The CIA 'Can Neither Confirm Nor Deny' It Has Documents on Satoshi Nakamoto (vice.com) 66
An anonymous reader shares a report: Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? Ever since this pseudonymous person or group unleashed Bitcoin on the world in 2008, Nakamoto's real identity has been one of the biggest mysteries in the cryptocurrency world. And based on a response to my recent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, if the CIA knows anything, it's not talking. [...] In 2016, Alexander Muse, a blogger who mostly writes about entrepreneurship, wrote a blog post that claimed the NSA had identified the real identity of Satoshi Nakamoto using stylometry, which uses a person's writing style as a unique fingerprint, and then searched emails collected under the PRISM surveillance program to identify the real Nakamoto. Muse said the identity was not shared with him by his source at the Department of Homeland Security. [...] I figured it couldn't hurt to ask some other three-letter agencies what they know about Nakamoto. [...] I received a terse reply that informed me that "the request has been rejected, with the agency stating that it can neither confirm nor deny the existence of the requested documents."
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And if they know who he is - what can they do about him? Especially if he didn't commit a crime.
Sometimes you just know stuff that you don't know what to do with but you don't want to reveal what you know because one day you may need it.
Standard party line... (Score:5, Insightful)
If you ask then if the world is flat or if UFO's exist, you will get the same answer. It's the standard party line for any questions of substance.
The whole point of this is to not provide any information, including information about the existence or non-existence of information. So this answer means literally nothing....
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"Collusion isn't even illegal, so what if he colluded?"
Some kinds of collusion is most certainly illegal... But the illegal versions of this activity usually involves having competitors discussing how to price their products amongst themselves in an effort to avoid having to compete or agreeing to some legal action in order to take advantage of a third party. At most other times, the crime called conspiracy is what most folks are talking about when they discuss collusion.
Collusion (private agreements between parties unknown to a third) are actually common and
Re: Standard Republican party line... (Score:2)
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Yeah this article is completely meaningless. "BREAKING NEWS: Nothing!"
I guess that's not too different from the majority of "news" I see though.
"You won't believe what happened next!"....
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They do actually answer if the world is flat. They publish maps of and general facts about countries/territories/areas. Think census/atlas level information. It's mostly so they don't have to keep responding to other government agencies for non-classified things (I guess there's a regulation to use CIA data for some reports/purposes).
I confirm and deny I am santoshi (Score:2)
I am Spartacus. I am batman. But my secret identity is Santoshi
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I am Spartacus. I am batman.
I am the walrus co-co-cachoo
CIA or NSA (Score:1)
The NSA has uncovered Satoshi... so the FOIA request should have gone to them.
Why send it to an unrelated agency?
E
but they have (Score:2, Insightful)
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Yes, as it turns out MsMash is really Satoshi Nakamoto.
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Re:but they have (Score:4, Informative)
Except that they do and they already did confirm it. They analyzed all his writing and compared it to all public posts on online forums etc and found out who he is. This information was already made public.
Care to provide a link?
What I remember is a similar story but it was a journalist who claimed that a DHS source told him that the NSA had identified Satoshi with a "fingerprint" of the texts.
Link to slashdot story: https://tech.slashdot.org/stor... [slashdot.org]
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I'm pretty sure the pseudonym is a group of individuals. The posting of original documents happened at all hours and not a pattern typical of a single person.
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I'm pretty sure the pseudonym is a group of individuals. The posting of original documents happened at all hours and not a pattern typical of a single person.
I believe "fingerprinting" techniques at least similar to the one the NSA is said to have used have been published, so if there is enough text available your hypothesis might be verifiable by iterating over selected groups of the texts.
This is silly (Score:3)
And if you were to file a FOIA request, asking the CIA if they had any documents related to Daniel Oberhaus (the author of this silly story) - you would get the exact same response.
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And if you were to file a FOIA request, asking the CIA if they had any documents related to Daniel Oberhaus (the author of this silly story) - you would get the exact same response.
One would hope this incident would be in the file even if nothing else was.
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That is the same response I received when I filed a request for my own data, which is all they will ever say about anyone.
killed (Score:2)
For their corporate/bank bosses.
I am (Score:1)
I am Satoshi Nakamoto.
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Re: I am (Score:2)
Will the real Satoshi Nakamoto please stand up?
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I hate this phrase. (Score:3)
... can neither confirm nor deny ...
Of course they *can*, but they *won't*.
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... can neither confirm nor deny ...
Of course they *can*, but they *won't*.
Would you prefer, "well, we could tell you, but then we'd have to shoot you"???
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No, they can't. They're prohibited by law from doing so. The reason was likely for one or more of the following exemptions.
Exemption 1: classified national defense and foreign relations information
Exemption 2: internal agency rules and practices
Exemption 3: information that is prohibited from disclosure by another federal
law
Exemption 4: trade secrets and other confidential business information
Exemption 5:inter-agency or intra-agency communications that are protected by
legal privileges
Exemption 6: infor
Stupid Article (Score:2)
The CIA would respond the same way no matter who this FOIA was requested for. Why is this even here?
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satoshi: intelligence, knowledge, widsom, smart
naka: center, middle
moto: origin, root
Nice one.
not THE Satoshi Nakamoto (Score:2)
"A", "S", "N"
backwards: N S A
spooky
Plot twist... (Score:2)
Plot twist: Satoshi Nakamoto is really the CIA, the same as all major TOR nodes. Yup, totally anonymous, no one knows who you are or what you're doing.
Just satisfying their own curiosity? (Score:2)