Hacker News Reader

Comment by sillysaurus3 | Hacker News Reader

Regarding your point about paranoia: Here's an example of people in Ecuador executing a father and son for a mere $20,000: http://www.reddit.com/r/MorbidReality/comments/1zktth/quito_...

This is what the Nakamoto family now has to worry about. It wasn't a random killing. There were at least 6 people arrested in connection with the murders. Apparently the robbers had people inside the bank who they were paying to alert them whenever someone withdrew large amounts of cash.

People get killed over money a lot. It's probably not paranoia. I would recommend you watch the video to understand the gruesome nature of what Nakamoto now has to live with.

View on HN

Meanwhile Bill Gates, who is worth 200X more than SN, continues to waltz around in public.

Bill Gates doesn't have virtually 100% of his fortune actually stored in his house, does he?

If by some extortion means, you manage to get a few percent of Microsoft shares, what are you going to do ? Sit at the board ?

Bill Gates spends millions of dollars per year on personal security.

So? Nakamoto can spend money on security too if he feels like it. As a cryptographer he's surely familiar with the adage that 'tehre's no security in obscurity,' and I'm only surprised it's taken this long to ID him.

It's probably not actually him.

Then why not simply say so? If she's misquoting him and he actually has nothing to do with Bitcoin, then he could easily sue for libel.

64 year old post stroke retired government security contractor with a paranoid streak who doesn't want to talk to a reporter in any way shape or form to the extent he called the police as soon as she shows up and the evidence she wants us to take as an admission that he is whom she thinks he is is a couple of sentences of dismissive talk about no longer being involved in "that thing".

I find it had to believe that was actually the admission she made it out to be, considering the lengths the real Satoshi took to remain anonymous, it just doesn't make sense that is the venue he would choose to voluntarily rescind his until now well maintained anonymity.

Taken altogether all we have is a collection of completely circumstantial evidence coupled with plenty of things that suggest he is not the real Satoshi and the sole final admission is supposedly hurriedly made in an offhand manner direct to a reporter whom he clearly does not want to have anything to do with.

Oh and the he flatly denies that it is in a two hour interview directly afterward, to boot. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_BITCOIN_FOUNDER_DE...

Yeah, and people get robbed and killed for a few hundred dollar all the time. So what? That’s just a reality. I don’t really see the connection.

This wasn't a random robbery though. This was a systematic killing involving dirty banking employees who sent people to hunt them down. The connection is that $20,000 is a ton of money in Ecuador, and Nakamoto has a ton of money, so Nakamoto now has to worry about being hunted.

Except that Nakamoto lives in LA.

Isn't Nakamoto the only person who lives in LA who also controls >10% of a currency?

Yes, but he's not the only person in LA with a net worth that large. And people who hold a large amount of stock in a company are in a similar situation.

> And people who hold a large amount of stock in a company are in a similar situation.

Initiate a Bitcoin transfer at the same time as a stock sale followed up by a bank transfer from your brokerage and let us know which one finishes faster.

Plus, the brokerage and the bank can choose to hold and/or reverse your transactions, for reasons like "hmm, we should probably see if Bill Gates really meant to sell all his Microsoft shares..."

There are not many people sitting on tens/hundreds of millions of dollars in a format that you can store in your house and send irretrievably to a guy in Eastern Europe in an instant.

Seriously. Isn't this the reason why we pay many billions of dollars each year for the rule of law? If you're an exceptional case that needs extra security, get extra security.

A lot of people have that much money in the US. SN might have to actually take precautions appropriate of someone of his net worth. Boo hoo.

Except his actual net worth is probably a fraction of what his theoretical net worth is. It's assumed for instance that he still has access to all those bitcoins, but something could have happened to that wallet. There's also the difficulty of actually converting those coins into something the average business will accept. It's like suggesting that handing someone a billion dollars in un-vested bonds suddenly makes them a billionaire, but in reality there not really any richer currently than they were before, although in some theoretical future they might be (assuming they hang onto the bonds till they vest and can cash them in).

Fair point. It's a tricky situation. But, hey, sometimes, life hands us lemons. I'm sure there are many reasonable solutions. Perhaps not his preferred solution, but solutions nonetheless.

His cashing in bitcoins could destroy Bitcoin XD

There are plenty of unreported ransoms out there... I just did a quick google and found this.

http://www.therichest.com/luxury/most-expensive/10-most-expe...

I understand the fear, but the article seems to clearly say that he has less than any aging engineer -- I’d say with his actual name out there, he was a target, but no more. If anything it ties him to Federal security people, who tend to scare random Ecuadorians.

Nakamoto doesn't live in Quito, Ecuador.

http://www.lapdonline.org/southeast_news/news_view/22885

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Parker

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/latinamerica/l...

Counterpoint: the potential reward for bagging him isn't $20k.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com