Hmmmmm. Assuming the post was made by the actual Satoshi...
Dorian Nakamoto is Satoshi:
This is an attempt by him to throw people off his scent, which would be foolish and desperate since chances are the millions of eyes focused on him will find more concrete proof than the Newsweek article, rendering the posting moot.
Almost guaranteeing the drama will continue, if not whip it into a larger frenzy.
Dorian Nakamoto isn't Satoshi:
An attempt to absolve someone of harassment. Noble, but not wise, since now he will have to continue to disprove serious accusations of his identity, or else innocent people will be harmed again. And the corollary, if he does not publish a refutation people will assume it's tacit agreement.
People will continue looking for him.
It's late and I know I didn't think of everything, but I can't see this being a winning move by Satoshi in any scenario.
My personal theory? Dorian was a member of a crypto group that eventually gave birth to Bitcoin, but he was never part of the implementation. Maybe he thought of the original math/idea, so they named their pseudonym after him in his honor? Probably not true, but fun!
This is the only realistic comment I've seen regarding the ning post. Everyone is just going on about how we got the wrong person, while in fact it tells us nothing. Thank you.
What if Dorian is not Satoshi, but Satoshi knows that by doing shady stuff like what he just did, it will just reinforce the idea we have that Dorian is Satoshi
While unfortunately that is the case far too often in this world, that is not what I'm saying. I'm saying if this specific act is Satoshi trying to reduce harassment of Dorian and help out an innocent man it doesn't seem to work in his favor, in a game theory sense.
Too true. I depend on hacker news for many things, but being secure is not a bet I'd put money on. There are ways of making more provable claims in either direction--unless it's either attested multiple times in the past (so as to be difficult to doctor) or it's cryptographically signed or there's a convincing prosecution, I don't think we'll be confident about it.
I would bet that anyone who is already very geeky and just happens to be called Satoshi Nakamoto has a much higher than normal chance of being a bitcoin early adopter.
If Dorian was a member of the group that eventually birthed Bitcoin, isn't it realistic that he'd be an early adopter, even if the pseudonym wasn't quite his?
Dorian Nakamoto is Satoshi: This is an attempt by him to throw people off his scent, which would be foolish and desperate since chances are the millions of eyes focused on him will find more concrete proof than the Newsweek article, rendering the posting moot. Almost guaranteeing the drama will continue, if not whip it into a larger frenzy.
Dorian Nakamoto isn't Satoshi: An attempt to absolve someone of harassment. Noble, but not wise, since now he will have to continue to disprove serious accusations of his identity, or else innocent people will be harmed again. And the corollary, if he does not publish a refutation people will assume it's tacit agreement. People will continue looking for him.
It's late and I know I didn't think of everything, but I can't see this being a winning move by Satoshi in any scenario.
My personal theory? Dorian was a member of a crypto group that eventually gave birth to Bitcoin, but he was never part of the implementation. Maybe he thought of the original math/idea, so they named their pseudonym after him in his honor? Probably not true, but fun!