this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2024
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[–] xmunk@sh.itjust.works 68 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Being labeled as Satoshi Nakamoto is basically a fucking death sentence due to how much money is on the line. It feels deeply irresponsible of HBO.

[–] itslilith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 31 points 3 weeks ago

Very likely not him, and he's like the 20th candidate whose been paraded by the news

[–] cranakis@reddthat.com 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Sorry, why is it a death sentence?

[–] 9point6@lemmy.world 42 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

He potentially has billions of dollars in bitcoin

Bad people do bad things for big sums of money

[–] Bob_Robertson_IX@lemmy.world 15 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

But ... there are other billionaires out there who are not going into hiding because they are billionaires.

[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 18 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

You can't torture the money away from most billionaires. Someone who has most of their wealth in Bitcoin theoretically could have that happen to them.

And after stealing the money, there's not that much chance of getting caught, unlike if you just tried putting billions into your regular ass bank account.

[–] SkyezOpen@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

You can't torture the money away from most billionaires

Have you tried though?

[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago

I'd like to.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 18 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Other billionaires also have security. The accused people who aren't really Satoshi likely don't have the means to properly protect themselves the same way.

[–] xmunk@sh.itjust.works 7 points 3 weeks ago

Yea - Taylor Swift, as an example, has serious security around her due to her wealth and also the personal threats she's received... that doesn't come cheap.

[–] Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works 12 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Yes but having billions in Bitcoin more closely resembles having billions in cash than billions in stocks / other assets which are harder to steal and get away with.

[–] itslilith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Ironically, that's the kind of "issue" you need trustworthy banks for. The thing crypto was meant to replace. But none of the crypto exchanges that exist are trustworthy enough

[–] Sabin10@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I still don't understand why crypto exchanges exist is an unregulated, decentralized currency, wouldn't an exchange remove part of those benefits?

[–] xmunk@sh.itjust.works 7 points 3 weeks ago

Yup, if you robbed Elon Musk you'd just walk away with some IOUs that might be worth millions... and also billions in Twitter debt.

The actual Satoshi has billions in untraceable cash equivalents that already happen to be in a currency that drug lords like dealing in.

[–] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 12 points 3 weeks ago

Satoshi could liquidate 4.76% of all the bitcoins that will ever exist, that would wipe the crypto market and potentially bring the stock market along for a very bumpy ride, wipe a ton of money in pension funds and so on.

The fact that one person owns that much Bitcoin should worry anyone who is invested in it.

[–] HootinNHollerin@lemmy.world 32 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

That was a good read. I haven’t watched the documentary or kept up with this, but the part

Len Sassaman, a cryptographer who moved in similar online circles as Satoshi, as the most likely candidate to be revealed as the Bitcoin creator. Sassaman took his own life in 2011 at the age of 31, shortly after Satoshi disappeared.

seems pretty strongly like the guy to me though. Hopefully the documentary goes into that?

[–] ryan213@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

I still don't know what Bitcoin is.

[–] half_built_pyramids@lemmy.world 24 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

A confidence game too many people believe in

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 11 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Bitcoin was the very first solution to how do you prevent a digital item from being copied and used repeatedly aka double spending.

Nothing digital was truly safe from this until bitcoin as you always had to trust someone who could double spend or steal it if they wanted to, or the database/system being hacked and things altered.

Things became truly immutable once committed to the chain.

The whole system needed an incentive to keep everyone aligned to reject double spends, and the coin itself was the reward. (Edit and there's a limited number of coins, making them scarce)

Miners get rewarded for ensuring transactions are legitimate. It costs money to gain the reward so it's better for them to just keep the reward instead of risking losing it

Edit: it also created the first time we could prove something digital existed at a point in time. Everything before this involved trusting someone data wasn't altered to 'prove' it. Since blocks are immutable, their timestamp proves something existed then. E.g. a hash of a picture. It's irrefutable the picture existed on that day.

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 2 points 3 weeks ago

You know the blockchain, right? Basically, whenever anyone trades a bitcoin, that transaction is recorded on the blockchain. And there's a bunch of math work that goes into recording each transaction. When people do this math work, they get rewarded with a tiny bit of a bitcoin. This is what mining is. So then you have some bitcoin. And some other people accept bitcoin for goods and services.

Bitcoin itself is a virtual currency, just like Runescape gold or the dollars in your online bank account. It's just numbers on a computer. The blockchain part is what makes it different.

Now don't get me wrong, for the majority of applications this is overkill and not at all useful. Bitcoin and blockchains are solutions looking for a problem.

[–] ogmios@sh.itjust.works -2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

A way to milk money from people who don't understand how computers work.

[–] philpo@feddit.org 8 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

And to snuggle large amounts of wealth in and out of china.

[–] miseducator@lemmy.world 10 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

That darn cuddly Chinese money! Just wanna caress it all night long!

[–] philpo@feddit.org 7 points 3 weeks ago

Lol. Okay. I leave that typo. Just for that answer it is worth it.

[–] PriorityMotif@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

Xi dressed as Charmin bear

[–] tate@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 3 weeks ago

Your typo makes it sound like they're doing something terribly cute!

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world -3 points 3 weeks ago

"Money" that's only used to buy drugs or try to get rich quick.

[–] cheese_greater@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

I believe its him. His interview was hilariously awkward and cagey.