Topic: Should the Creator of Bitcoin come forward? (Read 5996 times)

The anonymity prevents characterisation and individualisation. 

Notice how the media will focus on the persona of Snowden to the exclusion of what was revealed.  (the girlfriend, the running, the adventure, the activities, the location, etc)
By coming forward, such treatment is guaranteed.

Satoshi would be able to handle it better than most, but it would not be good for Bitcoin in any case.  Celebrity is more of a cost than a benefit unless you are trying to make celebrity your career.  It would take the focus away from Bitcoin and put the spotlight on the persona.

I suppose I misused "premining" as a term, then, since basically any transaction worth anything would be definition be on the blockchain.  But early adopters did get a serious jump on it, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Sure, but that's not premining.

He waited until after publicly announcing the currency and giving other people an opportunity to mine at the same time he started.

Only the Genesis Block could be considered "premined", and that's only 50 BTC.

I thought it was relatively well established that of the first 32,000 or so blocks, many must have been Satoshi.  Here's one fairly credible (if speculative) look at the early blocks.

It's possible they're overestimating Satoshi's mining, or that there are a lot of early adopters, but a lot of the early blocks have not been spent.

Why would there be anything reprehensible about it even if he did mine the early blocks and keep them?  Seems to me he'd have to be a fool not to.

yes.

I want to mock him and aspire to be him

I've noticed a disturbing trend of trolls casually accusing Satoshi of premining.

It looks like that particular brand of FUD is starting to become popular again.

I think Satoshi has nothing to fear from the legal authorities, unless he plans on doing something like converting those premined coins into fiat without paying taxes.  Otherwise, he can basically sit on them forever.  There's nothing illegal about creating Bitcoin or using it, and retaliating against Satoshi wouldn't harm the network in any way. 

About the only thing I know about Satoshi is he (or she or my favorite theory they) likes his privacy, and has done what is necessary to protect it.  I wouldn't be surprised if it was a small cartel including, perhaps, even David Chaum himself, and I'd be quite surprised if whoever Satoshi is, his name is unknown in the crypto community.

If I were profiling Satoshi, my guess would be an early participant on the cypherpunks list, and/or an author of early published work on digital currencies.  I would not be surprised if he has done federally funded research at an academic institution, or perhaps has some other personal or political reason that having a high profile is inconsistent with either his job (or just his preference for privacy).

The pool of people capable of creating something like Bitcoin is so small I think it may have been a group of two or three people, maybe one the initial researcher with the big idea and one or more coders who actually put together the nuts and bolts.  I could easily imagine the "members" of the Satoshi team not knowing each other's identities.

Anyway, the secrecy of Satoshi's identity makes a cool story, and makes Bitcoin look mysterious and James Bond-ish.  I like that.

They should make him a job offer he can't refuse. Makes much more sense than beating the crap out of him and locking him up. Granted, law enforcement often does not make very much sense.

The US does not care, he would go missing or be turned in due to politcial pressure. Thats assuming he's not tortured and killed for his privkeys first.

Who says Satoshi lives in the States? 

If he ever does come forward, I highly doubt it would be from an extraditable country (I don't believe he's done anything wrong, tho)

I don't think they have any real reason to come forward. I don't think it would help anything.

No.

It is irrelevant.

Bitcoin does not need Satoshi anymore, hence why he left (one reason).

The creator of liberty reserve just got 75 years in prison, only 25 years of which were for money laundering.

Satoshi would get royally fucked in the arse. And before he even got to the court room he would be robbed for his wealth.

He / she or the group which created and scripted the Bitcoin really should stay anonymous. They should because of their safety I think (and I'm not threatening them by this post).   Unfortunately there are too many people on this planet who will kidnap Satoshi or harm him/her/them or their family just to earn some bucks. I assume Satoshi is millionair.

Or to make it ultimately unprovable, publishing private keys.

You mean he might have left backdoors in addition to the "ALERT" one ?

It would be trivially easy for Satoshi to prove his/her/their identify. That's one of the things cryptography is really good at.

It's pretty egocentric to say that 'we are Satoshi'. Perhaps only a tiny few of you could haved pulled this thing off so well even if you were able to conceive of the concept. You and me are just the sheep that follow, although perhaps we are a bit ahead of the rest of the flock.

I think the fact that Satoshi remains anonymous with a large amount of premined coins in 'His' posession is a risk to bitcoin. If he has honest motives, it would help if he stepped forward.

Consider if it can be ruled out that Satoshi turns out the be the NSA in a few years time and they reveal a flaw in bitcoin, rendering our entire toy worthless, or a similar scenario. There are many institutions in the world with motives to create something like bitcoin.

Even if the creator of Bitcoin came forward, it wouldn't matter too much. It'd all just be a fight to grab his bitcoin the fastest. There would also have to be some undeniable proof for someone to believe it's really Satoshi.

There is no mystery its a proven fact that as early as 10 days after the creation of the blockchain the US Department of Defence had this bitcoin thing under control.
Proof --> HD Moore
Every alternative coin creator is know.