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Comment by nwh | Hacker News Reader

Being labeled Satoshi regardless of truth is pretty much going to get you robbed, kidnapped or killed. This dude lives in this town and has $400M of untraceable currency? You can be sure as hell that somebody will do something stupid to try and get to it. I wouldn't wish this label upon anybody, it's exactly why the community tries to avoid speculating about it.

The article is probably nonsense but incredibly dangerous none the less.

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There are many people who have at least that sum of money and they appear in public all the time. I have heard this same thing about "him surely getting robbed or killed" several times now, it feels always a bit odd to me.

It's their right to stay private if they want to. What seems odd is that so many people are trying to unmask them.

Untraceable currency?

Hyperbole. Bitcoin is presented in some media as an "anonymous" "untracable" currency, but it's really neither.

> it's really neither.

Not just that, it's the most traceable currency on the planet. It's built on having every transaction fully traceable to the original source - a mined block, through every other transaction that contributed to the one in question. Traceability is a fundamental feature of bitcoins.

Not just in media.

I hear Bitcoin advocates frequently claim that government has an interest in "shutting down Bitcoin", but compared to the all-cash industry of most organized crime, Bitcoin's pseudonymity is law enforcement's dream come true. A state actor would merely have to obtain the identity of one key in a series of transactions on the blockchain, and would gain far more information than any informant could provide. Sure, mixers and other methods could obfuscate this, but it's not like 7/11 tracks serials of hundred dollar bills, so the blockchain by definition is richer source of transaction data.

Full disclosure: I believe strongly in the concept of crypto currencies and Bitcoin, but do not own any coins/alt at the moment.

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