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Peter Todd in hiding after being “unmasked” as bitcoin creator (arstechnica.com)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/technology

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Todd’s urgent dismissal of the documentary reads to Hoback like an attempt to throw Satoshi-hunters off the scent. “It doesn’t surprise me at all that Peter would go on the offense. He’s a master of game theory—it’s what he does. He has spent a lot of years now muddying the waters,” says Hoback. “He’s an unbelievable genius.”

I haven't seen the docu, but I did like his (Hoback's) docu about Qanon, Q: Into the Storm.

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[–] xantoxis 231 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (28 children)

When someone says "He's an unbelievable genius," I now understand that the person speaking is either a con artist or a gullible idiot. Unbelievable geniuses don't exist, there's just specialists, people who get lucky, people who work hard. So if you're saying someone is such a genius, either you have no metric by which to measure genius, or you're selling something.

“I think Cullen made the Satoshi accusation for marketing. He needed a way to get attention for his film.”

Cullen is absolutely selling something: he's selling his documentary.

The various denials and deflections from Todd, [Cullen] claims, are part of a grand and layered misdirection.

Smells 100% like bullshit. I had no take on this documentary one way or the other before, but now I'm very skeptical.

[–] [email protected] 92 points 1 month ago (4 children)

It's almost certainly bullshit. This is the entry point to conspiratorial thinking; it's a classic Argument from Silence.

"What is he trying to hide‽" I dunno, man. Maybe he recognizes that there's a bunch of unhinged weirdos who are hellbent on stalking "Satoshi," and he doesn't want to be harassed? Seems like a pretty good reason to try to throw you off.

Also, who gives a shit who it is? Only people trying to make a buck or beg money off of that person care. Reveals a lot about the documentary director.

[–] kippinitreal 20 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Hoback argues

In any case, says Hoback, the identity of the real Satoshi is a matter of public interest. “This person is potentially on track to become the wealthiest on Earth,” says Hoback. “If countries are considering adopting this in their treasuries or making it legal tender, the idea that there's potentially this anonymous figure out there who controls one-twentieth of the total supply of digital gold is pretty important.”

Currently bitcoin or any block chain based currency is more of a grift than financial freedom. However countries like El Salvador have taken it up as official currency, so real lives can be affected by whoever holds that bitcoin stockpile.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 month ago

Sure. Counterpoint: there's real billionaires with known identities fucking things up, and we aren't doing shit about them.

Obviously, knowing the identity of one more isn't that big of an issue.

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