mfreis comments on AALWA: Ask any LessWronger anything - Less Wrong

28 Post author: Will_Newsome 12 January 2014 02:18AM

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Comment author: Wei_Dai 16 March 2014 10:21:02AM *  3 points [-]

My idea with second question was to understand if there is like an anarchist motivation around bitcoin that may have some risks in the future.

Ok, I think I see what you're getting at. First of all, crypto-anarchy is very different from plain anarchy. We (or at least I) weren't trying to destroy government, but just create new virtual communities that aren't ruled by the threat of violence. Second I'm not sure Satoshi would even consider himself a crypto-anarchist. I think he might have been motivated more by a distrust of financial institutions and government monetary authorities and wanted to create a monetary system that didn't have to depend on such trust. All in all, I don't think there is much risk in this regard.

You say you don't think it was Szabo. Have you ever try to know who he was? Could you share who is your solid hunch and why?

I haven't personally made any attempts to find out who he is, nor do I have any idea how. My guess is that he's not anyone who was previously active in the academic cryptography or cypherpunks communities, because otherwise he probably would have been identified by now based on his writing and coding styles.

Is relevant to know Satoshi?

I think at this point it doesn't matter too much, except to satisfy people's curiosity.

If you know what you know today, would you have patented bmoney? Do you think bitcoin inventers would have done the same?

No, because along with a number of other reasons not to patent it, the whole point of b-money was to have a money system that governments can't control or shut down by force, so how would I be able to enforce the patent? I don't think Satoshi would have patented his ideas either, because I think he is not motivated mainly to personally make money, but to change the world and to solve an interesting technical problem. Otherwise he would have sold at least some of his mined Bitcoins in order to spend or to diversify into other investments.

Comment author: mfreis 16 March 2014 11:51:11AM 2 points [-]

Thank you so much Wei Dai for all the answers.

You say other previously active member would have been identified base on this writing and coding style. There is exacly what Skye Grey says he/she's doing for matching Szabo with Satoshi on the blog LikeinaMirror - he say's he's 99,9% sure Szabo is Satoshi. https://likeinamirror.wordpress.com/2014/03/

Dorian Nakamoto theory may have any ground?

What made you think Satoshi motivation was distrust rather than crypto-anarchy? Someone that have loose money for instance in Lehman Brothers banrupcy? It was also in 2008

Why is anonimity important to crypto community? Just to confirm, Wei Dai is a pseudonym?

Thank you again

Comment author: Wei_Dai 17 March 2014 12:38:19AM 3 points [-]

I agree with gwern's answers and will add a couple of my own.

Dorian Nakamoto theory may have any ground?

No, I doubt it.

Why is anonimity important to crypto community?

  1. We think it's cool because the technology falls out of our field of research.
  2. Anonymity provides privacy and security against physical violence, and cryptographers tend to care about privacy and security.
Comment author: gwern 16 March 2014 06:10:13PM *  2 points [-]

There is exacly what Skye Grey says he/she's doing for matching Szabo with Satoshi on the blog LikeinaMirror - he say's he's 99,9% sure Szabo is Satoshi. https://likeinamirror.wordpress.com/2014/03/

Grey's post is worthless. I haven't written a rebuttal to his second, but about his first post, see http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1ruluz/satoshi_nakamoto_is_probably_nick_szabo/cdr2vgu

What made you think Satoshi motivation was distrust rather than crypto-anarchy? Someone that have loose money for instance in Lehman Brothers banrupcy? It was also in 2008

Because he said so. Haven't you done any background reading? (And how many private individuals could have lost money in Lehman Brothers anyway...)

Why is anonimity important to crypto community?

Seriously?

Just to confirm, Wei Dai is a pseudonym?

No, it's real.