March 6 Newsweek magazine published a long article with the investigation of the mysterious personality Satoshi Nakamoto, toward unraveling the closest. Due to too much detail other journalists were able to extract the home address Nakamoto and a few hours showed up to his door with cameras, and when he tried to escape, continued the chase on vehicles. Newsweek later made changes to the material Uzava photos and cut out part of the text with details of Nakamoto life.
And this is just the beginning of changes in the world and life cryptocurrency Satoshi Nakamoto, who brought the article Newsweek. TJournal publish a full translation of the original article.
Satoshi Nakamoto is standing on the driveway outside his home and looks timid. And annoyed.
On it wrinkled T-shirt, old blue jeans and white socks without shoes, as if he ran out of the house in a hurry. His hair was disheveled and his eyes, like a man who had not slept for weeks.
His pose no challenge, only human weakness, which led a long struggle, and now suffers a heavy defeat.
Two policemen from the Sheriff's Department Temple City, California, stand next to it and wonder. "So what are you going to ask this man?" - asks me a question one of them. "He believes that the conversation will turn to you for his problems."
"I doubt that he has a problem," - I say. "I want to ask him about Bitcoin. This man - Satoshi Nakamoto. "
"What?" - surprised the police. "This is the guy who created Bitcoin? It seems that he leads a modest life. "
Here's why I'm here, and came to - to find out more about the Nakamoto and his modest life. It seemed ironic that the man who is credited with inventing Bitcoin - e-currency, which has won the highest international recognition, with a transaction volume of 500 million dollars in better days - will be in San Bernardino, near Los Angeles, in the family home, and leave intact its state It earned on Bitcoin, which is estimated at $ 400 million.
Equally absurd and thought that Nakamoto first response to my knock on his door turned out to call the police. And now, in a personal meeting, which was witnessed by two policemen, Nakamoto answers to my questions were careful but candid.
A tacit acknowledgment of its role in the project Bitcoin became his lowered gaze to the ground, and the categorical refusal to answer questions.
"I do not take part in it and I can not discuss," - he said, brushing aside all further questions with a wave of his left hand. "The project was handed over to others. And now they are responsible for it. I no longer have any relation to it. "
Nakamoto refused anything else to say, and the police made it clear that the conversation was over.
But a two-month investigation and interviews with people close to Nakamoto, and developers, who have worked more than others with him on the global phenomenon of Bitcoin, appeared as if from nowhere, dispel the myths surrounding the most famous world cryptocurrency, and prove that it is so - it's just a myth, and the facts are presented even more strange than fiction quality.
Newsweek investigation led not to the child prodigy from Tokyo with the pseudonym "Satoshi Nakamoto" (that is a story repeated every fan Bitcoins for The New Yorker), and a 64-year-old American of Japanese descent, whose real name - Satoshi Nakamoto. This collector of model trains, whose work history is shrouded in mystery - he led a secret operation in large corporations, and the US Army.
The man in front of me, looking down at his feet, apparently, and is the founder of Bitcoin.
Even his family did not know about it.
Satoshi Nakamoto
In North America and abroad there were some Satoshi Nakamoto - both living and dead - including menswear designer Ralph Lauren and another who died in Honolulu in 2008, according to the deceased Social Security Ministry of the Index. There is even a profile on LinkedIn, the owner of which he says that it was he who founded the Bitcoin, and lives in Japan. But none of these descriptions does not match other known details, and the investigation has not brought evidence. Of course, "Satoshi Nakamoto" may turn out to be a pseudonym, but the question arises - why somebody who wants to remain anonymous, chose a resounding name. It is only in the study of the United States naturalized citizens database could find Satoshi Nakamoto, details of which revealed a certain match. But the picture has cleared up only after it has been ordered to help him in the National Archives and conducted many interviews.
Two weeks before our meeting in Temple City, I started e-mails with Satoshi Nakamoto, mainly discussing its interesting model steam engines and their modifications by means of computer design technology. I got e-mail address Nakamoto in the company, where he buys a model train.
He bought parts for trains in Japan and England since he was a teenager, he said: "I myself doing machining - manual machine, rolling, surface grinding."
This process involves a fair amount of mathematics, and in this Nakamoto, like the rest of his family, is very successful. Being the eldest of three brothers who work in the field of engineering and technology, Nakamoto has received a degree in physics from the Polytechnic University of California at Pomona. But unlike the brothers track down an intricate path of his career is not easy.
Nakamoto stopped responding to my messages as soon as I started asking about Bitcoin. It was at the end of February. Prior to that, I also asked questions about his professional experience, which is very little information in the public domain. His answers were evasive. When he asked about my experience, I offered to talk on the phone. He did not answer. Then I asked his eldest son, 31-year-old Eric Nakamoto, ask the father if he would agree to talk about Bitcoin. I refused. Attempts to get in touch through other family members also failed.
After that Nakamoto ignored my request to talk on the phone and did not call back. On the day when I came to his modest family home in southern California, his silver Toyota Corolla CE was parked in the driveway, but no one opened the door.
For a moment, it seemed, he raised the blinds on the front door, and our eyes met. Then he closed them again. It was the only time I saw him without the presence of police officers.
"You want to know about my amazing brother-physics?" - asks Arthur Nakamoto, younger brother Satoshi Nakamoto, Director of Quality at Wavestream Corp., the company-manufacturer of RF amplifiers in San Dimas, California.
"He is an outstanding person. And I'm just an ordinary engineer. He's very focused and multi-faceted in their knowledge. Smart, intelligent, mathematician, engineer, programmer. Whatever you call - he can. "
But he also warned me.
"My brother - one more type. You are unlikely to know that he has worked with all kinds of secret things. For a time, his life was completely hidden. Hardly you will manage to get to him. He will deny everything. He never admits that Bitcoin founded. "
And having said this, brother Nakamoto hung up.
His words gave reason to believe that I'm on the right track, but it was not enough. Although his brother thought that Nakamoto was quite able to establish Bitcoin, I was not absolutely sure that he knows it for sure. He said that they do not get along and not too often communicated.
I obviously needed to talk to Satoshi Nakamoto personally.
Why are all delighted with Bitcoins
Bitcoin - currency that exists in the world of computer code, and can be sent anywhere around the world without a bank and exchange commissions, and then stored in a mobile phone or on a hard disk as long as it will not use again. As the currency is in the form of code, it can be lost in case of breakage of the hard disk or be stolen if someone else finds the key to the code.
"The main reason that people are enthusiastic about the Bitcoin: this is the most effective way to conduct financial transactions," - said the head of the Bitcoin protocol development, 47-year-old Gavin Andresen. He admits that the ease of use can lead to a simplification of the theft, and is considered the safest in the safe storage or hard disk that does not have an internet connection. "Anyone who is faced with the need to transfer money abroad, realizes how much easier to carry out international transactions Bitcoin. It's as simple as sending an e-mail. "
However, Bitcoins suffer from massive theft, scams and scandals that have led to a decrease in the value of Bitcoins to $ 1,200 last year to a modest $ 130 per Bitcoin at the end of February.
Currency has attracted the attention of the US Senate, the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Tax Service, the Treasury Department to combat financial crime, the Commission on the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which in October closed the black online marketplace SilkRoad and arrested Bitcoins on $ 3.5 million. "The FBI is now - one of the largest owners of Bitcoin in the world", - says Andresen.
Over the past few weeks, a new version of SilkRoad , as well as one of the largest Bitcoin-exchanges, Mt.Gox in Tokyo , closed and filed for bankruptcy protection after the hacking attacks, which cost them millions of dollars.
Andresen, who escaped from the Silicon Valley in Amherst, Massachusetts, says he worked closely in the development of Bitcoins with a man "or object", known as Satoshi Nakamoto, in the period from June 2010 to April 2011. This was before the rise of multi-billion-Bitcoin economy provoked by an unexpected, albeit cautious endorsement of the outgoing head of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, who said that digital currency "will be able to keep long-term promise."
Since Bitcoin-ATM began to appear all over North America (one of the first - in Vancouver, British Columbia; Boston; and Albuquerque, New Mexico). Thus began reception Bitcoins in companies from very different sectors - Tesla, OkCupid, Reddit, Overstock.com and Virgin Galactic, Richarda Brensona airline, which said that he would send into space any who can fork out for a sufficient amount of Bitcoins.
"Work on the basic code Bitcoin really scary, because if something is done wrong - you can destroy whole 8-billion project", - says Andresen. "And it's already happened. We have destroyed. "
As Nakamoto vanished
About a year Andresen correspondence with the founder of Bitcoin several times a week, often working on an improvement of 40 hours per week Bitcoin code. Andresen says that evasion was typical for Nakamoto during the whole of their messaging.
In fact, he had never even heard the voice of Nakamoto, because the founder of Bitcoin preferred not to talk on the phone. Their interaction, he says, has always happened via email or private messages on the forum Bitcointalk , dedicated Bitcoin.
"He was the kind of person that would cost you allow a simple mistake, he would call you an idiot, and would never speak to you again," - says Andresen. "At that point it was still unclear whether there is a legal occupation of Bitcoin. And he has done a lot to ensure their anonymity. "
Nakamoto also ignored all questions about Andersen, where he was, what his professional experience, over some more projects he worked and now if he had a name or nickname (many fans Bitcoins use pseudonyms). "He was never talkative" - says Andresen, - "we talked only about the code."
Andresen, Australian, received a bachelor's degree in computer science at Princeton University, eventually became the contact person for Nakamoto in growing international team of developers and programmers who worked on a voluntary basis to improve the Bitcoin code after the launch in January 2009.
Andresen first heard of Bitcoin for the next year of the blog, which has been signed. He wrote Nakamato e-mail address that can not be traced, and offered his help. His first post was as the founder of Bitcoin, "Bitcoin - a brilliant idea, and I want to help. What you need?"
Andresen says he does not think too much about what works for the anonymous inventor. "I - boom," - he says. "I do not care who the author of the idea - it's a good or bad person. Ideas by themselves. "
Other developers drew his own "enlightened self-interest", benefit or personal beliefs, he says. But almost all were intrigued by the promise of digital currency, which will be available to everyone in the world, bypassing the central banks - and this at a time when the global financial system was not in the best condition. In this respect, a more appropriate time to start the Bitcoins is simply not present.
In 2008, shortly before the official launch of Bitcoins, appeared on the Internet written in the dry language of 9-page proposal , and it was the name and email address Satoshi Nakamoto.
The document proposed "electronic money" that "will allow for online payments directly between the parties, without the participation of financial institutions", and the time of the transaction is marked and is in the public domain.
Clever ploy was to replace the role of banks as a trusted intermediary Bitcoin users who must maintain the integrity of the system by checking the transaction using the computing power in exchange for Bitcoin.
Issue of Bitcoin is designed in such a way that it occurred in a strictly specified pace to maintain the value and scarcity, and to provide protection against inflation - the number reduced by half every four years, and when it reaches 21 million Bitcoins to their 2140 emissions should be discontinued. (Bitcoin can be divided down to the eighth decimal place, with the smallest units are called "Satoshi").
"I have the impression that Satoshi it did make for political reasons", - says Andresen, salaried Bitcoin (along with half a dozen other key developers of Bitcoin working everywhere from Silicon Valley to Switzerland) from the Bitcoin Foundation - a non-profit organization, whose work is directed to standardize currency. "He does not like the system we have today, and he wanted to make another, more uniform distribution. He did not like the notion of banks and bankers that make the state only on the fact that they hold the keys, "- says Andresen.
This "holding keys" to make the first super-rich owners of Bitcoin. "I made a small investment in Bitcoin, and now it is enough that I could leave if I wanted to," - says Andresen. "Overall, I gained about $ 800 for every cent invested. This is something incredible. "
One of the first who began to work with the founder of Bitcoin in 2009, was Martti Malmi, 25-year-old computer programmer from Helsinki, who has made an investment in Bitcoin. "I sold them in 2011 and bought a nice apartment," - he said. "Today, I would have been able to buy a 100 nice apartments."
Communication with the founder of Bitcoin became increasingly rare in the beginning of 2011. Nakamoto stopped to make changes to the code and to ignore Bitcoin discussion on the Bitcoin forum.
However, Andresen was not ready for Satoshi Nakamoto response to their correspondence April 26, 2011.
"I do not want you to continue to speak of me as a mysterious dark personality", - wrote Nakamoto Andresen. "The press uses this as yet another omen pirate currency. Perhaps we should do the opposite open source project developers and trust more, it will help motivate them. "
Andresen said, "Yes, I do not like that tone -" wacky pirate money "."
Then he wrote Nakamoto, had accepted an invitation to a meeting at the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency. "I hope that by talking to them directly and, more importantly, to listen to their questions and concerns will convince them that I think of Bitcoin - is simply more good, more efficient, less-prone-vliyaniyu- currency policy ", - he said. "It is not a powerful weapon of the black market, which will be used by anarchists to overthrow the system."
Since that time Satoshi Nakamoto stopped responding to emails and disappeared.
house Nakamoto
Personal life Bitcoin creator
Nakamoto's family described him as a very intelligent man with changeable moods, overly secretive, laconic. He always hides your data in phone calls, send emails anonymously, and much of his life troubled two things, because Bitcoin which won its fame: money and privacy.
Over the past 40 years, Satoshi Nakamoto did not use his real name in daily life. In 23 years, graduated from the Polytechnic University of the State of California, he changed his name to "Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto", according to documents in 1973 in the District Court in Los Angeles. Since then I did not use the name of Satoshi, but instead signed "Dorian S. Nakamoto."
The son of a Buddhist monk from the kind of samurai, Nakamoto was born in 1949 in Beppu, Japan. There, his mother, Akiko, brought him up in poverty in the Buddhist tradition. In 1959, after the divorce and re-marriage, she immigrated to California, taking with him three sons. Now 93 years old, she lives with Nakamoto in Temple City.
"Nakamoto did not get along with his stepfather and his penchant for mathematics and science were evident at an early age", - said Arthur, and said: "He is changeable, and he has a very strange hobby."
Immediately after college Nakamoto went to work in the Hughes Aircraft in Southern California and worked on defense and electronic communication. "It was just the beginning," - says Arthur, who also worked at Hughes. "He is the only person of anyone I have ever known, who came in for an interview and the employer stated that he is an idiot, and then proved it."
Nakamoto have six children. The first - a son from his first marriage in the 80s - Eric Nakamoto, animator-and 3D-designer, lives in Philadelphia. The other five children - by his second wife, Grace Mitchell. She is now 56 years old, she lives in Audubon, New Jersey, and says that met Nakamoto in the Unitarian Church in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, in the mid 80s. She recalls, he came to the East Coast after retired from Hughes Aircraft (now part of Raytheon), he was 20 with a little and he was a systems engineer in the Radio Corporation of America in Camden, New Jersey.
"We worked on the electronic defense and communications for the military, government aircraft and warships, but it was kept secret and I can not talk about it" - confirms Mitch David, president of the company, which now bears the name of the L-3 Communications.
Mitchell said that her husband "rarely spoke about his work" and sometimes engaged in military projects in addition to working in the RCA. In 1987, the couple returned to California where he worked as a systems engineer Nakamoto on communications and technology company in the suburbs of Los Angeles, including the financial information service Quotron Systems Inc., sold in 1994, Reuters The, and Nortel Networks.
Nakamoto has twice been dismissed in the 90s, according to Mitchell, he could not pay for the mortgage and taxes, and they were deprived of the right to use the house. That experience, says Nakamoto eldest daughter, 26-year-old Ilene Mitchell, could affect the respect of her father to the banks and the government.
Libertarian Nakamoto called his daughter to be independent, start a business and "not to be under the hood of the government," she says. "He is wary of the government, taxes, and people at their posts."
It also describes his father as a man who worked around the clock - started before the family woke up and worked late into the night. "His office was always closed and we would have got if we had touched his computer," - she said. "He always talked about politics and current affairs. He liked the old and modern technology. He made his own computers and are very proud of them. "
Around 2000, Nakamoto and Grace broke up, though never divorced. They returned to New Jersey with her five children, and Nakamoto worked as a software engineer at the Federal Aviation Administration in New Jersey on the eve of the September 11 attacks, was engaged in security and communications, Mitchell says.
"It was a top secret", - she says. "He went to that job in 2001, I think, since he did not have a permanent job."
When the Federal Aviation Administration contract ended, Nakamoto returned to Temple City, and until the end of the decade, it is not clear what he was doing.
Circumstantial evidence
Since Bitcoin was known, he started a real hunt for authentic Satoshi Nakamoto. whether he worked alone, or - for the government? Bitcoin connected with everything - from the National Security Agency to the International Monetary Fund.
In a world where nearly every major innovation in Silicon Valley turns into litigation over the fact who first invented it, founder of Bitcoin eloquently silent the past five years.
"I can well imagine what my father is doing something incredible and does not accept the resulting effect," - says Ilene Mitchell, who works in the Partnerships for Student Achievement in Beaverton, Oregon. "But I can not imagine that he honestly talk about it. Any normal person would have talked endlessly. But he is definitely not a normal person. "
Middle brother Nakamoto, current Nakamoto, who lives not far from his brother and mother, in Duarte, California, agrees. "He is very meticulous in everything he does, but he is afraid to open up to the media, so you'll have to excuse him," - he says.
Characteristics Satoshi Nakamoto, founder Bitcoins that match the characteristics of Dorian S. Nakamoto, very numerous. Those who are most closely associated with the founder of Bitcoin, note: he looked older than the other developers. And he was working alone.
"He did not seem young man, and it was felt the influence of many people in Silicon Valley," - he says the Finnish protégé Nakamoto, Martti Malmi. Andersen agrees: "The style of writing code Satoshi was old-fashioned. He used things like reverse the bracket-free recording. "
In addition, the code was not always completely accurate - another sign that Nakamoto was not working as a team, because otherwise the other developers have cleaned up the code and brought to perfection.
"Anyone who has seen the code, were almost sure that it was a man," - says Andresen. "We rewrote almost 70 percent of the initial code. Interfaces were not. It was like one big ball of hair. At lower levels it was incredibly well-written code, but there is a convergence of functions, it was all pretty confusing. "
Offer Satoshi Nakamoto 2008 also gives hints of his age: obscure references to "space", which has ceased to be a problem in the new millennium, and links to "contemporary" study, dated 1957 year.
Bitcoin code based on the network protocol that exists decade. Its beauty is not so much in the code, says Andresen, a design that combines the functions to achieve a variety of purposes. Punctuation in the sentence, too, is consistent with the fact, according to Dorian S. Nakamoto - double spaces after a period, and other formatting quirks.
There are disputes about whether Nakamoto bizarre "perfect English" for the Japanese writing, or - other claim - no matter what name he writes, he confuses the uppercase and lowercase letters, full of spelling and abbreviations, art and English slang.
In correspondence and written documents it has repeatedly been observed that Satoshi Nakamoto enjoys and the British, and the American way of writing - and, depending on the audience, makes the choice in favor of cuts or more formal, polished style. Grace Mitchell says that her husband is doing exactly the same.
On the use of English Dorian S. Nakamoto, she says, apparently was influenced by his passion for collecting model trains, many of which he ordered in England as a teenager, studying English.
Mitchell believes that initially interest Nakamoto to the creation of a digital currency that can be used all over the world, he came out of his dissatisfaction with the high bank charges and currency exchange rates, with which he was faced, making an international money transfer to England for the purchase of model trains. "He always complained about this" - she says. "I would not say that he had impeccable English. He chooses his words and confusing spelling. "
Eric, the eldest son from his first marriage Nakamoto said that he still is not sure about whether or not his father was the founder of Bitcoin. He notes that the last message a "concise" and "elegant" than his father.
Perhaps the most important parallel between the two Nakamoto - it is their professional experience and career milestones. Andresen says Nakamoto told him how long it took the work on Bitcoin - a gap that just fits into the Obscure unemployed period Dorian S. Nakamoto in 2001. "Satoshi said that a few years working on Bitcoin, before you start it", - says Andresen. "I've seen the source code writing which clearly took at least two years. He had a revelation - he decided that no one could solve the first. "
A three-year silence Satoshi Nakamoto also coincides with medical problems Dorian S. Nakamoto in the last few years, according to his family. "It was tough, a few months ago, he suffered a stroke, and before that he had prostate cancer," - said his wife worked as a nurse in the intensive care unit in New Jersey. "He even children have not seen for several years."
She could not convince Nakamoto talk to her about whether he founded Bitcoin. Eric Nakamoto also said that his father refused to talk. Current and Arthur Nakamoto sure that their brother and leave the truth a secret.
"Dorian may be paranoid," - says the current. "I can not get through to him. I do not think he would respond honestly to my family for all these questions. "
Of course, there was no answer to the big question - the one that can only be answered Satoshi Nakamoto himself why he did not spend hundreds of millions of dollars that he earned after running Bitcoin few years ago? According to his family - and he and the family really needed the money.
Andresen says that the reason for anonymity Nakamoto can be very simple: he does not want to participate in the general madness around Bitcoin. "If you appear in Bitcoin as a leader, you have to endlessly make presentations and provide comments to the press, but it does not fit the personality type Satoshi." "He really did not want to head over it all. He was very intolerant of incompetence. And he knew that the project and without it will be developed. "
On the other hand, may Nakamoto just lost their security keys to cash their wealth. Andresen, however, doubt it. "To do this, it was too disciplined," - he says.
If you ever decide to sell Nakamoto Bitcoin his fortune, he will have to make it through the current Bitcoin bank or exchanger, which not only reveal his identity, but also to inform everyone from the CIA to the FBI about his actions. While Bitcoin allows its users to conduct transactions anonymously, all transactions exist in the public domain - and watch Nakamoto Bitcoin to see if he spent it, says Andresen.
In turn, Andresen says he respects the right to anonymity Nakamoto. "When programmers get together, we do not discuss, who is this Satoshi Nakamoto. We talk about what more we can do for Bitcoins. That is, we, of course, interesting, but, by and large, we do not care. "
Reflecting on the fact that her father could be the founder of the "miracle" -bitkoinov, Ilene Mitchell says it is not surprised that his father chose to stay in the shade, especially in view of the health problems.
"It is generally very concerned about interference from the state", - she says. "When I was little, we used to play in one game. He said: "Imagine that the government agents coming for you." And I was hiding in the closet. "