Edit: I don't equate Tch and BTC. I'm just giving an example, that is, a comparison, of a real situation that would have happened if Satoshi had not been anonymous. Does anyone really think that if Satoshi wasn't anonymous, the government wouldn't have found a way to charge him with money laundering, tax evasion, criminal activity, aiding criminals, etc.?
As most of you know, the American government accuses the creators of Tornado Cash of laundering more than $1 billion in digital currency.
In other words, the arrested open source software developers were arrested because criminals were using their platform.
I don't know about you, but for me it's the same as saying that FORD engineers were arrested because the car they built was used to rob a bank.
Or, we can arrest the CEO of Apple or Samsung because their phones are used by criminals to communicate.
It is highly likely that they would want to investigate and potentially prosecute any illegal activities associated with the use of Bitcoin, such as money laundering or tax evasion
It is obvious that Satoshi would be arrested shortly after the creation of Bitcoin, which in essence cannot fall under the absolute control of governments. It is highly likely that they would want to investigate and potentially prosecute any illegal activities associated with the use of Bitcoin, such as money laundering or tax evasion.
https://preview.redd.it/s96rn0svcmkb1.png?width=1343&format=png&auto=webp&s=c4b143453e847be9dc2bac7edae982f02e80e203
So how did Satoshi stayed anonymous? (my two cents on this)
https://preview.redd.it/txp76wetbmkb1.png?width=475&format=png&auto=webp&s=e55153da8338fa475b9fbcafa905078e43566fc3
– Satoshi used air-gaped devices. Air Gaped devices are devices that involve isolating a computer or network and preventing it from establishing an external connection.
– VPN and Proxy Servers.
– It is also possible that Satoshi was connecting from some location where many people are connecting (think about main square of some city, some restaurant or some cafe. It is possible to use hi-gain antennas so there is no need to even be physically present in that place)
– Using virtual machines, on a fresh new machines
– It is highly likely that Satoshi used benefits of the TOR network
What are the benefits of Satoshi remaining anonymous?
– First of all, they can't arrest him if they don't know Satoshis identity
– By not revealing identity, Nakamoto ensured that no group or a person can influence or control over Bitcoin by using his identity
– Bitcoin, like Tornado Cash, may be seen as a disruptive tech. This way Satoshi avoided legal and regulatory implications, and left it all to the community
– Can't be targeted by governments, hackers, criminals etc.
I think it is obvious that govenrments play by their own rules. I also don't believe that creators of Tornado Cash were deliberately helping Lazarus, a North Korean hacker group. If they were, they deserve everything that is coming to them.
Edit: Fixed typos. I probably missed some along the way.
Privacy is a big thing and lot of people aren’t aware of this. That’s going to become a problem
Satoshi is laughing his ass off, even if he’s in a grave.
Satoshi was a clear genius
Honestly I don’t blame Satoshi at all for remaining anonymous – many folks would want to take them out, legally or otherwise. Sadly that’s the world we have
99% of world problems are made by US
Don’t give them ideas, because no wonder they start suing various companies because their products are used by criminals.
But isn’t it “obvious” that Craig Wright is the “real” Satoshi Nakamoto?
He said so right? Right?!?
The fact that Satoshi remains anonymous to this day is an incredible magicians feat. Definitely somebody who had a high level of knowledge and expertise in multiple areas.
People gave it away in 2009. Privacy. Satoshi was smart enough to make it. He obviously knew how to be private. This totally changes the landscape and intentionally so. You have to be a brilliant coder and risk everything for innovation that contradicts totalitarian behaviour in power.
Afaik the charge is not about Tornado Cash itself but because of the founder was alerted that Lazarus was using it and didn’t took any relevant action, at least as described here:
​
“After Semenov was alerted that Tornado Cash was being used to launder large volumes of stolen virtual currency for the Lazarus Group, he and his fellow co-founders continued to pay for infrastructure supporting the Tornado Cash service and took steps to increase the anonymity of the Tornado Cash service without appropriate measures to address the known illicit use by the DPRK.
In April 2022, Semenov learned that an Ethereum address that was publicly attributed to the Lazarus Group and identified on the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDN List), containing hundreds of millions of dollars in stolen proceeds from the widely publicized $620 million Ronin bridge heist, was being used to send funds through Tornado Cash’s service. Semenov and his fellow co-founders put in place a front-end sanctions screening service, but did so knowing that this would be easy to evade, and did not take steps to sufficiently address active abuse by the DPRK. Despite his possession of information from publicly available blockchain analysis and inquiries from media, Semenov consistently ignored or downplayed the evidence that Tornado Cash was being used to launder stolen virtual currency for the DPRK, continued to participate in the operation and maintenance of the Tornado Cash service, and took no meaningful actions to prevent or mitigate the risk of actors using Tornado Cash to launder proceeds from their illicit activities following subsequent high profile heists. “
Can you imagine how much the US would be trying to put Satoshi in jail? He definitely did the right things by remaining anonymous
I ignore the part about Satoshi and his anonymity because we all agree that he was right to do so.
But what really shocks me is that the government arrests someone for a technology used by another for criminal purposes. It really shows how much they don’t understand what’s going on. Otherwise, as you said, they would have arrested the Ford or Apple engineers.
We really have the impression that since it is the world of cryptos, they feel in danger and allow themselves everything
I mean, not sure Satoshi idea was to facilitate illicit transactions.
Somethimes i struggle to understand what this sub at large means with “privacy”.. to me it sometimes feels like it only means “evading taxes” or “doing shady stuff”
Exactly!
And developers out there, be careful what you work on.
Privacy = freedom from control.
Control = Power
Privacy weakens the power held over us.
I’d be scared out of my mind if I was Satoshi. We know what governments do to free thinkers that disrupt the status quo.
https://twitter.com/phoenix_gems47/status/1628012897522663424
DYOR
Two very different scenarios. BTC was an experiment and no, Satoshi (hal Finn imo) had no financial incentive and here, we are talking about documentsed cases of fraud.
As BTC’s price got higher and higher, the risk on satoshi’s security would have kept on increasing too, satoshi planned it wise
Sure they project helped more criminals than honest people
Always find joy in the fact that the creator of crypto is a anonymous legend, I hope it will stay like that forever
Satoshi was smart enough to see the benefits of anonymity and humble enough to not crave the fame related to his creation – for most people creating something big and putting your name on it is one of the highest achievements in life, unfortunately creators are commonly targeted by authorities
Monero pros & cons with related info are in the collapsed comments below.
> The arrest of the founders of Tornado Cash is exactly why Satoshi did everything in his power to remain anonymous
Or because he didn’t want to end up like that recent ‘crypto-king’-dude who was found chopped and stuffed down a toilet.
There’s honestly just so manu reasons.
Satoshi Nakamoto was a genius, definitely if he was doxxed he was going to be in jail because of the corruption and power seeking politicians/billionaires.
In the book Digital Gold the author recounts something Hal Finney commented about his experience when he first connected to the Bitcoin network on Jan 10, 2009. He saw two other nodes with IPs pointing to a place California. So Satoshi either was from California or he was using a Californian proxy. Thankfully Finney never shared these IPs.
It amazes me that he managed to stay anonymous. And even now, no one is certain or has real clues.
All this while I am sure some goverments would like to have a word with him.
That’s why i think monero is so awesome, the transactions are highly confidential and untraceable due to the use of advanced cryptographic techniques…like Ring Signatures, Stealth Addresses, and Ring Confidential Transactions offering complete anonymity to its users.
Unless Satoshi was some government agencies who created it as a trial run ….
Plot twist – Nakamoto IS GOVERNMENT.
I mean yeah. When you’re going up against the elites, wittingly or not, it behooves you to take as many measures as possible to insulate yourself. Because they *will* come for you if they smell blood on the water.
So we’re all just gonna ignore the air-gaping and air-gaped devices? Someone’s gotta be able to kill that layup
thats why i remain anonymous with my $10 worth of SHIBA
Bitcoin is a public ledger. This argument is nonsense.
He remained anonymous because a strong decentralised network has no leader.
I thought Craig Wright is Satoshi…
/S
They should arrest the Congress, since they made fed print money, what criminals use every day since decades to buy drugs and such. Maybe throw fed in jail too
Why are we acting like crypto isnt 99% scams?
Tornado cash developers were anonymous?!
Satoshi knew more about the evils of the central banking cabal probably in the 80s and 90s than most bitcoiners know even today
THey have deplatformed, arrested, jailed and straight up assassinated every single person or leader who has been a threat to them…if they could not, due to nukes, they sanction the country.
Satoshi was aware of ALL of this.
The biggest proof that Craig Wright is NOT Satoshi is that the government has not arrested nor jailed him yet lol