The Hunt for Satoshi Nakamoto by Sando Sasako Jakarta, 9 December 2018 This is a part of my book on bitcoin. The Hunt for Satoshi Nakamoto .......................................................................................................... 1 Why The Hunt? ................................................................................................................................ 3 Why The Hide? ................................................................................................................................ 4 Unintended Consequences of Exposures ......................................................................................... 5 The Sprung-up Faketoshis ............................................................................................................... 6 Why The Fake Claims? .................................................................................................................... 7 Why The Hunt Matters? ................................................................................................................... 8 Index..................................................................................................................................................... 9
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The Hunt for Satoshi Nakamoto Many have tried in vain to track down the real Satoshi Nakamoto, but to find the worldwide supporting and proponent actors and flawlessness of the bitcoin system. Dan Kaminsky was one heck of a prominent hacker that acclaimed the unbreakable bitcoin system. The open source and transparent coding showing the dense and inscrutable programming style was taken for granted by Kaminsky. Known as the expert to exploit vulnerabilities, Kaminsky quickly identified 9 ways to compromise the system and scoured Nakamoto’s code for an insertion point for his first attack. But when he found the right spot, there was a message waiting for him. “Attack Removed,” it said. The same thing happened over and over, infuriating Kaminsky. “I came up with beautiful bugs,” he said. “But every time I went after the code there was a line that addressed the problem.” He was like a burglar who was certain that he could break into a bank by digging a tunnel, drilling through a wall, or climbing down a vent, and on each attempt he discovered a freshly poured cement barrier with a sign telling him to go home. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” Kaminsky said, still in awe. Kaminsky was one of the many potential candidates identified by Davis.1 Davis was and has not been the one that eager to know the real Satoshi Nakamoto. Having cited Davis' one work several times in 1 article, Penenberg later proposed (alleged, presumed, thought) 3 names that had significant things with the existence of bitcoin.2 They were Neal King, Vladimir Oksman, and Charles Bry. The followings are some Penenberg's findings: 1. In Japanese, Satoshi means “clear-thinking, quick-witted, wise; “Naka” can mean “inside” or “relationship”; “moto” is defined as “the origin; the cause; the foundation; the basis.” Penenberg tied the wording in English “clear-thinking” “inside” “the foundation.” 2. Oksman and Bry filed patent applications dealing with nodes and networks. King and Bry live in Munich, Germany. 3. 2008, June: King, Oksman, and Bry filed a patent application for "Key Management for Communication Networks". 2008, August 15: King, Oksman, and Bry filed a patent #20100042841 (Updating and Distributing Encryption Keys). 4. 2008, August 18: bitcoin.org website/domain was created and registered in Helsinki, Finland. 2007, late, Bry traveled to Finland. Bry is a senior system engineer and lists German, English, French, and Italian as languages he speaks; works for a company called Lantiq; and went to college in Paris. The last theory or assumption was later debunked when the actual registrant was found to use a Japanese anonymous registration service, and hosted it using a Japanese ISP. The registration for the site was only transferred to Finland on 20110518. Upon confronted with the direct question from Penenberg, Bry denies that he and/or his co-inventors are related in any way to bitcoin. Likewise Oksman reply with a terse “Wrong person.” Some of King's public records collected by Penenberg: 1. Cryptography Patent #20090196306, “Contention Access to a Communication Medium in a Communications Network”
1 Joshua Davis, The Crypto-Currency: Bitcoin and its mysterious inventor, 20111010, The New Yorker, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/10/10/the-crypto-currency 2 Adam L. Penenberg, The Bitcoin Crypto-Currency Mystery Reopened, FastCompany.com, 20111011, last update: 20130522, https://www.fastcompany.com/1785445/bitcoin-crypto-currency-mystery-reopened
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Sando Sasako 2. highbrow taste in literature and books, and avid reader in astronomy, biology, cryptography, linguistics, literature, mathematics, philosophy, and physics. 3. Patent application and bitcoin are very different, but the authentication factor. 4. King's claim that he “had never heard of bitcoin until this question came up". 5. King admitted that Nakamoto’s algorithm is a solution in search of a problem. To note, according to core developer Jeff Garzik, Nakamoto's coding wasn't conventional, since he didn't apply the same rigorous testing that you would expect from a classic software engineer. 6. Bitcoin is lack of value guarantee. Even though fiat currencies have no intrinsic value, they can be used to pay taxes, settle debts, or buy anything in real life. This leaves bitcoin valueless, but tokens valueable as long as they are played and accepted by the players in the cryptosphere. Davis and Penenberg were and have not been the ones that curious with the real Satoshi Nakamoto. Oates3, likeinamirror4, Biggs5, Goodman6, Herper7, Greenberg8, Falkon9, Held10 were the others doing the same thing. From August 2013 to Feb. 2016, coindesk made a recap of people wrongly identified by SN.11
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John Oates, Has Ted Nelson named the real Satoshi Nakamoto?, 20130520, Last Update 20140909, https://www.coindesk.com/ted-nelson-names-the-real-satoshi-nakamoto/ 4 likeinamirror, Satoshi Nakamoto is (probably) Nick Szabo, 20131201, https://likeinamirror.wordpress.com/2013/12/01/satoshi-nakamoto-is-probably-nick-szabo/ 5 John Biggs, Who Is The Real Satoshi Nakamoto? One Researcher May Have Found The Answer, techcrunch.com, 20131205, https://techcrunch.com/2013/12/05/who-is-the-real-satoshi-nakamoto-one-researcher-may-have-found-theanswer/ 6 Leah McGrath Goodman, The Face Behind Bitcoin, 20140306, https://www.newsweek.com/2014/03/14/facebehind-bitcoin-247957.html 7 Matthew Herper, Linguistic Analysis Says Newsweek Named The Wrong Man As Bitcoin's Creator, 20140310, https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2014/03/10/data-analysis-says-newsweek-named-the-wrong-man-asbitcoins-creator/#20d015d5ed43 8 Andy Greenberg, Nakamoto's Neighbor: My Hunt For Bitcoin's Creator Led To A Paralyzed Crypto Genius, 20140325, https://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2014/03/25/satoshi-nakamotos-neighbor-the-bitcoinghostwriter-who-wasnt/#101633bf4a37 9 Samuel Falkon, Satoshi Nakamoto: The CypherPunks Ten Prophets, 20180415, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/satoshi-nakamoto-cypherpunks-ten-prophets-samuelfalkon/?trk=related_artice_Satoshi%20Nakamoto%3A%20The%20CypherPunks%20Ten%20Prophets%20_articlecard_title 10 Dan Held, Planting Bitcoin Part Four: Gardening, coindesk.com, 20181031, Last update: 20181101, https://www.coindesk.com/planting-bitcoin-part-four-gardening/ 11 coindesk.com, Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?, 20130820, Last Update 20160219, https://www.coindesk.com/information/who-is-satoshi-nakamoto/
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The Hunt for Satoshi Nakamoto Why The Hunt? The search for SN has turned hilarious, sad, and, at times, profound. Finney seemed quite amused by the quixotic quest for the shadowy SN. We can ask the questions to the curious george, the media, and the governments. The curious george gets to be the attention-seeking glory hound to quench the thirst and experience the thrill of the hunt, the desire for bragging rights as the one that can successfully nail and identify SN, The Father of Crypto. Or even a way to blackmail SN to keep the information and identity a secret. The governments have all of the data, money, and systems to find out anything they want about us. Some skilled hackers can do the same with less resources. The governments have their motives and hackers have theirs. When it comes to the governments’ motives, the answer is simple, geopolitically moved. The ridiculous allegation is using bitcoin as a weapon to attack the US (in the future). The naivette German Neff ridiculously threw his tadpole, short-minded, unnecessary questions and statements, but revealing the kind of envy and jealousy by saying, “We don't know much about Satoshi's intentions”. Like a wrecking ball, Neff’s project and ambition gets doomed almost from its inception. The scam and sham of Neff was obvious, likewise these following claims. One, the cryptocurrency is not a global fraud and an attempt to drive the whole world by the nose. Two, the truth is to exist peacefully in this environment. Three, the world is obliged and has the right to know the identity of SN. Four, bitcoin is to pursue scientific or purely selfish ends. Five, bitcoin is an invention of a company to take a new direction. Six, bitcoin is a state invention designed to control all transactions. Neff’s backdown came up after he solicitedly saying that “It has gone past the point now where the project cannot be launched.” Neff was not the only one who backed-down. Craig Steve Wright did the same, but with a different scene by saying “as the events of this week unfolded and I prepared to publish the proof of access to the earliest keys, I broke. I do not have the courage. I cannot.” The negativity in terms of FUD (fear, uncertainty, dispute) gets to be the playthings of mainstream media (MSM). The purpose is to exploit and discredit the contending cryptocurrency against the fiat ones. Like always and usual, MSM coverage keeps a horrible track record for the person of interest, afterwards. The ridiculous assumption kept by Lerner and Neff is that they believe that SN will dump his coins and let bitcoin price free fall from the cliff. Both donot have the clue and the psychological knowledge of what inventors shall do to their inventions. They believe that the concentration of coin ownership is not good for integrity, fairness, or transparency. Is that a thesis or what? They are both df. Nolan Bauerle even questioned the validity of Lerner's findings that have become something people quote as the truth.12 And the free fall of bitcoin price is due to the weak hands of investors who are chasing price gains and who would quickly sell on any negative turn in sentiment. 13 They definitely are not coin hodlers and coin hoarders.
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Rob Wile, Bitcoin's Mysterious Creator Appears to be Sitting On a $5.8 Billion Fortune, Time, 20171031, http://time.com/money/author/rob-wile/ 13 Tom Lee, Fundstrat co-founder, in Evelyn Cheng, @chengevelyn, First Wall Street strategist to embrace bitcoin is now 'cautious', CNBC, 20171103, https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/03/first-wall-street-strategist-to-embrace-bitcoinand-call-for-rally-is-now-cautious.html
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Sando Sasako Why The Hide? The intentional hide of SN’s real identity is obvious. SN has a lack of egocentric desire to bask in the limelight. He does not have an intention to be a little rock star-style glory on the world stage. For the sake of a software and database that transparent, distributed, decentralised, consensus-based, proof of work, permission-less ledgers, anonymity has become a must. Identity and authority are perceived as distractions from a system of mathematical proof that does not require trust. As is the case, the anti-authoritarian is the premise of bitcoin. The system rips off the involvement of intermediaries in minting coins, settles monetary transactions collectively online, promotes values for a freer world in hope for a better world. The anti-authority or anti-establishment nature of bitcoin does not and will not sail smoothly and go unnoticed, but through the storms in terms of frequent government encroachment and intrusion. Same thing with the banks. Both shall do anything to keep their territories (and jurisdictions) contested and challenged. The cryptocurrencies have grown to disdain the reigning fiat currencies ingrained deeply in current global financial system. These contenders surely raise the alarming wake-up calls for the ruling parties to disrupt the ever-growing new global currencies, that transparent, distributed and networkdependent, and dismiss central authorities. Who’s to seek and to blame for these new inventions that can destroy the existing and reigning (hard) currencies? Being fully aware of these consequences, bitcoin creator(s) chose to remain anonymous. To keep it transparent for all, the creator(s) set the project as an open source. Anyone can view, edit, implement, and execute their own codes through hard forking; whilst soft-forking needs consensus. As is the case, the actual identity of its creator(s) gets to be ultimately unimportant. Nevertheless, even Satoshi himself knew from the start that the new territory of freedom shall only be due and valid for several years. A new regime will rise, just like the theoretical social contract has predicted some long time ago. As with anyother inventors, the enigmatic and genius cryptographic figure took no credit, and left the fortune amassed by his own creation completely untouched. It is all in order to best preserve the purity of a powerful idea. And that is a world-changing thing, quite likely unique in human history. Satoshi’s reserved a uniquely compelling figure of having the ability to faithfully execute on such selfless principles.14 Being anonymous, avoid unwanted media blitz and barraged by reporters, and privacy-obsessed are the traits that come with the jobs. Engineer’s code and the non-disclosure agreements (NDA) signed with each classified project always come up on dirty works, top-secret engineering projects, classified military projects. These are required to preserve their job security. Fail to keep out many personal details, including sensitive information about his health and finances, exposed, they get effectively blacklisted from the types of engineering jobs that he has worked on throughout his professional career. This is what an intelligence officer has to avoid. Otherwise, they get benched, doing the paper work, administrative duties, and behind the desk.
14 Jeff Handler, How the Hunt for Satoshi Turned Dorian Nakamoto’s Life Upside Down: the Inside Story, 20151001, https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/how-the-hunt-for-satoshi-turned-dorian-nakamoto-s-life-upside-downthe-inside-story-1443721034/
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The Hunt for Satoshi Nakamoto Unintended Consequences of Exposures Once the vulnerabilities of an intelligence officer get exposed, they get to be easily manipulated and motivated to exchange classified information for rewards, troubled relative(s), or an affair. These are the grounds for immediate removal and permanent exclusion from classified projects that full of a great deal of confusion and stress. As an engineer fully aware of minute details and thoughts carefully constructed piece by piece, they know what shall happen once they broke the code. Likewise the live of Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, once Newsweek exposed his personal details to the world. Gone the private lives of DSN and his family. The mistaken identity by the media is one thing. Wired magazine is another story. It became a news media outlet that just got itself embarassed for publishing and appeared to be sponsoring the wannabe SN. The curious george and media made their inference points and conclusions based on coincidental events, circumstantial, surface-level argument, unsubstantiated claims, tantalizing, but inconclusive. These only created numerous false leads and unproven claims to the moniker.
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Sando Sasako The Sprung-up Faketoshis Craig Steve Wright was amongst many to come forward claiming to be the real SN, but to backdown in the end. Likewise Nick Szabo. Many have suggested that the real SN should engrave his name encrypted as the hidden message in the spent transactions of early coinbases he mined. Every claimant to any oeuvre must also submit their credentials as a proof of ownership. The ersatz Satoshis have one thing in common, that is solipsistic. Satoshi imitators have got to have extreme egocentricity. The wannabe Satoshis have got to authenticate their originality and discredit the hoax or copycats. Fail to do so, every claim to be Satoshi must be assumed fake. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.15 Good command of English is the one ultimate prerequisite. Meticulous on proofing his work is the other important factor. The real Satoshi was notorious to skip questions over personal details such as origins, motivations, character, and other incriminating information.
15 Kai Sedgwick, Mainstream Media Believes Satoshi Nakamoto is Back, bitcoin.com, 20180701, https://news.bitcoin.com/mainstream-media-believes-satoshi-nakamoto-is-back/
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The Hunt for Satoshi Nakamoto Why The Fake Claims? It is to lure hungry Satoshi cultists into the entrapment of hoaxes, scams, and shams. It should not be forgotten that, of course, as with anything in the crypto world, there is a possibility that it is a scam. Likewise the crowdfunding to finance the hunt for SN. The apparent claims that the quest is only to seek and find SN and his motives have backfired at once. It was Neff himself revealed his personal ambiguous ambition to deny his campaign as a personal publicity stunt and personal piece of glory in this search. Public pouts surmount. The skepticals judge the hunts as useless, counterproductive, not that important in the grand scheme of things, and does add nothing of value. Likewise the pragmatic and practical persons and the bitcoin faithful. The false claim is subjective in terms to gain some kind of leadership to wield great influence in the controversies that surround the future of bitcoin. The wannabe king or influencer is after the throne to cope the political struggle amongst the jostling of courtiers over blockchain forking. Imagine to have some fanatics watching over your shoulders and backs unscathedly.
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Sando Sasako Why The Hunt Matters? The idea that SN identity is irrelevant is wishful thinking. The fragile balance of cryptocurrency has made the players seeking out the answer to further develop (and stabilise) the volatile currency. The envious parties love to question on the coins mined and hoarded by the creator(s). None has the acurate knowledge of how much coins mined and hoarded by SN, ever. Not even the early miners and late advocates. Lerner’s estimate of SN fortune was misleading, knowing Lerner’s assumption got invalid from the very beginning, that SN is the only one running the bitcoin system with one computer. Lerner’s another fatal and mistaken assumption is that SN shall get to dump and unload the coins mined and hoarded instantly. On another occasion, Finney tried to harden bitcoin wallet in case of theft, heist, and hacked. He developed a policy to set daily spending limit, and it was not a too complex policy. Nevertheless, we have not heard the implementation of Finney’s bcflick until this day, but SegWit implementation on Bech2 as the third way to generate bitcoin addresses. The SPM crisis in 2008 may awaken and trigger SN to develop a currency that exist beyond state control. This ideological project from the start is an extreme form of libertarianism, in which all forms of commerce. Cypherpunks believed that a decentralised currency was needed to allow their cryptoanarchic utopia to exist, and bitcoin began as a technical implementation of this vision. The technological innovation, that can disrupt the existing social relations to another turning point, may not without huge costs. Every breakthrough gets to be recorded as a history and a lesson. Let’s hear what Jason Weinstein opined:16 At the end of the day, knowing the identity of Satoshi is about as important as knowing who created HTTP or HTML. Every day people communicate, socialize, get information, move money, and transact business over the Internet using these protocols without knowing how they work or who created them. For whatever is worth, knowing the history and lessons in the past get the readers the know-how to understand and comprehend to what has been happening to the price of cryptocurrency. Every thing has its own cycle. The bitcoin bloodbath in 2018 is another episode coined by AI winters, a periodic slump in artificial intelligence excitement.17 Jim Breyer, a legendary investor, named the episode as the crypto nuclear winter. This is not the first time investors have sought fallout shelter. In early 2000s, in the aftermath of the dot-com denouement, the surviving venture capitalists shuddered at the thought of backing internet companies. But that didn’t stop Breyer from placing a prescient bet on Facebook in 2005, when shares in the then-upstart were worth mere cents on the dollar. For now, the lot of futurist financiers must prepare to gasp in the pall of skies occluded. The bomb has dropped and, yes, winter is upon us. Take cover.18 16
Adrian Chen, We Need to Know Who Satoshi Nakamoto Is, newyorker.com, 20160509, https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/we-need-to-know-who-satoshi-nakamoto-is. See also Heidi Hecht, The Hunt For Satoshi Nakamoto, 20171027, https://cryptobriefing.com/the-hunt-for-satoshi-nakamoto/ 17 Robert Hackett, Jeff John Roberts, and Jen Wieczner, The Ledger: Legendary Investor Jim Breyer Warns of Crypto 'Nuclear Winter', 20181203, http://fortune.com/2018/12/03/crypto-invest-nuclear-winter-jim-breyer/ 18 Robert Hackett, Billionaire Investor Jim Breyer Warns of 'Nuclear Winter' for Cryptocurrency. Here's Why He Remains Unfazed, 20181203, http://fortune.com/2018/12/03/billionaire-investor-jim-breyer-warns-of-nuclear-winterfor-cryptocurrency-heres-why-he-remains-unfazed/. cf The Ledger’s weekly newsletter, 20181203; Hackett’s write with Roberts and Wieczner.
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Index Adam L. Penenberg, 1 Adrian Chen, 8 AI winters, 8 Andy Greenberg, 2 andygreenberg, 2 artificial intelligence, 8 Bech2, 8 Biggs, 2 bitcoinmagazine, 4 Breyer, 8 Bry, 1 Charles Bry, 1 chengevelyn, 3 CNBC, 3 coindesk, 2 Craig Steve Wright, 3, 6 cryptobriefing, 8 cypherpunks, 2 Dan Held, 2 Dan Kaminsky, 1 Davis, 1, 2 Dorian, 4, 5 Dorian Nakamoto, 4 Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, 5 DSN, 5 Evelyn Cheng, 3 Falkon, 2 fastcompany, 1 Father of Crypto, 3 Finland, 1 Finney, 3, 8 forbes, 2 fortune, 4, 8 FUD, 3 German Neff, 3 Goodman, 2 Greenberg, 2 Hackett, 8 Heidi Hecht, 8 Held, 2 Helsinki, 1 Herper, 2 Jason Weinstein, 8 Jeff Garzik, 2 Jeff Handler, 4 Jeff John Roberts, 8
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Jen Wieczner, 8 Jim Breyer, 8 John Biggs, 2 John Oates, 2 Joshua Davis, 1 Kai Sedgwick, 6 Kaminsky, 1 King, 1, 2 Lantiq, 1 Leah McGrath Goodman, 2 Lerner, 3, 8 likeinamirror, 2 linkedin, 2 mainstream media, 3 Matthew Herper, 2 MSM, 3 Nakamoto, 1, 2, 8 NDA, 4 Neal King, 1 Neff, 3, 7 newsweek, 2 newyorker, 1, 8 Nick Szabo, 2, 6 Nolan Bauerle, 3 non-disclosure agreement, 4 Oates, 2 Oksman, 1 Paris, 1 Penenberg, 1, 2 Rob Wile, 3 Robert Hackett, 8 Roberts, 8 Samuel Falkon, 2 Satoshi, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 Satoshi Nakamoto, 1, 2, 6, 8 SegWit, 8 SN, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 techcrunch, 2 Ted Nelson, 2 Tom Lee, 3 utopia, 8 Vladimir Oksman, 1 Wall Street, 3 Wieczner, 8 Wired, 5 wordpress, 2
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