Satoshi Nakamoto means very little to Bitcoin. Sure, he’s the progenitor of it, but since its launch and his disappearance, he’s become an unimportant aspect of Bitcoin’s history. A legend at best, and a useless distraction at worst.
Regardless, some people just can’t let the issue die.
Earlier this year, Newsweek made headlines with a story they claimed revealed the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, a claim which has been thoroughly discredited by the community, and even by Satoshi himself. Since then, a number of sources have claimed to have been on the Satoshi trail, with nothing conclusive popping up.
However, this time, it’s a bit different.
A hacker who went by the name “Jeffrey” contacted WIRED magazine, claiming he has information on Satoshi’s identity.
How He Did It
Jeffrey claims to have taken control of the email account satoshin@gmx.com, the email account which was used by Satoshi to correspond with the earliest Bitcoin adopters and developers in 2009. When asked how, he explained “the fool used a primary gmx under his full name and had aliases set up underneath it.”
He didn’t reveal exactly how he gained control over it, but the account was apparently used to take control of his account on p2pfoundation, the site which Satoshi originally used to communicate with the community.
What He Wants
Theymos, one of the administrators of the Bitcointalk forum, received an email from satoshin@gmx.com, “the contents of which make me almost certain that the email account is compromised.” He suggested “that either Satoshi’s email account in particular or gmx.com in general was compromised, and the email account is now under the control of someone else. Perhaps satoshin@gmx.com expired and then someone else registered it.”
The email, Theymos said, contained a simple message. “Michael, send me some coins before I hitman you.”
The hacker made a post on Pastebin claiming he would be “releasing the so called ‘gods’ dox if my address hits 25 BTC.”
The wallet‘s balance, as of press time, holds just over 1.5 BTC.
What This Means For Satoshi
In only the second post made by the account since 2009, it said
Dear Satoshi. Your dox, passwords and IP addresses are being sold on the darknet. Apparently you didn’t configure Tor properly and your IP leaked when you used your email account sometime in 2010. You are not safe. You need to get out of where you are as soon as possible before these people harm you. Thank you for inventing Bitcoin.
While this writer must confess a bit of curiosity at who Satoshi is, his identity means little to Bitcoin at this point. Gavin Andresen and the rest of the Bitcoin development team have taken over the project since then, and made so many changes that they’re more important to the Bitcoin world today than Satoshi.
Is Satoshi Nakamoto's Identity About To Be Revealed?
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