of a three legged blue-skinned tentacle'd hooker with tits for ears. Of-cours

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by khallow ( 566160 )

        I think Satoshi Nakamoto is actually a space alien, who introduced the Bitcoin on this planet in order to run his personal intergalactic ponzi scam.

        I agree! It's pretty clear that humans of this period of history simply didn't have the technology or intelligence to do what Bitcoin does. It has to be aliens!

    • Re:Hey, let's speculate! (Score:5, Funny)

      by Charliemopps ( 1157495 ) on Monday December 16, 2013 @02:25PM (#45705789)

      My wild theory is that it's the NSA.

      See you take the name: satoshi nakamoto
      rearrange the letters and you get: ha! NSA is tomatos ok?
      and tomatoes are green like MONEY! most of the year.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by PaddyM ( 45763 )

        Satoshi Nakomoto is Japanese for, you guessed it, Rothschilds 1913. And with middle name Anashi, he's normally referred to as N, S.A. in his publications. They finally got control of all the worlds money. Kudos to China and Norway who see the scam for what it is. While everyone else is using coins minted in difficult mathematical proofs that will be easily stolen by quantum computers as part of the Illuminati's scam to have their octopus tentacles in everyone's pockets, I'll be bartering in tin, foil ha

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by khallow ( 566160 )

      Rather than engage in actual tech news, let's speculate wildly(second guess in as many weeks) on the identity of someone who explicitly wanted to remain anonymous, and who has committed no crimes.

      He's a public figure so he's fair game. I think though such idle speculation would serve more to hide Satoshi Nakamoto than reveal him.

  • Ah yes, Josh (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 16, 2013 @12:14PM (#45704351)

    Josh Zerlan/Inaba, noted whiz-kid who runs one of the most fly-by-night ASIC companies, and who curses out his customers and insinuates things about their sexual proclivities rather than provide actual customer service. A highly-qualified individual to be speaking on the topic of Bitcoin, surely.

    • +1!!!
    • Can you differentiate your accusations from what you accuse him of by included some citations. Not saying you're lying, but it would help your argument to provide some info to those of us unfamiliar with your claims. Otherwise it's no better than TFA.

  • I am Satoshi Nakamoto. (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I'm pretty sure this worked out for Spartacus...

  • The Laughing Man (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Everyone has a theory on who he might be, but he might not even exist at all.

  • Compelling Evidence... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Wow he sure offers some compelling evidence there... Oh wait, no he doesn't.

    I think Santa Clause is Satashi Nakamoto.

  • Three Men (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 16, 2013 @12:17PM (#45704389)

    Three men can keep a secret if two of them are dead.

  • As always (Score:5, Interesting)

    by nospam007 ( 722110 ) * on Monday December 16, 2013 @12:20PM (#45704427)

    The olde 'The idea is so clever, it must have been one of us'-Syndrome.

    • Re:As always (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Vintermann ( 400722 ) on Monday December 16, 2013 @02:53PM (#45706075) Homepage

      No, they didn't say Satoshi Nakamoto was a group of scammers.

      (For those not following, Butterfly Labs have become infamous in the bitcoin community by selling ASIC mining machines, promising delivery in one week. If they arrive at all, it's more than six months later, and by that time the difficulty of bitcoin mining has inevitably increased enough to make them unprofitable.

      Yet they keep advertising one week's delivery time.

      They have a record of breaking down due to defects, too, if they arrive. People suspect that BFL let these miners run for themselves in the months between advertised delivery time and actual delivery time.)

  • Again and again and again (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Threni ( 635302 ) on Monday December 16, 2013 @12:21PM (#45704433)

    "Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto could be a group from Europe which has a strong footing in the financial sector....could be a group of people working the financial sector.... some group of people from financial sector that created this...Satoshi Nakamoto is a group of people, I think"

    Pointless random guesswork aside, why do journalists feel the need to say the exact same thing 3 to 5 times in the first few paragraphs? Once is enough, surely?

    • Re:Again and again and again (Score:5, Informative)

      by Actually, I do RTFA ( 1058596 ) on Monday December 16, 2013 @01:14PM (#45705033)

      Pointless random guesswork aside, why do journalists feel the need to say the exact same thing 3 to 5 times in the first few paragraphs? Once is enough, surely?

      According to my journalist friend, it's how they were taught. The headline, the first paragraph and then the first... I forgot how much, are each supposed to be readable to get the story in various depths of knowledge. Newspapers have been accounting for TL;DR since long before the Internet.

  • Even more likely (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    It's possible that he could be a time traveling alien collective with ties to the porn industry. It's certain feasible that it is possible that it might be that that could be the case.

    It certainly seems reasonable that if there was a time traveling alien collective with ties to the porn industry, that a distributed, non-material currency such as bit coin would be advantageous to them. In fact any such group that arrived before bit coin would be almost compelled to create it. So I think we can say, case clo

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by idioto ( 259918 )

      I know you're being funny, but aside from the porn and the alien part, but I'm curious about the time traveler aspect.

        I've been wondering this wouldn't the most likely thing to be travel back in time be information itself, since we already can send bits at near light speed already? There must be someone on slashdot who can answer this.

  • BFL has no credibility (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Josh and BFL have no credibility. If you'd said Santa Claus said this, it would carry just as much weight.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Santa Claus actually delivers on time. If BFL ran Christmas, you'd get your Xmas presents next Thanksgiving. And they'd all be 2014 calendars.

  • Why did the creator(s) of Bitcoin decide to stay anonymous? I never understood the motive for that and it always struck me as a red flag.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Kaenneth ( 82978 )

      Patent Trolls.

      If I ever release software it'll be as part of a large corporation, or anonymously, it's not worth the headache otherwise.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Many reasons:

      1: It was trivial to mine coins in the beginning, so a coin that cost far less than a penny in electricity is on its way to being worth $10,000 in a market that is virtually recession-proof. The reason to be anonymous is just like a lottery winner -- keep the thieves and lawsuits well away.

      2: Fear of government or big bank (they usually are the same thing) reprisal. Look how E-Gold was systematically disassembled by FinCEN.

      3: Patent/copyright/IP trolling. Even if someone patents 100% of w

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by PRMan ( 959735 )
      Since the founders of MANY other alternative currencies have been arrested and jailed by various countries...

  • Unlikely (Score:4, Informative)

    by Rinisari ( 521266 ) on Monday December 16, 2013 @12:39PM (#45704621) Homepage Journal

    Zerlan hasn't often been accurate in his estimates of things.

    I'm not going to bother to link to these because a quick Google search can turn up the evidence.

    Nakamoto registered the bitcoin.org domain on a somewhat obscure Japanese site. His communication in English had all kinds of clues that his native language was Japanese (sentence structure, word choice, etc.). He was active during daylight and evening hours in Japan.

    I really wish people would stop speculating who he is. It only matters to those who can't read the code and understand that it ultimately doesn't matter, except the possibility that he may one day "come back" and have several hundred thousand Bitcoin to himself. As benevolent as he acted, it's unlikely that he'll pull a Biff Tannen [wikipedia.org] and rule the world. However, miners have the power to stop him if he tries.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Nakamoto registered the bitcoin.org domain on a somewhat obscure Japanese site. His communication in English had all kinds of clues that his native language was Japanese (sentence structure, word choice, etc.). He was active during daylight and evening hours in Japan.

      I'm playing devil's advocate here, but that could be deliberate misdirection.

      • Nakamoto registered the bitcoin.org domain on a somewhat obscure Japanese site. His communication in English had all kinds of clues that his native language was Japanese (sentence structure, word choice, etc.). He was active during daylight and evening hours in Japan.

        I'm playing devil's advocate here, but that could be deliberate misdirection.

        nah it's been verified by the blockchain

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by jankoh ( 2547488 )
      "except the possibility that he may one day "come back" and have several hundred thousand Bitcoin to himself. " According to https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Genesis_block [bitcoin.it] the comment in the first block should prove, that there are no previous blocks, and all block created afterwards, should be known. So there should be no surprises.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by PRMan ( 959735 )
        There are no surprises. He is estimated to own almost 1 million bitcoins (maybe slightly more). It's when he decides to sell that could crash the price for the rest.

    • Re:Unlikely (Score:5, Informative)

      by IamTheRealMike ( 537420 ) on Monday December 16, 2013 @02:17PM (#45705687)

      Just a few minor corrections (I had multiple private email conversations with Satoshi over a couple of years before he disappeared).

      The bitcoin site was registered via an anonymous DNS registrar that specialises in anonymous speech. For a short while he also used an email account from the same service, again, a service dedicated specifically to anonymous speech. I've seen no evidence it was selected due to any links to Japan.

      I don't know where you got the idea that his writing style was that of a native Japanese speaker. He never once wrote anything in Japanese or even referred to Japanese culture. His writing style was actually that of a British guy: full of British English spellings and mannerisms. Also, he timestamped the genesis block by including a headline about the British banking bailouts from The Times. That's a British newspaper that is most commonly referred to outside the UK as "The London Times" due to its rather generic name. It would be rare for an American or Japanese person to refer to it just as "The Times". Finally, his forum account was set to GMT and his posting activity was during evenings GMT.

      Having worked with his code and the man himself, at least for a short while, I think Satoshi was very likely to be a single person, who lives in the UK. But that said, I've never dug any deeper because he clearly wished to have his privacy and I think it would be a sad day if Satoshi's real identity were revealed without his permission.

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward

        I lived for several years in Japan. I speak Japanese fluently. I taught English in Japan. It is almost certain Satoshi is a native English speaker. Reading the archives of the bitcoin forum, he makes absolutely no common mistakes that Japanese people make when speaking English. Personally, I think he is either American or Canadian based on his spelling and choice of phrases, but British might be credible.

        If you read his code, he is also almost certainly a professional Windows programmer. His coding id

  • He built the Nakatomi building, right? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Harough, Hans!

  • Must be bitcoin day with all these articles popping up faster than ravioli in hot water.
  • the NSA must know, therefore Snowdon must know, therefore we will know QED.
  • Or maybe the Bilderberg group. Whee, it's fun to pull guesses right out of my butt while presenting absolutely no evidence whatsoever.

  • More Likely (Score:3, Interesting)

    by CheezburgerBrown . ( 3417019 ) on Monday December 16, 2013 @01:01PM (#45704885)

    It is probably the NSA using your hashing power to break encryption.

    I make this statement knowing approximately nothing about crypto.

    • Or maybe just making it cheaper/easier for themselves to do so. Because of bitcoin, we now have custom ASIC computers which can do calculations at amazing speeds. Sure the NSA could already ask someone to make machines if they needed to, but it would be much more convenient for them if the machines were commercially available.

      • This would be a good point, except that there's not really much NSA gets from having extreme hashing capacity. Breaking badly salted/hashed passwords, maybe, but if Snowden has taught us anything, it's that they don't need to rely on such crude tactics.

  • BFL??? LOL (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Yeah, the dude who owns BFL can say whatever the fuck he wants. BFL isn't exactly the company you want to go to for reliable information...

    Case and point "Our first batch will ship in a month!"... 3 months later..... "Our first batch is still ready to ship this month!"....

    Need I say more?

  • How about, before posting, you scan your headlines/summaries for words like 'could', 'might, 'possibly', 'maybe', 'probably', and ask yourself whether you're posting news about stuff that matters or just speculations with some trigger keywords.
  • he doesn't want to admit it, because he's taken so much guff from people who say he claimed to have invented the internet.
  • Santa, Aliens, FSM etc. Film at 11.

  • If an article title contains the word "could" then you should append on the end "but it isn't", and this will render a true statement.

  • This was also discussed 3 years ago on the bitcoin forums. Good job, news people!

  • Even when there's nothing to talk about, you can have a Bitcoin story on the Slashdot front page every day.

    This isn't even "news for nerds," it's Usenet-style speculation for the terminally bored.

  • Satoshi Nakamoto is actually "Bank"sy
  • We're taking speculation from Butterfly Labs now? The company that delivers their products 6-8 months behind schedule? ...Actually nevermind... Their products are pure speculation so I guess that's what they're good at. ;)

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