I will forever mark the name, Leah McGrath Goodman and Newsweek editorial staff in my mind as a toxic journalist and TMZ-styled publication after this event.<p>Granted, I don't think Leah McGrath Goodman and Newsweek did anything illegal by breaking this story. I don't think it's wrong for Goodman to attempt to contact Satoshi's relatives over the phone.<p>What really crossed the line for me was Leah McGrath Goodman and Newsweek's decision to post the photo of the house, with the car's plate info on it.<p>Why would you do this? What relavence if any did this have to the story?<p>Showing of the house with car license plate resulted in identifying his address really easily. Let's face it. She wouldn't have done this to Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos even though they are far more famous, rich and public. She did this to this guy only because he's reclusive and powerless.
Ok, I'm sorry but there are some serious inconsistencies here.<p>Leah McGrath Goodman said that after she asked him about BitCoin he promptly stopped emailing her. The timeline is unclear, but it seems like this was before Goodman contacted his family members. Why would she contact his family members if she was directly talking to him and they could blow her pretext of wanting to talk about model trains?<p>This strongly suggests that he knew enough about BitCoin to be chased away by the question. He uses English and American spellings, just like Satoshi's mailing list postings. He has a computer engineering background.<p>When she came to his house he said, verbatim, exactly what happened with BitCoin - "I'm not involved in that anymore." And something to the effect of "That's been handed over to others, I have no involvement with that anymore." This, if it was said, strongly suggests to me that this is in fact Satoshi.<p>Given that this would be catastrophe for both the journalist and Newsweek if it turned out to be wrong, and they must have seen some compelling evidence if they went forward with the story - I'm skeptical about Dorian Nakamoto's denial here.
Textbook case of repulsively inane "journalism". Newsweek senior writer Leah McGrath Goodman was assigned the task to write a juicy story by outing the Bitcoin inventor. Here's how she went about it, as a diligent professional: starting from the assumption that Satoshi Nakamoto was literally his real name, she went scouring a database that contained the registration cards of naturalized U.S. citizens (for the record, Nakamoto is the ~400th most common Japanese name).<p>A Satoshi Nakamoto then turned up whose profile and background offered a potential match (as he used to be an engineering contractor and had shown libertarian views in the past), if you were willing to ignore a lot of facts (such as his less-than-native mastery of English). She then interviewed the man's family, fabricated a few quotes implying involvement with Bitcoin, and published a clickbait story destroying the man's privacy.<p>Well at least, Dorian Nakamoto got a free lunch out of it.
Man says X, later claims not X. Bitcoin enthusiasts declare total victory for not X, call for tar and feathering of company that published X.<p>No harm in giving this some time and seeing if "Man Denies He's Bitcoin Founder" turns out to filed next to[1] "Man Denies Connection to Olympic Bombing" or next to "OJ Announces Search For Real Killers".<p>[1] pedantry disclaimer: not meant as perfect analogies
According to the Newsweek article this Satoshi Nakamoto:<p>1. Dropped all contact with the reporter when the topic of Bitcoin was brought up over email.<p>2. Called the cops when the reporter went to his house to ask him about Bitcoin.<p>3. Said to the reporter: "I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it," "It's been turned over to other people. They are in charge of it now. I no longer have any connection."<p>Someone here is lying, because a person who only heard of Bitcoin three weeks ago doesn't do and say those things.
Based on other investigative efforts people have undertaken, the kind of level of complexity Bitcoin has in its underlying code-base shows that there might have been more than one person responsible for Bitcoin. It's unfortunate this has happened to a guy who is not related to Bitcoin at all. Pictures of his house, location, his full name and even going as far as documenting that he's between in and out of jobs over the years was uncalled for in my opinion.<p>Do editors and journalists not read what is being published? Feels like we've all been transformed back 7 to 10 years ago where this kind of "investigative journalism" was prevalent and hardly investigative at all. NewsWeek either need to put up some conclusive proof or retract everything they've said and give mr Satoshi an apology.<p>It'll be interesting if from a legal perspective Dorian Satoshi has a case against NewsWeek considering this has already gone to print. If it causes Satoshi's life to crumble, make it hard for him to get employment, subjects him to harassment from armchair Internet investigators and whatnot, he might have some kind of case. But having said that, this would mean if it went to court, he would have to offer up access to info that NewsWeek and others don't have and if he is the real Satoshi, it would come back to bite him.<p>The real question is, if this is the real Satoshi, why isn't he using his incredible stash of Bitcoin to live a little more comfortably? Hiding in plain sight perhaps. Just let the poor guy be. Nobody should be subject to this kind of speculative journalism. It's the Boston bombing situation all over again.<p>Edit: the real Satoshi responded to his original announcement here, his first communication in 5 years: <a href="http://p2pfoundation.ning.com/forum/topics/bitcoin-open-source?commentId=2003008%3AComment%3A52186" rel="nofollow">http://p2pfoundation.ning.com/forum/topics/bitcoin-open-sour...</a> — a simple one liner.
Man, it's a good thing HN didn't fly off the handle and start obsessing over this man and try to invade his privacy using the excuse that NewsWeek started it and that makes it okay.<p>That would've been pretty embarrassing.
Looks like Newsweek is going to have to deal with some pretty heavy fallout, seeing as they've already gone to print: <a href="https://twitter.com/KiraBind/status/441683373665554433/photo/1" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/KiraBind/status/441683373665554433/photo...</a>
AP's writethru with more details is now up: <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ap-exclusive-man-denies-hes-bitcoin-founder" rel="nofollow">http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ap-exclusive-man-denies-hes-b...</a><p>Key excerpt:
He also said a key portion of the piece — where he is quoted telling the reporter on his doorstep before two police officers, "I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it" — was misunderstood.
Nakamoto said he is a native of Beppu, Japan who came to the U.S. when he was 10. He speaks both English and Japanese, but his English isn't flawless. Asked if he said the quote, Nakamoto responded, "no."
"I'm saying I'm no longer in engineering. That's it," he said of the exchange. "And even if I was, when we get hired, you have to sign this document, contract saying you will not reveal anything we divulge during and after employment. So that's what I implied."
I do not believe him. There are just too many coincidences there. This is not a common name. What are the chances you find someone that has the math and engineering knowledge to create bitcoin and has not been busy with anything else during the relevant period among the "several" people that newsweek found having that name in the entire world.<p>He is probably scared for his life and scared for the safety of his family. And it might be with good reason. So I am not going to bother him or anything, but lets be honest: he is probably the guy.<p>I think the bitcoin community will help him regain his anonymity. It is in their interest that the mystery of Satoshi survives. I am sure he is a great person but the face of Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto just does not seem to inspire billion dollar valuations.
So Newsweek, returning to print newsstands after several years, runs with a cover story that is debunked on the internet in a matter of hours?<p>Is this not a perfect metaphor for the print journalism industry? Can we bet on when Print Newsweek 2.0 <i>also</i> goes belly-up?
The original article claims of an encounter with Satoshi with the police present that mention he handed Bitcoin off. Wouldn't it make sense for Leah to get that officer to go on public record corroborating her story? Or can officers not do that?
What about the article that was posted earlier today about the shop keeper who had this Satoshi visit his store and spend bitcoins? If that was true then it would breach this guys claim that he only learnt about bitcoin three weeks ago.<p>Edit: link to previous article: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7354326" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7354326</a>
Readers who believe Dorian != Satoshi: What would you have to see to convince you that Dorian == Satoshi?<p>Readers who believe Dorian == Satoshi: What would you have to see to convince you that Dorian != Satoshi?<p>The hallmark of a good belief system is that your beliefs are falsifiable -- there exists some hypothetical set of experiments which could return unexpected results that would make you change your beliefs.
Apparently there was a car chase (kind of) involved:<p><a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/03/06/satoshi_nakamoto_car_chase_bitcoin_creator_pursued_by_media_as_joe_bel_bruno.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/03/06/satoshi_n...</a>
Hahaha...well played!<p>This guy, whoever he is, is definitely one step ahead of the rest of us.<p>Anyone with a modicum of intelligence would know that it's effectively impossible to remain truly anonymous in this day and age. So what do you do if you want to be left alone? Either you make sure you have enough "insurance" that no one would risk messing with you, or you play the system against itself: leak just enough information to lead people down your trail but not so much that the trail can't equally plausibly be denied. It's all rather reminiscent of Vinnie "The Chin" Gigante's decades-long ruse of feigned insanity to avoid prosecution.<p><i>Side note</i>: I think the last high-profile anonymous figure that managed to remain truly anonymous for any length of time was "Deep Throat", and he did all of his talking pre-internet.
I'm holding to my comment!<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6828576" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6828576</a><p>>I am only certain of one thing when it comes to bitcoin, the creator(s) are not Japanese.
So is there any way to verify either account, beyond nudging the benefit of the doubt in the company with higher journalistic integrity's favor (AP)?
why are we up voting these threads? so someone posts this fancy story about the bitcoin founder he finally found, which for all we know could be false.<p>yet, we have nothing better to up vote than every major news outlets satoshi nakamoto story.