I've been working hard on this in my book. (Nearly there by the way). I posted this on Like In A Mirror but put it here as well in case it doesn't get approved.
Yes, the writing styles of Szabo and Satoshi are the same.
Apart from the British spelling.
And the different punctuation habits.
And the use of British expressions like mobile phone and flat and bloody.
And Szabo’s much longer sentences.
And the fact that Szabo doesn’t make the same spelling mistakes that Satoshi does.
Ooh and the fact that Szabo’s writing has a lot more humour to it than Satoshi’s.
Szabo is one of the few people that has the breadth, depth and specificity of knowledge to achieve what Satoshi has, agreed. He is the right age, has the right background and was in the right place at the right time. He ticks a lot of the right boxes.
But confirmation bias is a dangerous thing. It blinkers.
And you need to think about the dangers your posts are creating in the life of a reclusive academic.
Satoshi is first and foremost a coder, not a writer. Szabo is a writer first and coder second. To draw any serious conclusions you need to find some examples of Szabo’s c++ coding.
You also need to find some proof a Szabo’s hacking (or anti-hacking) experience. Satoshi has rather a lot of this.
And you need to consider the possibility that Satoshi learnt his English on both sides of the Atlantic. And that English was not his first language. I don’t think it was.
The correct pronunciation of your name.
Wei - is it pronounced as in 'way' or 'why'?
And Dai - as in 'dye' or 'day'?
Thank you.
Do you mean the ones on the cryptography mailing list or the ones to Wei Dai?
I've read them both.
Not the ones to Adam Back though
about 70 million times.
Even more times than I've read the Lord of the Rings
What do you make of the decision to use C++?
Do you have any opinions of the original coding beyond the 'inelegant but amazingly resilient' meme? Was there anything that stood out about it?
Thanks Wei. You efforts here is much appreciated and your place in heaven is assured.
In reply to your 5.
My suspicion is not based on any significant evidence. It's just a thought that emerged in my head as I've followed the story. It's a psychological thing, almost macho - people like to solve a problem that nobody else has been able to prove something to themselves (and others).
Also from his comment 'we can win a major battle in the arms race and gain a new territory of freedom for several years' I infer that he didn't think it would last foreever .
Anyway THANK YOU WEI for taking the time to do this.
Dominic
Good morning Wei,
Thank you for doing this. It seems like an excellent solution.
My name's Dominic Frisby. I'm an author from the UK, currently working on a book on Bitcoin (http://unbound.co.uk/books/bitcoin).
Here are some questions I'd like to ask.
What steps, if any, did you take to coding up your b-money idea? If none, or very few, why did you go no further with it?
You had some early correspondence with Satoshi. What do you think his motivation behind Bitcoin was? Was it, simply, the challenge of making something work that nobody had made work before? Was it the potential riches? Was it altruistic or political, maybe - did he want to change the world?
In what ways do you think Bitcoin might change the world?
How much of a bubble do you think it is?
I sometimes wonder if Bitcoin was invented not so much to become the global reserve digital cash currency, but to prove to others that the technology can work. It was more gateway rather than final destination – do you have a view here?
That's more than enough to be going on with.
With kind regards
Dominic
Points noted. All well made. Mine was a heated rebuttal to the Like IN A Mirror post.
I could only find one spelling mistake in all Satoshi's work and a few punctuation quibbles. It's a word that is commonly spelt wrong - but that Szabo spells right. I don't want to share it here because I'm keeping it for the book