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Comment by skwirl | Hacker News Reader

In the video he says "I'm not involved in Bitcoin" (present tense) which is not inconsistent with what was reported in the Newsweek article:

>"I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it," he says, dismissing all further queries with a swat of his left hand. "It's been turned over to other people. They are in charge of it now. I no longer have any connection."

I say this because the headline is trying to imply that Newsweek identified the wrong man, and as a result people are on twitter gloating about Newsweek being "wrong." Even if they do end up being wrong, this article and the corresponding video aren't evidence one way or the other.

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Well the newsweek article also included a back and forth with a police officer that likely never happened, and they also just published an article that "proves" heaven exists because a former scientist went into a coma and saw some pretty things while dreaming. I'm not sure there's a high barrier to meet here, or that we can't assume he was misquoted in the original article.

a back and forth with a police officer that likely never happened

I find this complaint ridiculous, like there's no possible way a police officer could know such things because otherwise they'd been a l33t h4x0r. Police officers read newspapers in about the same proportion as everyone else.

It's the nature of the quote that makes it seem like it comes out of a movie or something. It is still plausible he said that verbatim, but unlikely in my opinion.

Uh huh. Sure. An officer isn't aware of a digital currency that has been the topic of dozens of mainstream news reports over the past few months, and which had a strong relationship to drug and property crimes.

And knows the name of the creator of it offhand, and a concept of the creator's holdings?

The name Satoshi Nakamoto has appeared in The Good Wife, CSI, CSI NY, NCIS, NCIS LA, Big Bang Theory, Blue Bloods, Almost Human, and Scandal at some point in the last year.

So I'm pretty sure the name is no longer a tech community secret.

Well, according to LA Times reporter Andrea Chang he denied both present and past involvement, so that's something. https://twitter.com/byandreachang/status/441687863222996992

She is referring exactly the very exchange that took place in video linked in this submission I just described above. Where do you see anything denying past involvement in what you linked?

edit: I saw this (separate) tweet almost immediately after submitting, but HN went down when I tried to edit - https://twitter.com/byandreachang/status/441696297964158976. So she is claiming he said "No no no I was never involved." Which would imply that he wasn't telling the truth to either Newsweek or to this reporter, unless you believe Newsweek makes things up.

how about this tweet by same reporter:

Nakamoto, when I asked him in elevator why he told Newsweek he used to be involved with #bitcoin: "No no no I was never involved."

https://twitter.com/byandreachang/status/441696297964158976

Cyrus Farivar ‏@cfarivar: @byandreachang Wait, "not involved with" or never has been involved with? He denied what, exactly?

Andrea Chang ‏@byandreachang: @cfarivar He denied both.

Right - he didn't say "I've never been involved in BitCoin"

Nakamoto, when I asked him in elevator why he told Newsweek he used to be involved with #bitcoin: "No no no I was never involved."

~ https://twitter.com/byandreachang/status/441696297964158976

I think it's just because he is a Japanese. To most East Asian people, we often use wrong tenses because there's no tenses in our native language. This happens to people even if they were in the U.S. for decades. It's actually not about how long you've been in the U.S., it's about when did you start using English as your primary language. If they started using English (as their major language) when they were 20s, it is likely they would make mistakes about using tenses.

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