Ars Technica creates Arscoin. I swear I’m not making this up.
Backed with the full faith and credit of Conde Nast?
Haha, no. Backed by nothing. It’s intended as an experimental playing field for Ars users.
They mention that coin generator site. I was reassured to learn that it was originally created to mock the entire concept of cryptocurrencies.
That Ars article has as good a layman’s description of what a cryptocurrency actually is (block chain, mining, proof of work) as I’ve seen anywhere.
Autumn Ratke a 28-year-old American CEO of bitcoin exchange firm First Meta was found dead in her Singapore apartment on Feb. 28.
Local media are calling it a suicide, but Singapore officials are waiting for toxicology test results.
Things like that tend to happen when you hold and then lose the money of organized crime groups (gun runners, drug cartels, kiddy porn kingpins).
I keep hoping to run into Neal Stephenson on the streets of Seattle and ask him what he thinks about all of this cryptocurrency. He may have been the first to popularize the idea in Cryptonomicon, and the “things like that tend to happen when you hold and then lose the money of organized crime groups” was a big feature of the story. Fuckin’ Dentist.
One of the weirdest things about Bitcoin is the fact that no one really knew who the mysterious inventor was. The name “Satoshi Nakamoto” was thrown around a lot, but it was always assumed that it was a pseudonym for someone that wanted to protect their real identity.
Nope. Turns out, the guy’s name really is Satoshi Nakamoto.
Far from leading to a Tokyo-based whiz kid using the name “Satoshi Nakamoto” as a cipher or pseudonym (a story repeated by everyone from Bitcoin’s rabid fans to The New Yorker), the trail followed by Newsweek led to a 64-year-old Japanese-American man whose name really is Satoshi Nakamoto. He is someone with a penchant for collecting model trains and a career shrouded in secrecy, having done classified work for major corporations and the U.S. military.
Standing before me, eyes downcast, appeared to be the father of Bitcoin.
Not even his family knew.
It doesn’t rain, it pours.
I mean, only about $50k this time…
And lol, Occam’s Razor strikes again. Some of the theories as to “who he was” were sooo convoluted…
That is a fascinating article. And it’s pretty hilarious that it took this long for someone to do the legwork considering how little effort he put into disguising himself.
Funkular - Well, bear in mind that most people who do “legwork” do it via the internet, somewhere he’s not left many places
Actually getting out there and looking for someone needs…well…a journalist or someone paid :P
FWIW, Satoshi Nakamoto has broken his internet silence … to announce that he is not Dorian Nakamoto.
That’s a “proving a negative” thing tbh.
I’m GPU mining Arscoins now! Tomorrow I can tell my boss to go to hell!
…right?
That reporter’s career is going to go down the toilet. Doesn’t look like there was enough evidence to categorically make this claim. RIP Newsweek (again).
Look, another Bitcoin exchange hacked. 76.69 BTC or currently about $50,000 were stolen from Poloniex. The exchange can’t cover the losses so every user will pay. What a great currency!
Because there is not enough BTC to cover everyone’s balances, all balances will temporarily be deducted by 12.3%. Please understand that this is an absolute necessity—if I did not make this adjustment, people would most likely withdraw all their BTC as soon as possible in order to make sure they weren’t left in that remaining 12.3%. […] If I had the money to cover the entire debt right now, I would cover it in a heartbeat. I simply don’t, and I can’t just pull it out of thin air.
It’s like bank robbery without those pesky Feds. Or even security guards.
It’s like bank robbery without it being a crime. Insane.
If that guy really is the creator of Bitcoin, then that article totally buries the lede. Either he’s the world’s most frugal half-a-billionaire, or he somehow lost access to his own creation.