[throwaway82652]

I agree with your first paragraph but your edit is repeating the same non-sequitur made by the article. I don't know why journalists and people in these discussions keep referring back to Satoshi's statements as if they mean anything. The average non-tech person still has no idea who that is, will never care who that is, was not following bitcoin back in 2008 and has no reason to care about a random comment on a mailing list or in a whitepaper. The average cryptographer or hardcore blockchain person also probably has no reason to care about them. The only reason to bring it up at all just seems to be part of the myth-building.

[jjulius]

>The only reason to bring it up at all just seems to be part of the myth-building.

I don't understand how this can be what you think I'm getting at, when my post was myth-busting. You agree with me that most average, non-tech-oriented people seemed to misunderstand that Bitcoin was largely anonymous. Now, those assumptions had to come from somewhere, right? I'm not saying they know who Satoshi is, or what a Bitcoin whitepaper is at all, nor am I saying Satoshi should be lionized or mythologized. But what I am doing is pointing to rhetoric used early on in Bitcoin's life that could've easily made it's way into the lexicon of the less technically-minded and explain how we ended up there.

An analysis of how the myth was built, as it were, rather than further building of the myth.

[throwaway82652]

Thanks for the clarification, that makes a lot of sense. But I honestly don't think you could chalk it up to any statements made by Satoshi or anyone else in particular. The tech press in general has a problem with not understanding cryptography or "privacy tech" or whatever. That's not a new thing. It really doesn't help that in the last several years there are privacycoin pushers who muddy the waters with confusing marketing statements that are misleading to anyone who doesn't bury themselves in crypto jargon.