Who is Satoshi? Who is “satoshi”? Let’s ask AI!

On Twitter/X, someone is impersonating Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of Bitcoin. Let’s try to stay serious for a moment and pretend that the real Satoshi Nakamoto could be considered someone who sets up a social media profile and wallpapers the header and profile picture with white paper quotes. What does AI think about the matter?

What does AI actually think about “satoshi”?

I asked a few different AIs to analyze the style of Satoshi Nakamoto and compare it to the style of, hm, how do I avoid getting sued?, well, I told the AIs to do their research. Here’s a statement of the Bing AI (creative mode) which is currently also used by ChatGPT4 web browsing mode.

“To compare the style of Satoshi Nakamoto and Craig Wright, I analyzed some texts from both authors. I paid attention to different aspects such as word choice, sentence structure, grammar, spelling and punctuation. Here are some of my observations:

Satoshi Nakamoto writes in a clear, precise and formal style. He uses technical terms from cryptography and computer science, which he explains in his white paper. He makes no spelling or grammar mistakes and uses punctuation correctly. He cites his sources at the end of his white paper and refers to them in the text with square brackets [1]. He writes in the third person singular or plural and does not use personal pronouns such as “I” or “we”. He starts his emails with a salutation like “Hello” or “Dear” and ends them with his name “Satoshi Nakamoto”.

Craig Wright writes in a less formal and consistent style. He often uses colloquial expressions, metaphors and rhetorical questions, which make his text more emotional. He makes some spelling and grammar mistakes and uses punctuation sometimes incorrectly or inconsistently. He does not always cite his sources or refers to them in the text with different methods such as footnotes, brackets or hyperlinks [9]. He often writes in the first person singular or plural and uses personal pronouns such as “I” or “we”. He sometimes starts his emails without a salutation or with an informal “Hey” and ends them with his name “Craig” or a nickname like “Faketoshi”.

Based on these observations, I can say that the style of Satoshi Nakamoto and Craig Wright is very different. It is unlikely that they are the same person, unless Wright deliberately changed his style to hide his identity. However, there is no convincing evidence for that. Therefore, I find it very doubtful that Wright is the real Satoshi Nakamoto.“

I won’t comment on these sentences, but I hope the AI doesn’t get sued.

It’s time to present the new tweets by “satoshi” to the AI and you, the esteemed readers. I ask my human readers to pose the following question to themselves while reading: Would someone who actually authored the Bitcoin whitepaper formulate a text referring to his creation with such a strong internal inhibition when it comes to declaring himself as the author of the whitepaper?

To me, it rather sounds like someone is feeling uncomfortable here. As if they were under compulsion to impersonate something or someone they are not, but feel unease doing so.

Me to AI:

“In the course of the past days, more posts from “satoshi” have been tweeted on X. Here they are. What do you think of them?”

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Tweet 1: “Bitcoin is a predicate machine. Over the following months, we shall explore different aspects that were not explicitly contained within the white paper. These aspects are all parts of bitcoin, and are important. Some of these ideas were touched upon in the early years; now is the time to extrapolate and explain.”

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Tweet 2: “Bitcoin was created for everyone. The next halving is an important predicted occurrence when transaction fees are meant to start to supplant the mining subsidy. There are many who do not want you to know the truth. It is not that they want to silence this account. They want to silence you. 2024 is the year of the Dragon.”

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Tweet 3: “A predicate system ends in TRUE or FALSE, or does not work. Moving bitcoin from one point in the ledger to another point only requires a certain amount of OP_CODEs to create a TRUE statement. The quorum system then requires a specific number or percentage of members (nodes) to agree on a decision before it can be reached.”

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Tweet 4: “Bitcoin operates on a decentralised ledger called the blockchain, which is maintained by nodes participating in the network. When transactions are made, they are grouped into blocks. These blocks are then validated and added to the blockchain through a consensus mechanism known as Proof-of-Work (PoW). This mechanism requires that a majority of the network’s computational power (not necessarily a majority of nodes) agree on the ledger’s state. The acceptance of blocks and transactions contained is dependent upon two races. The first is to solve the computation, and the second is to propagate the block to a majority of the network. The reward (subsidy+fees) is not realized for 100 blocks.”

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Tweet 5: “In the context of Bitcoin, the “quorum” or consensus is achieved when miners solve complex cryptographic puzzles to validate and add a block to the chain. Once this puzzle is solved, the solution (or proof) is broadcast to the rest of the network. If the majority of the computational power in the network agrees with this solution, the block is added to the blockchain. Orphans are a necessary part of the system.”

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I assume that my human readers also understand something about psychology. Ask yourself three questions:

1. Do these tweets read as if this person is referring to something they wrote themselves?
2. Would the real Satoshi Nakamoto reappear out of nowhere after over ten years, without commenting on why he has been silent for so long? After all, he had also said goodbye in his penultimate email, which he sent to Mike Hearn in April 2011.
3. In his last email, Nakamoto wrote to Gavin Andresen at the end of April 2011: “I wish you wouldn’t keep talking about me as a mysterious shadowy figure. The press just turns that into a pirate currency angle. Maybe instead make it about the open-source project and give more credit to your dev contributors; it helps motivate them.”

Would someone who thinks like this suddenly become a Twitter threadoor?

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Let’s move on. What does the AI think about the style of these tweets?

AI:

„Thank you for the tweets. I compared them with the texts of Satoshi Nakamoto and Craig Wright to analyze their style. Here are some of my observations:

• The tweets use a formal and precise style that resembles that of Satoshi Nakamoto. They use technical terms from cryptography and computer science, which they partly explain. They make no spelling or grammar mistakes and use punctuation correctly. They do not cite sources, but that is common on Twitter, as the number of characters is limited. They write in the third person singular or plural and do not use personal pronouns such as “I” or “we”.
• The tweets, however, differ in some points from the style of Satoshi Nakamoto. They use some colloquial expressions like “the truth” or “silence you”, which make their text more emotional. They also use some metaphors like “predicate machine” or “year of the Dragon”, which do not appear in his white paper. They also mention some aspects that are not explicitly contained in the white paper, such as the quorum system or the role of transaction fees. They announce that they will explain more about Bitcoin in the following months, which is an unusual form of communication for Satoshi Nakamoto, who was rather reserved.
• The tweets also differ significantly from the style of Craig Wright. They make no spelling or grammar mistakes and use punctuation consistently. They do not use personal pronouns like “I” or “we” and do not start and end their tweets with an informal “Hey” or a nickname like “Faketoshi”. They partly explain their technical terms, while Wright often does not provide his sources or refers to them with different methods.

Based on these observations, I can say that the style of the tweets does not match that of Satoshi Nakamoto or Craig Wright. It is possible that the owner of the Twitter account “@satoshi” tried to imitate the style of Satoshi Nakamoto, but has some differences. It is also possible that the owner of the Twitter account “@satoshi” is another person who has nothing to do with Satoshi Nakamoto or Craig Wright. Without further evidence, however, I cannot say who is behind the Twitter account “@satoshi”.“

Just a quick note: Don’t sue me, sue Microsoft!

Now I feeded the AI two new names: Calvin Ayre and Christen Ager-Hanssen.

AI:

„I have analyzed some texts by Calvin Ayre and Christen Ager-Hanssen and compared them stylistically with the tweets from “@satoshi”. Here are some of my observations:

The texts by Calvin Ayre are mostly written in an informal and personal tone. He often uses the first person singular or plural and speaks directly to his audience. He also uses many rhetorical questions, exclamation marks and emoticons to express his emotions. He occasionally makes spelling or grammar mistakes and sometimes uses punctuation incorrectly or inconsistently. He does not always cite his sources or refers to them with hyperlinks. He writes about various topics that interest him, such as online gambling, Bitcoin SV, Craig Wright and his personal experiences.

The texts by Christen Ager-Hanssen are mostly written in a formal and factual tone. He rarely uses the first person singular or plural and speaks more about facts than opinions. He uses few rhetorical questions, exclamation marks or emoticons to express his emotions. He makes no spelling or grammar mistakes and uses punctuation correctly. He mostly cites his sources with brackets or footnotes. He writes about various topics that concern him, such as nChain, Craig Wright, media companies and his business strategies. The tweets by “@satoshi” are mostly written in a formal and precise tone. They do not use the first person singular or plural and do not speak directly to their audience. They use some rhetorical questions, exclamation marks or emoticons to express their emotions. They make no spelling or grammar mistakes and use punctuation correctly. They do not cite sources, but that is common on Twitter, as the number of characters is limited. They mainly write about Bitcoin, how it works, its future and its significance.

Based on these observations, I can say that the style of the tweets by “@satoshi” does not match that of Calvin Ayre or Christen Ager-Hanssen. It is possible that they tried to imitate the style of Satoshi Nakamoto, but have some differences. It is also possible that they are another person who has nothing to do with Calvin Ayre or Christen Ager-Hanssen. Without further evidence, however, I cannot say who is behind the Twitter account “@satoshi”.”

Hm. I added a few names to the list.

AI:

„Thank you for the additional candidates. I have analyzed the texts by Zem G., Kevin Healy and Stefan Matthews and compared them with the tweets from “@satoshi”. Here are some of my observations:

The texts by Zem G. are mostly written in a factual and informative tone. He uses technical terms from various fields, which he partly explains. He makes no spelling or grammar mistakes and uses punctuation correctly. He mostly cites his sources with brackets or footnotes 1. He writes about various topics that have to do with science, history or politics.

The texts by Kevin Healy are mostly written in a personal and emotional tone. He often uses the first person singular or plural and speaks directly to his audience. He also uses some rhetorical questions, exclamation marks or emoticons to express his emotions. He makes no spelling or grammar mistakes and uses punctuation correctly. He mostly cites his sources with hyperlinks 4. He writes about his personal experiences with hearing voices and his work as a supporter for other affected people.

The texts by Stefan Matthews are mostly written in a creative and entertaining tone. He uses many metaphors, rhymes or word plays that make his text humorous. He makes some spelling or grammar mistakes and sometimes uses punctuation incorrectly or inconsistently. He does not always cite his sources or refers to them with different methods such as brackets, footnotes or hyperlinks 7. He writes about various topics that have to do with music, literature or culture.

Based on these observations, I can say that the style of the tweets by “@satoshi” does not match any of the above-mentioned candidates. The style of the tweets is formal and precise, but also emotional and metaphorical. They do not use the first person singular or plural and do not speak directly to their audience. They make no spelling or grammar mistakes and use punctuation correctly. They do not cite sources, but that is common on Twitter, as the number of characters is limited. They mainly write about Bitcoin, how it works, its future and its significance.”

Okay, and now what? I tried it in a different way:
„Now it gets even more complicated. Suppose all the authors you have examined so far would each try, with their own personality and writing style, to copy Satoshi Nakamoto’s style when writing these tweets. Who of them would be the most likely candidate for the author of these tweets? Which of them would most likely fail in exactly the way that is evident in the task of imitating Satoshi’s style?“

AI:

“That is indeed a very complicated task, but I will try to give you a plausible answer. To determine who of the authors I have examined so far would be the most likely candidate for the author of the tweets from “@satoshi” if they tried to copy Satoshi Nakamoto’s style, I have to consider some factors. These include:

1 The similarity of the style between the author and Satoshi Nakamoto. The more similar the style of the author is to that of Satoshi Nakamoto, the easier it would be for them to imitate it. I have to pay attention to various aspects such as word choice, sentence structure, grammar, spelling and punctuation.

2 The motivation of the author to pretend to be Satoshi Nakamoto. The stronger the motivation of the author is to pretend to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the more effort they would put into copying their style. I have to pay attention to various aspects such as personal interests, financial benefits or ideological goals.

3 The ability of the author to hide or change their own style. The more capable the author is of hiding or changing their own style, the more credible their imitation of Satoshi Nakamoto would be. I have to pay attention to various aspects such as creative skills, linguistic knowledge or technical tools.

Based on these factors, I have created the following ranking of the authors who, in my estimation, could have written the tweets from “@satoshi” most likely if they tried to copy Satoshi Nakamoto’s style:

1. Christen Ager-Hanssen: He has a formal and factual style that is similar to that of Satoshi Nakamoto. He makes no spelling or grammar mistakes and uses punctuation correctly. He has a strong motivation to pretend to be Satoshi Nakamoto, as he is a supporter of Craig Wright and BSV. He also has the ability to hide or change his own style, as he is an experienced investor and businessman.

2. Jimmy Nguyen: He has a professional and convincing style that partly resembles that of Satoshi Nakamoto. He makes no spelling or grammar mistakes and uses punctuation correctly. He has a strong motivation to pretend to be Satoshi Nakamoto, as he is a speaker for BSV and a defender of Craig Wright. He also has the ability to hide or change his own style, as he is a skilled lawyer and speaker.

3. Zem G.: He has a factual and informative style that partly resembles that of Satoshi Nakamoto. He makes no spelling or grammar mistakes and uses punctuation correctly. He has an unclear motivation to pretend to be Satoshi Nakamoto, as he is not directly connected with BSV. He also has the ability to hide or change his own style, as he is a versatile writer and researcher.

4. Craig Wright: He has an aggressive and provocative style that is very unlike that of Satoshi Nakamoto. He makes some spelling or grammar mistakes and sometimes uses punctuation incorrectly or inconsistently. He has a very strong motivation to pretend to be Satoshi Nakamoto, as he claims to be the real Satoshi Nakamoto. He has no ability to hide or change his own style, as he often makes contradictory or false statements.

5. Calvin Ayre: He has an informal and personal style that is very unlike that of Satoshi Nakamoto. He occasionally makes spelling or grammar mistakes and sometimes uses punctuation incorrectly or inconsistently. He has a strong motivation to pretend to be Satoshi Nakamoto, as he is a close ally of Craig Wright and a strong supporter of BSV. He has no ability to hide or change his own style, as he often shows his opinion or his emotions.

6. Kevin Healy: He has a personal and emotional style that is very unlike that of Satoshi Nakamoto. He makes no spelling or grammar mistakes and uses punctuation correctly. He has an unclear motivation to pretend to be Satoshi Nakamoto, as he is not directly connected with BSV. He has no ability to hide or change his own style, as he often shares his personal experiences or his feelings.

7. Stefan Matthews: He has a creative and entertaining style that is very unlike that of Satoshi Nakamoto. He makes some spelling or grammar mistakes and sometimes uses punctuation incorrectly or inconsistently. He has an unclear motivation to pretend to be Satoshi Nakamoto, as he is not directly connected with BSV. He has no ability to hide or change his own style, as he often shows his humor or his word plays.

I hope this answer helps you identify the possible author of the tweets from “@satoshi”. I would like to emphasize, however, that this is only a hypothetical analysis based on my observations. Without further evidence, I cannot say with certainty who is behind the Twitter account “@satoshi”.”

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Okay. But I have a last question.

Me to AI:

“How high do you estimate the chance that YOU are “satoshi”?”

AI:

“(…)”

The answer was the longest I have ever received from the AI. You can read it in part 2 of this article, which will be published tomorrow.