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Comment by dobbsbob | Hacker News Reader

We know he found a wallet bug so that immediately gives away what level of competency/expertise to look for on the bitcoin forums which he undoubtedly posts there too. How he discovered the site is relevant and will give away how long he has been on bitcointalk since the orig dpr advertised there. We know his book recommendations from the forum which he prob recommended on clearnet in the past, or attached to his FB profile. Theres dozens of other ID markers he's left which I don't think is misinfo, mainly his Libertarian arguments which again he prob repeated elsewhere. Stylometry analysis incoming.

#1 rule to stay out of jail by thegrugq: stop talking

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Not to mention, the dude had to have money (even before taking this over) if he said the previous owner was "well compensated".

I thought the article said he worked along side of the original owner for some time before buying him out with his share? Or did I misread that part?

There is no guarantee that the money is actually available to him. He probably has most / all of it tied up in Bitcoin, and is probably using only small amounts at a time via exchanges.

It is the classic mafia problem. Yes you can make lots of money on the black market, but it is useless if spending means getting caught. Hence money laundering.

This was interesting too, since I always assumed one of the big vendors on the site bought him out but clearly not thanks to his helpful talking.

I bet he raised the money through a group loan, fund or he runs a coin mixing service/mining pool. something that would give you expertise in setting up secure wallets. This is why saying anything is bad unless it's for misinformation only.

DPR clearly hasn't seen the weev court docs where everything he wrote on IRC was used against him to cement a flimsy case

flip side, it could have been a down payment then an 'earn-out' where the former DPR took xx% of revenue until the debt was paid off.

I hadn't thought of a few of those tactics. Good thinking. Just goes to show how little data you need acquire identifying information. Still though, I think the interview is fascinating, if possibly revealing.

Are there tools to beat stylometry? Like something that strips all personality out of your writing.

There is: https://www.cs.drexel.edu/~pv42/thebiz/ and JStylo https://psal.cs.drexel.edu/index.php/JStylo-Anonymouth

I bet you could scramble it through a translation tool. Though it's probably not the best idea to feed Google your secret messages, there's probably a local solution.

hmm indeed, although that could be predictable and not as random as Jstylo/Anonymouth.

I wouldn't believe any of what DPR said is actually true.

Or he could easily have stolen the book recommendations from absolutely anywhere on the damn planet. Also who cares if he posted on bitcointalk, also do you honestly believe he has a facebook or if he does do you honestly believe there is any overlap between the 2 personas? If so, your recent silk road purchase must have been a humdinger.

Considering the so-called advanced APT1 Chinese state sponsored hacker team was decloaked through facebook cookies I'd say yes. DPR may not be caught through his online gloating or political rhetoric, but they may use it against him in court to shatter whatever defense he's cooked up by linking his words to his IRL identify. Not like people haven't gone to jail over totally circumstantial evidence before (weev).

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