Satoshi Nakamoto on the Bitcoin XT Fork | Hacker News Reader

Satoshi Nakamoto on the Bitcoin XT Fork

lists.linuxfoundation.org

27 pointswslh12 comments

It's not him, he didn't use PGP to sign the message.

Further in the thread:

While the email is not signed, and there are a number of PGP keys listed on key servers for him (to vary addresses), he didnt sign any emails with any PGP keys.

https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/2015...

So it's impossible to tell either way. So we can't assume it's him.

I've researched this for a long time; for many reasons, I believe it's him. He never cryptographically signed anything, so the lack of signature actually weighs in favor of the message's authenticity -- not against it.

"Something I only recently realised is that Satoshi's apparent policy(1) of never making any cryptographically secure signatures to link together his posts - or indeed any communication at all - fits well with the avoidance of creating a central authority figure. ... As you've often said, the biggest achievement by Satoshi in the creation of Bitcoin was to create a system where the identity of the creator is a mere historical footnote. We can probably go further, and state that while doing so, Satoshi quite counter-intuitively took steps to avoid even creating a pseudoanonymous identity." - Peter Todd, https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/2015...

And of course, the most important sentence is from Satoshi's message itself:

"Bitcoin was designed to be protected from the influence of charismatic leaders, even if their name is Gavin Andresen, Barack Obama, or Satoshi Nakamoto."

So whether it's Satoshi or not, it doesn't matter; Bitcoin was intended to transcend even Satoshi's own influence.

Despite the fact that this came from his email, I doubt that it's really him.

But it does bring up an interesting point. Even if it is him, should we care? Does his opinion matter anymore? He doesn't exercise any control over the network.

If the argument is one from his authority, then his opinion is relevant.

Email is incredibly easy to spoof.

Decentralized currency requires decentralized governance. Unfortunately, currency is the easier problem to demonstrate a solution against. If this really is Satoshi, s/he would be a fool to think Bitcoin was a failure. It spawned countless efforts to decentralize governance and many of these options look promising. The problem Bitcoin is facing is 100% a cultural problem, the technological solutions are already here.

> Bitcoin was designed to be protected from the influence of charismatic leaders, even if their name is Gavin Andresen, Barack Obama, or Satoshi Nakamoto. Nearly everyone has to agree on a change, and they have to do it without being forced or pressured into it.

This is clearly false, because it's happening. You can't design this into forkable software.

It's also incredibly ironic since the email itself is banking on Satoshi's charisma (or at least influence) to steer the discussion his/her way.

I noticed the u in "honour"---I thought previously that Satoshi wrote as an American, but this is the British spelling. Did I remember wrong?

If it is him its great to see that he's still alive.

What does he mean when he says "I will declare this project failed?" Is that just his opinion or can he shut down bitcoin?

It's decentralized so... ;) He also owns more BTC than anybody else.

It's just his opinion. His opinion is that Bitcoin should be a single, unified, consensus-driven project - that's what trust in the network is built on. Without people following the same protocol, Bitcoin doesn't work.

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