Clearly this is a CIA plot. I know people who work in JPMorgan and they have shown me APIs specifically designed to detect deep web bitcoin purchases. Let's just say that there's no such thing as privacy anymore.
I've long believed that bitcoin started as a CIA black budget program. I know it's out there, but they are one of the few organizations with the development skills and opsec skills to put out an anonymous application. The motivation makes a lot of sense too.
The dubbed successor to Nakamoto visited the CIA. [1] Speculated about in the article, my theory has always been that it was an interview of sorts.
Anyway, just a conspiracy. Take it with a large grain of salt.
Agree that it is an enticing and certainly plausible theory, but it doesn't seem to line up with the actual events of Gavin visiting the CIA and Satoshi disappearing right after that, even if you grant them n-dimensional chess plot mastery, unless Gavin was either a mole all along, or inexplicably turned into one.
Edit: I won't delete this, as I think it's an interesting discussion, but I immediately realized they could have just been playing Gavin all along. And his scene with CSW certainly highlighted his gullibility. Hmmm...
> but it doesn't seem to line up with the actual events of Gavin visiting the CIA
Just so it's clear I was deeply hurt with the loss of Gavin in our Community, and it shows why Power should never be trusted with Humans, given it's propensity to corrupt--who the hell would call him Chief Scientist of an open-source project, besides the Foundation?! However well meaning a person may be or seem.
With that said, I think his visit to the CIA was a co-opt which is why he teamed up with Hearn (ex-google) to try and make a play for Bitcoin XT/Classic forks. He had become the face of Bitcoin after Satoshi, and was US based, so it makes sense the CIA wanted to meet with him.
What was unexpected was Gavin's actions afterwards, Cypherpunks (espeically the Crypto-Anarchist type that were the norm in Bitcoin back then) aren't traditionally afraid to go to Prison for thier convictions: as we've seen since Zimmerman and PgP. Hal was the person that embodied Bitcoin the most, but given his health it makes sense why he took a backseat to it all and let the children take the spotlight.
CSW was a farce, giving Gavin an immediate exit from the Community by then; subsequently, it cost him his entire reputation and his standing.
@NullC: what do you have to say about any of this if you're reading this?
Gavin's endorsement of CSW really is one of the strangest things in Bitcoin's history. Barely Sociable's Satoshi reveal touches on it a bit. I also think it is pretty telling that Greg hasn't publicly commented (that I'm aware of) on the video despite still refuting CSW nonsense on an extremely regular basis. As someone with a ton of respect for Greg, I too would love to hear his thoughts.
Hmh? The video is high production value barely disguised nonsense, through and through. Most of the content is uncritically rehashing the same thoroughly discredited talking points that Roger Ver has been paying astroturfers to repost for years (the weird allegations about Theymos, for example).
For click-bait and harassment purposes they stuck some nonsense about Adam Back at the very end of it-- using arguments that were thoroughly debunked such as the use of two spaces after periods when they were applied to other people.
Lots of people in Bitcoin have destroyed or otherwise declined to share any private communications with Satoshi, myself included. Personally I think lowly of people who've shared such communications.
I posted crapping on this video within minutes of watching it, two days ago.
As far as Gavin goes-- His (substantially unwithdrawn) endorsement of Wright just made clear to the public what a lot of other people had known about him for quite some time. When Gavin's endorsement of Wright came out the shocking part was less that he'd do something like that, the shocking part was that he apparently thought he'd get away with it.
Get away with what though? Do you believe Gavin was a willing dupe using the CSW narrative to push bigger blocks? Honestly before watching the video it was something I hadn't even considered. I was certain Gavin was simply naive. Thanks for taking the time to reply.
I always thought that Gavin had some kind of bizarre ideological or personality change. He had seemed like a wise, smart and good guy for a long time. Was that not so? As an outside observer, I'm genuinely curious.
“Compared to privacy coins Wasabi is just a temporary hack. I think without Confidential Transactions, as the transaction fees grow, privacy will be priced out of Bitcoin's main chain.”
In the specific context of coinjoin confidential transactions has the benefit of at most halving the amount of transactions needed to get privacy by eliminating the need to match values. I think that comment is overstating the limitations there.
its 'private' and 'anonymous' as long as no one can trace back the transactions to your wallet, hence the need for bitcoin mixers for 'unsafe' purchases
Solo-mining a block is basically impossible these days. Also I would assume all remaining Bitcoin mixers are honeypots. You can get some degree of privacy in Bitcoin with coinjoin but it is slow, cumbersome, has high fees and is not a proper solution for decentralised cash. There is also the possibility of ending up with tainted Bitcoins.
I also disagree that you only need privacy for “unsafe” transactions. Everyone has a right to privacy in their day to day life.
I know someone who bought a few hundred bucks worth of bitcoin a couple years ago out of curiosity, trying to maintain anonymity the whole time. He was able to set up an account on an exchange through TOR with no personal info, but in order to transfer cash his only real option was to deposit it into the bitcoin seller's account at a bank he'd never been to before (where he was still, of course, on security cameras).
His conclusion was that the only reason people aren't being prosecuted across the board for dark web purchases is because it benefits the authorities to let them think they can get away with smaller transactions so they'll be tempted to make larger ones.
> His conclusion was that the only reason people aren't being prosecuted across the board for dark web purchases is because it benefits the authorities to let them think they can get away with smaller transactions so they'll be tempted to make larger ones.
Possible, but that negates the fact this tech can and should be mainly be used P2P. There are still options for good OPSEC outside if you're willing to step away from your keyboard.
It most certainly won't be cheap, or convenient (most times) that much is clear, but its totally do-able even now to remain entirely untied to your tx.
> It most certainly won’t be cheap, or convenient (most times) that much is clear, but its totally do-able even now to remain entirely united to your tx.
If I needed to get you $10,000 and remain entirely untied to the transaction, how would you suggest I proceed?
> If I needed to get you $10,000 and remain entirely untied to the transaction, how would you suggest I proceed?
What's the saying: Buy my book?
No, but seriously, after this whole COVID thing and how certain Industries are still denied banking and financial services, yet equally deemed 'essential' has made me re-visit the idea of re-launching my fintech startup with a vetted and specialized Team.
Perhaps one can track those who pushed bitcoin early on: those who were connected to founders of Silicon Valley properties we all know and love. The name suggests Japan and Hawaii are obvious nexuses to investigate. Punahou grads, Japanese connected CIA folks perhaps?
The dubbed successor to Nakamoto visited the CIA. [1] Speculated about in the article, my theory has always been that it was an interview of sorts.
Anyway, just a conspiracy. Take it with a large grain of salt.
1. https://thenextweb.com/hardfork/2019/07/19/satoshi-nakamoto-...