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Satoshi, Spartacus, And The "Creation Myth"
The news last week that bitcoin's founder had been sort-of/maybe/not-so-much “found” got ConvergExs's Nick Colas thinking about the importance of creation myths in business and economics. A key part of bitcoin's current appeal is anonymity, so the fact that the digital currency’s inventor is unknown highlights that central value proposition. The tech industry is full of creation myths that resonate with both general social messages and specific business models. Hewlett and Packard, Jobs and Woz, Page and Brin – all began their businesses in garages, showing that anything is possible with a great idea. However, as Colas details below, the truth behind all these stories is, of course, far more complex than the idealized creation myths we tell about them.
The bitcoin story is the same, but with a twist. It may be the first business/economic creation myth where technology, rather than a human, is the star of the show. As Colas concludes, in a decentralized and tech-driven world, we are all Spartacus.
Via ConvergEx's Nick Colas,
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” That, of course, is the first line of Genesis. It follows the rule all good journalists know by heart: don’t bury the lead (except they call is a lede – don’t ask). God made everything, and the next 26 verses outline the famous six days of creation. In Chapter 2, you get Adam and Eve; Chapter 3 gives us the banishment from Eden. In just a few hundred words, you essentially get the story of everything on planet Earth in one tidy story of creation. Done and dusted, as the saying goes.
Creation myths, of which Genesis is perhaps the most famous example, explain a society’s central values. In religion, they outline the supernatural forces at work in creating our world. In business, creation stories reinforce the role of the individual as a societal agent of change and speak to a core audience of customers. They are the bedrock for what marketers call “Brand” and the source waters for Wall Street’s “shareholder value”.
Consider the following examples of business creation myths:
Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard built their first product in 1939 – an innovative audio oscillator – in Packard’s garage. The two had met at Stanford University – both were on the football team. The company they formed, using their two names, survives to this day.
Fast forward to 2006, and two other Stanford alums named Larry Paige and Sergey Brin set up shop in a Menlo Park, CA garage just 2 miles from the site of the Hewlett and Packard’s original location. The only difference: they already had $1 million in seed funding for Google, versus the $500 HP had when they started to ship their first product. That would be $8,400 in today’s money.
Eleven miles from the HP garage sits 11161 Crist Drive is Los Altos CA. This is where Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started Apple Computer in 1976. Don’t go looking for it under that address, however – the house number is now 2066. And yes, the garage is still there too.
In Facebook’s creation story as told in the movie The Social Network, Mark Zuckerberg gets dumped, gets drunk, and decides to build a ranking site for Harvard students. The truth is, apparently, not as clean. No girlfriend involved, but a good story nonetheless.
Some 20-somethings have a dinner party in San Francisco in 2005. The host, Steve Chen, and others take amusing videos during the evening. Unable to find a place to host them online, the host builds Youtube. In a 2006 Time interview with Chen reveals some fuzziness about this narrative, but – again – a great creation myth totally in concert with how many users still engage with the site.
All these commercial creation myths share two common factors: humble beginnings and individuals with a vision to make something new. When they succeed, we celebrate their foresight and dedication. The success of a Steve Jobs or a Hewlett/Packard is an integral part of how we view a capitalist and free society – the doors of opportunity are open for anyone with a good idea and a lot of persistence. Yes, the tech-focused world of the 21st century may distribute its wealth with increasing asymmetry. As long as you have a garage, however, you may still have a shot at success.
At the same time, we are in the middle of a societal reset on the garage-and-a-dream creation myth, for consider the events of the last week in bitcoin. We’ve been writing about this online crypto-currency for the last year, largely because we think that its rise to prominence says a lot about how society’s relationship with technology has evolved in the last few years. The latest storyline that proves out this thesis goes like this:
On March 6th, Newsweek published an article which claimed that bitcoin’s inventor was a 64 year old Californian named Dorian Nakamoto. His original name was Satoshi, and that is the name used by the author of the posting outlining the structure and coding behind bitcoin five years ago. Everyone from journalists to bitcoin’s earliest adopters believed Satoshi Nakamoto was pseudonym, so it came a shock that he was relatively easy to find and that Newsweek, rather than a tech publication, could identify him.
Anonymity has been a part of bitcoin’s core value since inception. Having an untraceable founder fit very well into its own creation myth: that technology can engender a level of public trust if it is open and accessible to anyone with the skills to operate it. It doesn’t matter that you can’t talk to man or woman who wrote the original code. Read it for yourself and, if you like it, run it for free. If not, don’t.
Bitcoin’s creation myth stands in stark contrast to institutions like the U.S. Federal Reserve. Founded in 1913 as a response to the Panic of 1907, its basic framework was set at a secret meeting of key bankers and Senator Nelson Aldrich. The setting – a remote island of the coast of Georgia. Participants got there in trains with the windows blacked out to prevent anyone seeing who might be aboard. Oh, and Aldrich’s daughter was married to a prominent member of the Rockefeller family. And he was Treasurer of the Freemasons chapter in Rhode Island. Yes, the Fed has become more open in the last century, but as far as creation myths go, it is about as open as a bank vault at midnight.
A funny thing happened to bitcoin’s price in the days after Newsweek “Outed” Nakamoto: nothing much. On March 6th, it was trading for $660-680 – about $8.1 billion in total value. As I write this note, it goes for about $640. That might sound like a large move, but in bitcoin land that is equivalent to an afternoon nap. Bitcoin’s founder has, by some accounts, 6% of all the currency as a legacy of his early involvement. This is not a liquid market, and that much visible supply should have depressed prices further.
And then there is the man himself, who now denies any involvement with bitcoin. He hustles reporters for lunch. He likes model trains. And, perhaps the most damning bit in the youth-oriented tech culture of today, he is 64 years old. At least his house appears to have a garage, tucked in at the back of the modest property. Aside from that, however, his oddball reclusiveness is distinctly at odds with the standard creation myth so many others have successfully travelled.
And therein lies the lesson from the last week: there’s a new myth in town, and it’s not about people anymore. Bitcoin’s power to hold the imagination of its users has nothing to do with its creator. The price action tells you that. If Newsweek’s man is really THE Satoshi, no one cares that he likes model trains and appears a bit confused. And if he isn’t, no one seems to care either.
That’s not to say that the standard “Person with a dream and garage” creation myth is obsolete. We’ll always love the plucky underdog with a clever idea. Rather, our faith in technology has reached a Gladwell-style tipping point, at least for some ideas. Bitcoin may be early to this new approach to the business creation myth, but it certainly won’t be the last. The next big thing – especially in peer-to-peer systems – may well come from a garage. You just won’t know who is inside.
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SATOSHI YOU ARE EVERYTHING WE HOPED YOU WOULD BE AND WE LOVE YOU!!
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I saw what you did there! :)
Youtubes acting funny. Videos start then stop 5 seconds in.
RIPS
Youtube always acts funny whenever fonestar comes around.
"Everybody funny, Now you funny too"
GT & DD
False alarm...working again. whew...diversity buddy.
RIPS
You crack me up.
Double O - No!
You act like a child. The world does not revolve around you. You are not the center of every event.
Come back when you have reached 24
fonestar's PAL reached 24... 11 years ago.
I'm sorry
i take it you mean you're older...
but not enough to create XXXcoIn?
Well, if you say it in bold caps, I guess I better agree with you.
fonestar doesn't say it... he spraaaaays it...
I don't begrudge you for supporting Bitcoin like a fanatic. Somebody needs to, but your fonestar character is certainly annoying sometimes.
fonestar and his RSBT was deliberately programmed this way.
"I don't begrudge you for supporting Bitcoin like a fanatic. Somebody needs to, but your fonestar character is certainly annoying sometimes. "
Fonestar.
Bob Dole.
As Bob Dole would say, "Bob Dole notices how you never see Bob Dole and Fonestar in the same room."
Coincidence? Or would Bob Dole say, "Bob Dole is sick of Fonestar's shit, too."?
fonestar is recommended by doles everywhere.
fonestar, give ZH a little break and please come fuck with the trolls on /rBitcoin.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/206in3/dont_invest/
fonestar is one of the good, old posters on Zerohedge. He is a devotee of Bitcoin and a virtual Pez Dispenser of craptoshi.
He will never leave.
So you are sort of like HSV-2, then. Makes sense, I suppose.
RSBT - "Respiratory Syndrome during Barn Threshing".
a true revenge of the nerds
if you're not with us...well, it just means your IQ is not up there
Funny foney you are TYLER, there is no doubt in my mind.
But what perplexes me is to what you will do to protect the SatoshiNNN, name
I suggest everyone here register a 'satoshiNNN' name and have a ball and see how many hours before the fonestar tyler's close it down.
*
BITCOIN is a BIT-FUCK pure and simple ran by criminals, and hyped by moron's.
Who is SATOSHI, I think at this point he is many people, ... long ago there may have been one satoshi, but the HERD took over and created this MYTH, ... an illusion of easy wealth and power.
The USD currency reserve has murdered over 100 Million since 1910, ... if & when BITCOIN start's killing millions of people for POWER, then it might get some repect until then it is the currency of MAN-TWATS, just like OBAMA.
Dumb fucks like yourself are going to be left in the dustbin of history. A sorry relic and reminder of when one's currency did have to murder, rape and rob to "get some respect". If fucking morons like yourself never get Bitcoin that is nothing we will ever be sorry about. We've been doing just fine and getting rich without you simple fucks.
Is BTC about "getting rich" or creating an independent stable currency? Seems if someone is getting rich then someong is getting poor.
You say "fuck" too much. That is unbecoming of such genii that are bitcoiners.
Please clean up you foul postings.
Yes. fonestar should listen to the pure and clear message of Gentleman Jim and the rest of the crew of Crucial Youth. If You Curse, You're The Worst.
Remember, Cross At The Green (Not In Between).
There is a new guy, "OROBTC" over at https://bitcointalk.org/index.php who is asking some of these kinds of questions that we newbs to BTC might have.
OROBTC happens to like gold as well,,,
Bitcoin is a flower, you've got to let it grow.
Let it blossom, let it flow...
"Let it blossom, let it flow..."
Just watch the seeds when you role that sucker into a giant doobie. And never drink the bong water.
Bitcoin is like a box of choclates.
You never know what you're gonna get.
If it's Chinese chocolate, you'll get the runs.
Can we use BTC to buy Hot Pockets anywhere yet?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-i9GXbptog&feature=youtube_gdata_player
If that's a "flower" -the bloom is off that rose and it's dropping diseased petals like it's in the tertiary stages of a gonorrhea outbreak...
+100 jimmyt
more like a tumor. extremely naive to think that a digital currency is not exactly what that the global elite are working towards. it would be a final nail in the coffin as far as freedom goes. all transactions monitored, recorded and tracked.
is bitcoin the final product, or just a test run? doesn't really matter. it is not the answer for freedom. other way around.
Oh, they would love a digital one world currency john39. But one that they control and issue.
if its digital, they will control it, regardless of appearances. taxpayer-slave funded super computers can a lot of things in the vitual world.
In terms of computational power we've got them far, far outdone already.
you forgot your sarc tag. the public has no idea the level of technology secretly developed and held back by the military/banking/pharma complex.
fonestar might have something here. Last I heard, the total computational power of the bitcoin ecosystem was greater than the worlds largest 600 supercomputers combined and growing everyday. Not saying its impossible that .gov has more computing power but if they do, they won't for very much longer.
I think this guy has cleared the issue sufficiently:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWTQgmCuiCw
"Plus, this would actually require government that can do IT. Go checkout healthcare.gov" Champion.
Actually, the whole Bitcoin thing has gotten fonestar thinking... If perhaps the Bitcoin phenomenon has got TPTB themselves thinking if they would really want a totally digital currency after all? Just look at the sentiment on this board as an example. The people here believe that dollars are real and Bitcoins are digital. It would seem that allowing Joe Sixpack to feel some cotton rectangles in his pocket goes a long ways towards maintaining the illusion and control.
The people here are not brought up like the binary thinking kids of today. The people here also have some experience.
fonestar thinks you mean that the people here have experience being ripped off their whole lives and then bitching when somebody develops a solution to that.
The problem with bitcoin is the whole of the blockchain is traceable, are not all transactions logged? "Relayed by IP" and debug.log by node. It might be true that you can use a VPN, but then you have to ask if you can wholly trust the provider of said VPN. What might be suitable for trading wavpacks of Black Sabbath may not provide enough anonymity for large-scale financial transfers, no?
The government wants their virtual currency. A crypto currency developed by the gubmint would have the following features:
What did I miss?
No. Bitcoin does not match with the agendas of those in power. The IMF SDR however does...
Ironically, the Canadian government's (stillborn?) solution, "MintChip" offered $50,000 worth of gold bullion for the winner of MintChip's user advertising contest.
i suspect that the next stage is about officially transferring control over finance away from national governments... yes, that is already basically true, but the bankers still have to put up with the appearance of national sovereignty. and managing the system is quite complex. and there is always the risk that some country or countries could try and fight back and tank the control system. developing a currency above the state level would make it that much harder to rebel or escape.
You forgot the pulp and petro savings. Milling and drilling for the pulp and ink to print ad infinitum must be wreaking havoc on the polar bears
darkcoin
Biggest Holder of BTC = FBI !!!? At this point Satoshi is like a Owner who sold 94% for pennies. Maybe that was the plan all along. Some people are not motivated by $, I am just not in that Group. Maybe that was the point all along. Satochi= Any Three Letters You feel like adding.
The .gov is not smart enough to invent Bitcoin. Someone with real ideas invented it. Cryptocurrencies are very powerful. I'm surprised that on ZH BTC gets so much flack. Fact based criticism should not be held back, but much of the criticism of BTC or other cryptocurrencies are largely false assertions based in ignorance.
They're smart enough to employ people who can design things like Bitcoin though. Technology is just like the used firearms & milsurp market... they get the new toys and we get the hand me downs.
That I think is just a function of the sheer quantities of people employed by the government. If you hire enough people, some are going to be pretty brilliant. But, who knows. I'm not convinced this guy is the real Satoshi. He could be, he might not be. I have no idea.
Are the "Hand-Me-Downs" even of the same quality now? I wonder if the originals are even genuinely "Mil-Spec" anymore. Mr. Momjeans seems to want everything dumbed-down to sub-Putin levels.
When you value loyalty over competence, quality is going to slide somewhat, know what I mean, fonestar?
It's a known fact that the man named Satoshi used to work for the government doing programming. Where in the government he worked is ratehr unknown as it's classified.
I mean it's not like the government scientists have never invented anything, unless you count most weapons and especially nukes..
Al Gore created the internet and bitcoin.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/03/10/Gay-Black-Republican-...
Pigs flying, hell freezing.
Going.
Now.
Is he related to Clayton Bigsby?
They left out Ebay -started to sell Pez dispensers, pull my leg it plays jingle bells, my all time favorite is Nantucket Nectars was started by two thisrty college kids, that plus $50M in seed money from Ron Pearlman of Revlon who knew their daddies.
I prefer Yamamoto and Gamkatsu. Senko's bitchez
fonestar sees Satoshi as more of a Gilgamesh character than a Spartacus.
And who are you? Enkidu?
Fonestar - a bitcoin fool (and troll)
"He is feeding all the trolls ("zeroheads") there without losing energy and enthusiasm"
.
.
"FoneStar is the troll"
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=470593.0
"When the derps over at Zerohedge start upvoting Fonestar, sentiment may have flipped. Water still safe for Bitcoin bulls – BrotherJohnF"
http://www.thebitcoinchannel.com/archives/33428
Let me guess that the total value of bitcoins ever converted to cash is on the order of one (1) million dollars, and maybe a couple of times that ever converted to other goods and services.
"Satoshi" could easily be Satoshi, but he has simply lacked any way to cash out, and seems a modest sort to begin with.
Frankly he could probably make more money on the lecture circuit if he admits it and can prove it, but he's probably afraid someone will try to blame him for something. He's probably wise to deny all.
Satoshi, whoever he is was definitely smart enough to think of the longterm results of Bitcoin. Bitcoin is more dangerous than derivatives.
He will remain silent.
Well there's this:
Overstock.com passess 1 Million in Bitcoin sales in less than 2 months.
http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2014/03/04/overstock-com-passes-1-million-i...
Your ignorance regarding bitcoin hurts even through this detached interface.
continue your circlejerk guys
Encrypted be thy name
Thy transactions come
Thy will be done on ASICS
As it is on Github.
Give us this day our daily mining reward,
And forgive our zero-conf double-spends
As we forgive them that double-spend against us.
And lead us not into alt-chains
But deliver us from Ripple
For thine is the mining rig,
The hashing power, and the block reward,
For ever and ever
Amen.
Comes with a Hymnhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG1qooBzE2w
Satoshi report sir foney, what you say we go to the theater today for a little pee-herman?
annoying! as they say hate on hater.
What are you saying those companies were really started by IBM? Your point just ends up sounding bitter which you probably are. Myth about where is irrelevant the people you mentioned have started companies that have revoluitonized the world providing scientists, engineers, and more with the tools, computing power and inspiration to create amazing stuff and fix huge problems.
Most of that shit is initiated by the government for the government. Something to do with wars I hear. You kids believe everything you are told.
They each link up with all other objects…
What if each currency is a conscious being composed of soulmate beings (they’re in pairs, no)?
What if each institute (sovereignty or corporation) is a conscious being composed of soulmate beings (each embodied good, bad and ugly, together they make one being)?
...What if every being plays two roles, like both parent and child at the same time – surrendering to something, and directing something?
You might think I am an old nut…
Read more here, if called.
I went there
And so, why would "Satoshi" cede the critical patents to JP Moron?
MY guess is that he did not ... and yet JP Moron owns the critcal patents for an electronic crypto-currency.