I will forever mark the name, Leah McGrath Goodman and Newsweek editorial staff in my mind as a toxic journalist and TMZ-styled publication after this event.
Granted, I don't think Leah McGrath Goodman and Newsweek did anything illegal by breaking this story. I don't think it's wrong for Goodman to attempt to contact Satoshi's relatives over the phone.
What really crossed the line for me was Leah McGrath Goodman and Newsweek's decision to post the photo of the house, with the car's plate info on it.
Why would you do this? What relavence if any did this have to the story?
Showing of the house with car license plate resulted in identifying his address really easily. Let's face it. She wouldn't have done this to Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos even though they are far more famous, rich and public. She did this to this guy only because he's reclusive and powerless.
Why are you discussing Leah's article when this article is discussing something completely different (the fact that Leah's article is wrong)?
You can go to the post of the Newsweek article and get a billion comments exactly like yours. It is pointless to keep harping about it in every related discussion...
You seem upset about this story, but as someone with no stake in Bitcorn or anything else related to this nonsense, I struggle to understand why you care so much who is outed as its creator?
Ok, I'm sorry but there are some serious inconsistencies here.
Leah McGrath Goodman said that after she asked him about BitCoin he promptly stopped emailing her. The timeline is unclear, but it seems like this was before Goodman contacted his family members. Why would she contact his family members if she was directly talking to him and they could blow her pretext of wanting to talk about model trains?
This strongly suggests that he knew enough about BitCoin to be chased away by the question. He uses English and American spellings, just like Satoshi's mailing list postings. He has a computer engineering background.
When she came to his house he said, verbatim, exactly what happened with BitCoin - "I'm not involved in that anymore." And something to the effect of "That's been handed over to others, I have no involvement with that anymore." This, if it was said, strongly suggests to me that this is in fact Satoshi.
Given that this would be catastrophe for both the journalist and Newsweek if it turned out to be wrong, and they must have seen some compelling evidence if they went forward with the story - I'm skeptical about Dorian Nakamoto's denial here.
I agree as much as one can. Unless there are outright fabrications in the Newsweek story, you really can not then start denying his role after he seemed to be admitting it. The chance of a random guy just admitting his role, being eccentric and really smart in this area and then later denying it -- and then not being the guy behind Bitcoin, seems implausible.
That said, if the guy wants his privacy, we can afford it to him, and if the only way to do that is to pretend he isn't the founder, so be it. So that is how I am going to interpret these denials and those agreeing with them.
Lance Armstrong and the members of the US Postal Service team denied using performance-enhancing drugs for more than a decade before finally confessing.
JK Rowling denied writing the Cuckoo's Calling for months.
The Duke Lacrosse Stripper changed her story at least a dozen times before finally admitted nothing happened.
JJ Abrams claimed that Star Trek Into Darkness wouldn't be about Khan for months.
IOW, unsupported denials mean nothing. The Newsweek story may not be right, but it at least has compelling supporting evidence that it could be right.
(There are more examples; these are just the ones I remembered off the top of my head.)
Those quotes are extremely suggestive that he was indeed involved in Bitcoin--so suggestive that it's clear that either they are fabricated or he is not being truthful in the newer interviews.
If you are skeptical of Dorian's denial then you have to wonder why would he first suggest to Newsweek that he was involved with it and then later clarify to AP that it was a misunderstanding.
But there isn't any good explanation of why he would later deny it unless it really was a misunderstanding in the first place.
> This strongly suggests that he knew enough about BitCoin to be chased away by the question.
No it does not. Not understanding why a reporter out of nowhere would contact him, he thought that "Bitcom" was one of the confidential engineering projects that he was previously involved in. Which he could not discuss under NDA.
Add to that the ambitions of a reporter looking to score a cover story for her magazine's "relaunch of its print edition after 15 months and reorganization under new ownership".
Let's not forget that Newsweek has changed hands recently and has published at least one provably false story since then. They are relaunching their print version tomorrow, and even if they are wrong everyone is talking about them. There isn't any compelling evidence provided in the article just circumstantial.
Textbook case of repulsively inane "journalism". Newsweek senior writer Leah McGrath Goodman was assigned the task to write a juicy story by outing the Bitcoin inventor. Here's how she went about it, as a diligent professional: starting from the assumption that Satoshi Nakamoto was literally his real name, she went scouring a database that contained the registration cards of naturalized U.S. citizens (for the record, Nakamoto is the ~400th most common Japanese name).
A Satoshi Nakamoto then turned up whose profile and background offered a potential match (as he used to be an engineering contractor and had shown libertarian views in the past), if you were willing to ignore a lot of facts (such as his less-than-native mastery of English). She then interviewed the man's family, fabricated a few quotes implying involvement with Bitcoin, and published a clickbait story destroying the man's privacy.
Well at least, Dorian Nakamoto got a free lunch out of it.
This could well be the case. I've seen it happen before including in newsrooms I've worked in: A reporter feels too confident in her story and starts to ignore contrary evidence. Her editors don't perform sufficient independent verification. Everyone is caught up in having an exclusive. In this case it coincides with the magazine's relaunch, ratcheting up the pressure still more.
Also you might have a bunch of English major editors saying FAA engineer == computer engineer with significant cryptocurrency domain expertise. It's all the same, amiright?
Man says X, later claims not X. Bitcoin enthusiasts declare total victory for not X, call for tar and feathering of company that published X.
No harm in giving this some time and seeing if "Man Denies He's Bitcoin Founder" turns out to filed next to[1] "Man Denies Connection to Olympic Bombing" or next to "OJ Announces Search For Real Killers".
[1] pedantry disclaimer: not meant as perfect analogies
According to the Newsweek article this Satoshi Nakamoto:
1. Dropped all contact with the reporter when the topic of Bitcoin was brought up over email.
2. Called the cops when the reporter went to his house to ask him about Bitcoin.
3. Said to the reporter: "I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it," "It's been turned over to other people. They are in charge of it now. I no longer have any connection."
Someone here is lying, because a person who only heard of Bitcoin three weeks ago doesn't do and say those things.
1. Dropped all contact when it was clear the person had misrepresented themselves and thought he was Satoshi.
2. Called the cops when this stranger came to his home to persist in this line of questioning.
3. Reporter says he said this, but also the cop just happens to be familiar with bitcoin and quip something appropriate. It could easily be a paraphrase of this man saying he's no longer involved in the govt projects we know him to be involved in, and he has no connection with them.
Why didn't the reporter record this exchange? Seems elementary when you're ambushing the guy. And has no one contacted the cop involved to see what he said or knows?
It makes me wonder how many people saw "Satoshi Nakamoto" and tried to talk to this guy before the reporter. Surely she wasn't the first. People have been wondering about the identity for years.
Based on other investigative efforts people have undertaken, the kind of level of complexity Bitcoin has in its underlying code-base shows that there might have been more than one person responsible for Bitcoin. It's unfortunate this has happened to a guy who is not related to Bitcoin at all. Pictures of his house, location, his full name and even going as far as documenting that he's between in and out of jobs over the years was uncalled for in my opinion.
Do editors and journalists not read what is being published? Feels like we've all been transformed back 7 to 10 years ago where this kind of "investigative journalism" was prevalent and hardly investigative at all. NewsWeek either need to put up some conclusive proof or retract everything they've said and give mr Satoshi an apology.
It'll be interesting if from a legal perspective Dorian Satoshi has a case against NewsWeek considering this has already gone to print. If it causes Satoshi's life to crumble, make it hard for him to get employment, subjects him to harassment from armchair Internet investigators and whatnot, he might have some kind of case. But having said that, this would mean if it went to court, he would have to offer up access to info that NewsWeek and others don't have and if he is the real Satoshi, it would come back to bite him.
The real question is, if this is the real Satoshi, why isn't he using his incredible stash of Bitcoin to live a little more comfortably? Hiding in plain sight perhaps. Just let the poor guy be. Nobody should be subject to this kind of speculative journalism. It's the Boston bombing situation all over again.
The new Satoshi Nakamoto communication is really interesting. There have been quite a lot of stories over time supposedly identifying the real Nakamoto, and there was complete silence over this.
So... did Newsweek get the real Nakamoto who is panicking now? Or did they get the wrong guy, and the real guy feels like this time (rather than those previous times) he has to step in to protect the innocent?
NewsWeek either need to put up some conclusive proof or
retract everything they've said and give mr Satoshi an apology.
This has been my problem since the story broke. It's just like a good conspiracy theory; the circumstances are all there to make the conclusion possible, even plausible. But there's not enough there that would hold up in a court of law.
Man, it's a good thing HN didn't fly off the handle and start obsessing over this man and try to invade his privacy using the excuse that NewsWeek started it and that makes it okay.
That was not my impression of the HN comments in the least. Most HN commenters seemed to think it was an egregious invasion of his privacy from what I read.
Key excerpt:
He also said a key portion of the piece — where he is quoted telling the reporter on his doorstep before two police officers, "I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it" — was misunderstood.
Nakamoto said he is a native of Beppu, Japan who came to the U.S. when he was 10. He speaks both English and Japanese, but his English isn't flawless. Asked if he said the quote, Nakamoto responded, "no."
"I'm saying I'm no longer in engineering. That's it," he said of the exchange. "And even if I was, when we get hired, you have to sign this document, contract saying you will not reveal anything we divulge during and after employment. So that's what I implied."
I do not believe him. There are just too many coincidences there. This is not a common name. What are the chances you find someone that has the math and engineering knowledge to create bitcoin and has not been busy with anything else during the relevant period among the "several" people that newsweek found having that name in the entire world.
He is probably scared for his life and scared for the safety of his family. And it might be with good reason. So I am not going to bother him or anything, but lets be honest: he is probably the guy.
I think the bitcoin community will help him regain his anonymity. It is in their interest that the mystery of Satoshi survives. I am sure he is a great person but the face of Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto just does not seem to inspire billion dollar valuations.
It's not a very good metaphor at all, especially when the story first appeared online, and was (edit: possibly)debunked by a massive news corporation that has been in print for decades. If it turns out this guy isn't Satoshi, it's just plain good reporting by the AP. As for Newsweek, that would be it, I think. They'd be a laughing stock.
The original article claims of an encounter with Satoshi with the police present that mention he handed Bitcoin off. Wouldn't it make sense for Leah to get that officer to go on public record corroborating her story? Or can officers not do that?
What about the article that was posted earlier today about the shop keeper who had this Satoshi visit his store and spend bitcoins? If that was true then it would breach this guys claim that he only learnt about bitcoin three weeks ago.
The shop keeper on the other side of the country that once had an Asian man come in about three years ago and buy two crepes without giving his name or letting his photo be taken?
Readers who believe Dorian != Satoshi: What would you have to see to convince you that Dorian == Satoshi?
Readers who believe Dorian == Satoshi: What would you have to see to convince you that Dorian != Satoshi?
The hallmark of a good belief system is that your beliefs are falsifiable -- there exists some hypothetical set of experiments which could return unexpected results that would make you change your beliefs.
This guy, whoever he is, is definitely one step ahead of the rest of us.
Anyone with a modicum of intelligence would know that it's effectively impossible to remain truly anonymous in this day and age. So what do you do if you want to be left alone? Either you make sure you have enough "insurance" that no one would risk messing with you, or you play the system against itself: leak just enough information to lead people down your trail but not so much that the trail can't equally plausibly be denied. It's all rather reminiscent of Vinnie "The Chin" Gigante's decades-long ruse of feigned insanity to avoid prosecution.
Side note: I think the last high-profile anonymous figure that managed to remain truly anonymous for any length of time was "Deep Throat", and he did all of his talking pre-internet.
This is strange ... Really ... But I thought I'd say, have you ever thought that some people may have succeeded in being "anonymous" or hidden by the simple that you have not heard of them?
I've used anonymous sources in many articles. All were published in the Internet era. Not one of my sources was ever involuntarily outed, as far as I know.
I still claim that Satoshi Nakamoto is the NSA. Clearly this was one of their fall guys. Terrible people, the NSA, setting up innocent bystanders as scapegoats.
why are we up voting these threads? so someone posts this fancy story about the bitcoin founder he finally found, which for all we know could be false.
yet, we have nothing better to up vote than every major news outlets satoshi nakamoto story.
We are upvoting these threads because HN is subject to playing paparazzi as much as any teenage ditz and consequently devolving into a tabloid. This happens when John McAfee goes nuts in Brazil, too.
I don't think they meant video interview. I read somewhere else that he went to the AP offices and they talked for two hours. So interview in the sense of reporter talking to person.
It did seem a rather short article for that amount of talking.
AP almost certainly audio recorded it (at every news organization I've worked for it would be standard practice). But that doesn't mean they'll post the audio, or that there was video.
jsnk|12 years ago
Granted, I don't think Leah McGrath Goodman and Newsweek did anything illegal by breaking this story. I don't think it's wrong for Goodman to attempt to contact Satoshi's relatives over the phone.
What really crossed the line for me was Leah McGrath Goodman and Newsweek's decision to post the photo of the house, with the car's plate info on it.
Why would you do this? What relavence if any did this have to the story?
Showing of the house with car license plate resulted in identifying his address really easily. Let's face it. She wouldn't have done this to Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos even though they are far more famous, rich and public. She did this to this guy only because he's reclusive and powerless.
declan|12 years ago
I wouldn't be so sure. Both may be subject to tort liability if Dorian Nakamoto != Satoshi Nakamoto. See my tweet: https://twitter.com/declanm/status/441711365888040960
And a response by an attorney who works on Internet issues: https://twitter.com/SeanFlaim/status/441727448539873281
boyaka|12 years ago
You can go to the post of the Newsweek article and get a billion comments exactly like yours. It is pointless to keep harping about it in every related discussion...
dclowd9901|12 years ago
maxerickson|12 years ago
Bad example.
Aqueous|12 years ago
Leah McGrath Goodman said that after she asked him about BitCoin he promptly stopped emailing her. The timeline is unclear, but it seems like this was before Goodman contacted his family members. Why would she contact his family members if she was directly talking to him and they could blow her pretext of wanting to talk about model trains?
This strongly suggests that he knew enough about BitCoin to be chased away by the question. He uses English and American spellings, just like Satoshi's mailing list postings. He has a computer engineering background.
When she came to his house he said, verbatim, exactly what happened with BitCoin - "I'm not involved in that anymore." And something to the effect of "That's been handed over to others, I have no involvement with that anymore." This, if it was said, strongly suggests to me that this is in fact Satoshi.
Given that this would be catastrophe for both the journalist and Newsweek if it turned out to be wrong, and they must have seen some compelling evidence if they went forward with the story - I'm skeptical about Dorian Nakamoto's denial here.
bhouston|12 years ago
That said, if the guy wants his privacy, we can afford it to him, and if the only way to do that is to pretend he isn't the founder, so be it. So that is how I am going to interpret these denials and those agreeing with them.
gamblor956|12 years ago
Lance Armstrong and the members of the US Postal Service team denied using performance-enhancing drugs for more than a decade before finally confessing.
JK Rowling denied writing the Cuckoo's Calling for months.
The Duke Lacrosse Stripper changed her story at least a dozen times before finally admitted nothing happened.
JJ Abrams claimed that Star Trek Into Darkness wouldn't be about Khan for months.
IOW, unsupported denials mean nothing. The Newsweek story may not be right, but it at least has compelling supporting evidence that it could be right.
(There are more examples; these are just the ones I remembered off the top of my head.)
nilkn|12 years ago
infodroid|12 years ago
But there isn't any good explanation of why he would later deny it unless it really was a misunderstanding in the first place.
> This strongly suggests that he knew enough about BitCoin to be chased away by the question.
No it does not. Not understanding why a reporter out of nowhere would contact him, he thought that "Bitcom" was one of the confidential engineering projects that he was previously involved in. Which he could not discuss under NDA.
Add to that the ambitions of a reporter looking to score a cover story for her magazine's "relaunch of its print edition after 15 months and reorganization under new ownership".
ktsmith|12 years ago
fchollet|12 years ago
A Satoshi Nakamoto then turned up whose profile and background offered a potential match (as he used to be an engineering contractor and had shown libertarian views in the past), if you were willing to ignore a lot of facts (such as his less-than-native mastery of English). She then interviewed the man's family, fabricated a few quotes implying involvement with Bitcoin, and published a clickbait story destroying the man's privacy.
Well at least, Dorian Nakamoto got a free lunch out of it.
fchollet|12 years ago
declan|12 years ago
Also you might have a bunch of English major editors saying FAA engineer == computer engineer with significant cryptocurrency domain expertise. It's all the same, amiright?
danielweber|12 years ago
Steko|12 years ago
No harm in giving this some time and seeing if "Man Denies He's Bitcoin Founder" turns out to filed next to[1] "Man Denies Connection to Olympic Bombing" or next to "OJ Announces Search For Real Killers".
[1] pedantry disclaimer: not meant as perfect analogies
unknown|12 years ago
[deleted]
declan|12 years ago
onewaystreet|12 years ago
1. Dropped all contact with the reporter when the topic of Bitcoin was brought up over email.
2. Called the cops when the reporter went to his house to ask him about Bitcoin.
3. Said to the reporter: "I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it," "It's been turned over to other people. They are in charge of it now. I no longer have any connection."
Someone here is lying, because a person who only heard of Bitcoin three weeks ago doesn't do and say those things.
devindotcom|12 years ago
1. Dropped all contact when it was clear the person had misrepresented themselves and thought he was Satoshi.
2. Called the cops when this stranger came to his home to persist in this line of questioning.
3. Reporter says he said this, but also the cop just happens to be familiar with bitcoin and quip something appropriate. It could easily be a paraphrase of this man saying he's no longer involved in the govt projects we know him to be involved in, and he has no connection with them.
Why didn't the reporter record this exchange? Seems elementary when you're ambushing the guy. And has no one contacted the cop involved to see what he said or knows?
bennyg|12 years ago
DigitalSea|12 years ago
Do editors and journalists not read what is being published? Feels like we've all been transformed back 7 to 10 years ago where this kind of "investigative journalism" was prevalent and hardly investigative at all. NewsWeek either need to put up some conclusive proof or retract everything they've said and give mr Satoshi an apology.
It'll be interesting if from a legal perspective Dorian Satoshi has a case against NewsWeek considering this has already gone to print. If it causes Satoshi's life to crumble, make it hard for him to get employment, subjects him to harassment from armchair Internet investigators and whatnot, he might have some kind of case. But having said that, this would mean if it went to court, he would have to offer up access to info that NewsWeek and others don't have and if he is the real Satoshi, it would come back to bite him.
The real question is, if this is the real Satoshi, why isn't he using his incredible stash of Bitcoin to live a little more comfortably? Hiding in plain sight perhaps. Just let the poor guy be. Nobody should be subject to this kind of speculative journalism. It's the Boston bombing situation all over again.
Edit: the real Satoshi responded to his original announcement here, his first communication in 5 years: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com/forum/topics/bitcoin-open-sour... — a simple one liner.
nhaehnle|12 years ago
So... did Newsweek get the real Nakamoto who is panicking now? Or did they get the wrong guy, and the real guy feels like this time (rather than those previous times) he has to step in to protect the innocent?
It's not really evidence in any direction.
mortenjorck|12 years ago
Zikes|12 years ago
That would've been pretty embarrassing.
nthitz|12 years ago
vex|12 years ago
natrius|12 years ago
unknown|12 years ago
[deleted]
pyrocat|12 years ago
declan|12 years ago
Key excerpt: He also said a key portion of the piece — where he is quoted telling the reporter on his doorstep before two police officers, "I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it" — was misunderstood. Nakamoto said he is a native of Beppu, Japan who came to the U.S. when he was 10. He speaks both English and Japanese, but his English isn't flawless. Asked if he said the quote, Nakamoto responded, "no." "I'm saying I'm no longer in engineering. That's it," he said of the exchange. "And even if I was, when we get hired, you have to sign this document, contract saying you will not reveal anything we divulge during and after employment. So that's what I implied."
hristov|12 years ago
He is probably scared for his life and scared for the safety of his family. And it might be with good reason. So I am not going to bother him or anything, but lets be honest: he is probably the guy.
I think the bitcoin community will help him regain his anonymity. It is in their interest that the mystery of Satoshi survives. I am sure he is a great person but the face of Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto just does not seem to inspire billion dollar valuations.
kiba|12 years ago
It's a common Japanese name, like "John Smith".
dopamean|12 years ago
dinkumthinkum|12 years ago
bishnu|12 years ago
Is this not a perfect metaphor for the print journalism industry? Can we bet on when Print Newsweek 2.0 also goes belly-up?
devindotcom|12 years ago
lsiebert|12 years ago
chuinard|12 years ago
dmazin|12 years ago
declan|12 years ago
keammo1|12 years ago
fleitz|12 years ago
I look forward to hearing the Ship of Theseus discussed in court.
ck2|12 years ago
People need to leave him the hell alone.
technotony|12 years ago
Edit: link to previous article: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7354326
Zikes|12 years ago
csense|12 years ago
Readers who believe Dorian == Satoshi: What would you have to see to convince you that Dorian != Satoshi?
The hallmark of a good belief system is that your beliefs are falsifiable -- there exists some hypothetical set of experiments which could return unexpected results that would make you change your beliefs.
mililani|12 years ago
bennyg|12 years ago
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/03/06/satoshi_n...
jballanc|12 years ago
This guy, whoever he is, is definitely one step ahead of the rest of us.
Anyone with a modicum of intelligence would know that it's effectively impossible to remain truly anonymous in this day and age. So what do you do if you want to be left alone? Either you make sure you have enough "insurance" that no one would risk messing with you, or you play the system against itself: leak just enough information to lead people down your trail but not so much that the trail can't equally plausibly be denied. It's all rather reminiscent of Vinnie "The Chin" Gigante's decades-long ruse of feigned insanity to avoid prosecution.
Side note: I think the last high-profile anonymous figure that managed to remain truly anonymous for any length of time was "Deep Throat", and he did all of his talking pre-internet.
dinkumthinkum|12 years ago
declan|12 years ago
ronnier|12 years ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6828576
>I am only certain of one thing when it comes to bitcoin, the creator(s) are not Japanese.
zhemao|12 years ago
But actually, what makes you say the creator of Bitcoin ("the real Satoshi") is not Japanese?
saraid216|12 years ago
bennyg|12 years ago
latj|12 years ago
According to Newsweek the man acknowledged that he had worked on bitcoin: "I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it"
AP says the main is denying he ever worked on bitcoin.
He very well could have said both of those things.
rjzzleep|12 years ago
yet, we have nothing better to up vote than every major news outlets satoshi nakamoto story.
cjensen|12 years ago
saraid216|12 years ago
fatbat|12 years ago
cschmidt|12 years ago
It did seem a rather short article for that amount of talking.
declan|12 years ago
Also: they'll do a writethru soon enough.