Revealing Satoshi - Part III: Where It All Gets Weird
Barely Sociable conducted an thorough investigation and delivered a convincing set of arguments, difficult to ignore, even for those early into Bitcoin.
Overall, the story contained a few gaps and demanded multiple leaps of faith as with every other documentary or article concerning Satoshi's identity so far.
While "Unmasking Satoshi Nakamoto" was probably going to end as yet another one of those investigative and entertaining documentaries about Satoshi's identity we find released every few months, something rather bizarre happened.
What motivated me to consider Adam Back as a candidate to be Satoshi was not the Barely Sociable video per se, but a follow-up outrageous attempt to debunk this video by infamous Bitcoin maximalists and no-so-popular YouTubers Tone Vays and Jimmy Song.
As I explained in previous chapters, the real reason behind the hostility of this response is explained by the behavioral patterns of BTC whales during the halving and their preparations for a renewed bullish cycle.
BTC maxis were preparing to give their best performance having new weapons in their arsenal (Saylor & Musk).
The Weakest Debunking Ever, by Tone Vays & Jimmy Song
What caught my attention wasn't Barely's video, but a failed debunk attempt by outspoken Blockstream advocates and Bitcoin maximalists Tone Vays and Jimmy Song.
This debunking was low-quality chit-chat initiated simply to insult Barely Sociable and create FUD against Bitcoin Cash.
This approach was designed to rally the troops (the mob of aggressive maximalists) and convey the message of the new strategy that would not tolerate messing with heavy BTC bags during the bull run and aggressively respond to anyone not following the narrative.
Yes, this is seriously this title the duo selected in their attempt to debunk the Barely Sociable arguments.
Now, some of you will logically ask:
"Hey, Pantera, we need to learn about Tone Vays again? Are you fixated with this guy?
Let me begin by saying there are facts I agree with Tone Vays and Jimmy Song.
Nevertheless, they did a lousy job to debunk the main points in Barely's video, resorted to ad hominem attacks, and maliciously tried to connect the content with what they dubbed as Bitcoin Cash propaganda.
Start watching from 27:24 as the first half-hour contains nothing of significance.
Almost all of the first half-hour is a total waste of time, except 14:30 when Tone Vays clearly explains he wants to listen to Barely Sociable's argument, but not immediately, only after the duo makes their point first.
The debunking process that turned into a Blockstream PR campaign
Tone Vays clearly stated he would be happy to bring Barely Sociable on the call when they were done, something that never happened, though.
The censorship of Barely Sociable by these maxis was not polite.
Tone Vays once again presented how the BTC community deals with discussions, illustrating the same censorship Theymos used during the blocksize debate.
The duo pretended Barely's content was an attack on Bitcoin (BT) and with a paranoid approach targeted Bitcoin Cash and big block supporters accusing Roger Ver of orchestrating this attack.
Jimmy Song kept mentioning Roger Ver with disrespectful remarks on various occasions, with a train of reasoning that massively failed to convince even the hardcore maxis of his audience.
I had already lost all respect for both these individuals without having to watch Barely's documentary.
Jimmy Song lacks the skills to tell a convincing story, and the strategy he executed to accuse Barely Sociable of being biased was disgraceful.
According to these two, Bitcoin Cash was behind this video simply because Barely Sociable stated what everyone in the Bitcoin community of the blocksize era already knew.
My thoughts did not change in these two years since the release of this documentary. Tone Vays and Jimmy Song stand as a representative sample of the total of the BTC maximalists.
I held no Bitcoin Cash at that point, and I had no interactions with anyone from Bitcoin Cash or any intention of joining, being focused on Ethereum between 2018 and 2020.
To any person with enough intelligence, it is obvious who brainwashes and misleads their audience for years.
I am certain that even Adam Back felt embarrassed by this behavior, as eventually, he decided to politely respond to Barely Sociable publicly on Twitter.
Overall, the YouTube pair tried to avoid the main issues with Jimmy Song opening a speech about why we shouldn't be looking for Satoshi, and how it is better if we didn't know the name behind the anonymous founder of Bitcoin. Which is something I disagree with and explained my reasons previously.
Jimmy accused Roger Ver multiple times on the stream, and with the rest of his points, he kept lecturing Barely Sociable, explaining how Barely lacked understanding of Bitcoin.
Some points Jimmy made:
The misspelling of the name Andresen
The lack of knowledge of Bitcoin Foundation operations.
The supposedly Roger Ver and Big Block propaganda behind this video.
Basically, Jimmy Song's arguments were all a single "You don't know anything", about Bitcoin.
Some of the issues I had with this approach:
Finding Satoshi requires the reporter to have knowledge of C++, and the cryptographic functions Bitcoin uses?
Having a clear understanding of Bitcoin has anything to do with finding out who Satoshi is?
Wasn't Barely's knowledge on the topic enough to connect the dots and reach a carefully analyzed conclusion?
I wasn't convinced by Barely's presentation of events either.
Barely right from the beginning explained that the evidence was circumstantial and gave Back the benefit of the doubt. Everyone can definitely tell Barely tried to make a convincing case, but he wasn't completely convinced either.
However, was this debunking attempt civilized, and was the duo acting like adults?
Blockstream As a Startup
When the discussion reached the business side of Blockstream, Jimmy Song was the one that clearly doesn't know anything.
A startup doesn't just start without having a clear vision, a clear product or service, a marketing plan, and a market survey as part of it's business plan.
Basically, this is the most clueless business-related statement I've ever heard:
" Like any startup you try a lot of different things and whatever works you.. go.. if.. and that seems to be their thing...
They (Blockstream) are doing a hundred different things, to see where they can go and make money...
That's.. that's... that's what startups dooo..."
-Jimmy Song 2020 (begins at: 45:11)
Facepalm of the century
Well, no, Jimmy. Frankly, who listens to what this clueless guy has to say? I can only imagine the code-related absurdity and the reaction of acquainted developers would be identical to mine when he discussed business.
Jimmy described the epitome of a business that will fail within a year.
He clearly thinks businesses are random projects of developers working into a hundred developments expecting one will manage to make it big just by accident.
Luckily for the Bitcoin (BTC) maximalists and whales, these two Blockstream instruments (Vays and Song) were unimportant since after the third BTC halving Wall Street brought professionals to convince investors and institutions to invest in BTC.
With just these two individuals as the main BTC proponents, BTC wouldn't stand a chance for another bull run.
And how exactly was all of this clowning a debunking anyway?
The whole video has almost nothing to do with Barely's content. These are just two guys that clearly don't understand how to debate or what they should focus on, and just randomly expand into irrelevant topics.
Frankly, all the content was only raising more questions.
The lack of pragmatism from absolutely everyone in the BTC community is astonishing.
Jimmy Song went even lower, though.
Instead of debating Barely's claims Jimmy accused Mike Hearn of not being a good developer (54:25)!
Well, this pointless discussion went on for a total of two and a half hours.
I am no developer to judge the skills of anyone, yet the skills of Mike Hearn had nothing to do with the video or Satoshi's identity. Jimmy Song simply found an excuse to begin a Blockstream PR campaign for two hours and personally attack any threat he could think of. From Barely's credentials and honesty to Roger Ver and Bitcoin Cash, and then moved on to Gavin Andresen, the Bitcoin Foundation, and finally Mike Hearn.
The real attempt at debunking begins at 2:00:00. Two hours later!
That's right. The first two hours contain absolutely nothing at all to debunk the case of Satoshi's identity as Adam Back.
From there, some of the points made by Jimmy Song and Tone Vays are serious and question the core of Barely's video.
While I did the same in the previous two parts of my story, still, the duo failed to convince anyone as their approach from the beginning was hostile and deplorable.
Adam Back Texted Key points to Vays!!
At some point, Tone Vays mentioned something that gave even more grounds to Barely's theory.
Adam Back communicated with Tone Vays before the live steam launch and even pointed to Vays which parts to discuss and which approach to use!
Vays had asked Adam Back for information against Barely's case and admitted Adam Back texted back multiple messages to be used on his defense!
Now, can this get any weirder?
After watching Barely's video, I felt it was yet another story that contained some clues, but in the end, it was just going to be another theory that we can't prove. Just like all the rest theories out there concerning Satoshi's identity.
Yet, the main suspect of this hypothesis went to great lengths to create a PR campaign, text the two YouTubers with information on what to say on their stream and how to process Barely's information?
This was the weirdest part I ever expected.
The truth can't be Hidden
After talking for two hours, truth will eventually be told .
" You know, he's spitting this narrative as if Adam Back is the only one that could possibly marry these particular two papers* together.
(*Jimmy talks about: Bit gold and b-money)."
Some strong arguments can convince anyone that Adam Back is one of the suspects. And a storyteller as Barely Sociable can make the connection to make it seem like Adam Back is Satoshi, no matter the vast gaps in the story.
Moreover, Tone Vays had already invited Barely Sociable to debate, although, Barely was never given the chance to defend himself and his work. He clearly mentioned he will put Barely on the call but in the end denied him to defend his case.
Tone Vays can easily change his nickname to Dr. Disrespect since he clearly lacks social skills and the intention to proceed with honest dialogue with his approach.
Tone Vays and Jimmy Song went on a rampage in this video, expressing their anti-BCH rhetoric concerning a video that had nothing to do with Bitcoin Cash.
I am not entirely sure if anyone from Blockstream understands that Adam Back being Satoshi would give him a few headaches he certainly wants to avoid, still, this video didn't serve Bitcoin Cash purposes. In fact, why would anyone from Bitcoin Cash pay for a video that doesn't promote the goals of Bitcoin Cash and claim instead a popular academic that supports BTC is Satoshi?
In case it is one day proven Adam Back is Satoshi, it would mean Satoshi shifted his strong position on the blockchain's ability to scale and completely changed his scope.
If Adam Back was behind Satoshi, we can assume that:
Either Satoshi felt Bitcoin was about to fail and re-approached the whole thing with a bunch of devs and VCs funding to make it work with sidechains, or
Satoshi never wanted Bitcoin to scale (on-chain). The implemented 1MB limit was never going to change and Satoshi (as Adam Back) in his bitcointalk comment discussing a hard fork to upgrade the block size was clearly gaslighting everyone.
It would mean Satoshi thinks Bitcoin was about to fail in its original vision as P2P Electronic Cash, so how exactly was this helping Bitcoin Cash?
End Of Part III
The market decided:
1.2 million views for Barely Sociable &
20k views for Tone Vays
At this point, I have to consider if I should keep publishing content on the topic since the reception was not that great. I still have two more drafts ready for part IV and part V, and it takes too much of my time to review, edit and present in a readable way.
I guess, though, this series helped me understand a lot about writing communities and reminded me how the bearish cycles proceed, with low interest in anything related to cryptocurrency.
Next Part:
Cover Photo: by " vojta_kucer" on Pixabay (modified)
Previous Parts:
References:
Bitcoin - Unmasking Satoshi Nakamoto, By Barely Sociable
Unmasking Satoshi? or Big Block Propaganda? You be the Judge!, By Tone Vays
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Still we need strong connection and need to educate people about BCH. BTC maxims kinda are prideful people even I am worried why they hit Roger. I hope BTC maxim will accept BCH when it will gain same progress in Blockchain. A beautiful explanation by you friend. Please make twitter space with Roger for explaining real facts of BCH so that BTC arrogant can't be able to distract investors.