Latest / TFTC: A Bitcoin Podcast / #767: The First Bitcoin Miner with Alex Waltz
Transcript
- 0:00You've had a dynamic where money has become freer than free.
- 0:10We talk about a Fed just gone nuts.
- 0:13All the central banks going nuts.
- 0:16So it's all acting like safe haven.
- 0:18I believe that in a world where central bankers are tripping over themselves to devalue their currency, Bitcoin wins.
- 0:25In the world of fiat currencies, Bitcoin is the victor.
- 0:28I mean, that's part of the bull case for Bitcoin.
- 0:31If you're not paying attention, you probably should be.
- 0:36The hottest man in Bitcoin this week, Alex Waltz.
- 0:39Welcome to the show.
- 0:40Thank you, Marty.
- 0:41Thank you for having me.
- 0:42And when he says hot, just to be clear, he does mean physically hot, not in other ways.
- 0:47Yeah, it's a double entendre.
- 0:49You know, it's physically hot and main character vibes this week with the video that you launched
- 0:57after doing many months of research and production,
- 1:01getting back to the roots of what started Bitcoin
- 1:06and trying to dissect who was the first person to launch,
- 1:10or excuse me, to get into the Bitcoin project after Satoshi.
- 1:13Many people flagged Hal Finney and his node
- 1:18after he tweeted running Bitcoin.
- 1:21But your piece argues that the real story is messier, more interesting.
- 1:23so I think for the context of diving into your piece First Bitcoin Miner and the video associated
- 1:32with it which we'll link to the show notes what like what sent you down this journey why was this
- 1:36a nagging problem in your mind to solve well I and for people who follow me on Twitter they know
- 1:41for the last years I I just kind of like really dove into this Bitcoin archaeology stuff right
- 1:46and there were two instances one last year and one day before I did 30 days of 30 facts about
- 1:51Bitcoin, sorry, 30 days of Bitcoin facts, you know, and clearly the historical one kind of made a bit
- 1:57more sense. And I just happened to be more interested in them, you know, and I actually
- 2:01was, I realized that I want to find out more about this Hal Fini stuff, but I never really touched
- 2:06it because it always felt solved to me because I mean, just how many times did you hear people
- 2:10mention the emails and there's always this air of like, it's solved. We know exactly what happened.
- 2:15And it just feels like this has been around for such a long time. Clearly there's nothing to find
- 2:19there anymore right and i i decided to write a thread about the health feeding and i'm i just
- 2:23could not believe there's nothing written about this right like zilch nothing i mean there's an
- 2:28article here and there but nothing like concrete right just people claiming certain things and i
- 2:33found it so strange and then i was like all right you know what let's try to dig into this and i
- 2:37started looking and looking and looking i was like oh my god i think i'm the first person who looks
- 2:42at this i just could not like the first part was i could not believe no one looked at this because
- 2:46it's such a low-hanging fruit, first of all, right? And after I started digging a bit of
- 2:53things, I was like, oh my God, there's some interesting stuff here. And firstly, I figured
- 2:59out what Bitcoin client he was running when he made the Bitcoin tweet. And then when I did,
- 3:06and I found the debug.log file. So when Hal Finney tried Bitcoin for the first time,
- 3:11it didn't work for him. And there used to be this forum called SearchForge where people would post
- 3:16about Bitcoin. And the first time he wrote, he tried Bitcoin, it didn't work. And he posted
- 3:20on this forum with Satoshi. It was literally the fourth or something day. And then the Bitcoin node
- 3:26at the time has a debug.log file, which is a file that saves everything that happens, right?
- 3:31This is not new. This was known. Other people wrote about this. And you could download it still
- 3:35today. And when I started looking at that file, I've realized that actually no one actually really
- 3:40looked at what the files means. And I went line by line, line by line. And when I saw there's two
- 3:46other people also, sorry, there you could also see Satoshi's clearnet IP, and we'll probably get
- 3:51into this a bit more in depth and whatever, but you can see the other two nodes. And when I saw
- 3:55the two other nodes there, which again, this is undeniable, posted by hell, there's nothing
- 3:59speculative about this part. You can see it there. And when I saw that, I mean, I couldn't believe it.
- 4:03I was like, oh my God, I was like, grazie a radio, yes. I started jumping around. I was, you know,
- 4:08I was bowing to the ground and I was just so happy.
- 4:11And I mean, I know I'm kind of rambling right now, but like there's just so much to it.
- 4:15And that's kind of when I was like, all right, let's just see where this goes deeper.
- 4:19And there was obviously more.
- 4:21Yeah.
- 4:21I mean, and so let's get into it.
- 4:25I think timeline is important.
- 4:26And maybe we can pull in why understanding this is important just for the broader context of Bitcoin and maybe some misconceptions about who launched it.
- 4:37or whether or not it was an NSA project,
- 4:39but I think we can get to that at the end.
- 4:42But jumping in, starting with block one,
- 4:46timestamping VMM pool at Space API,
- 4:48you've caught that at January 9th, 2009.
- 4:52And then I think that's where the big sort of mystery unravels
- 4:56is between that block and block 78 to block 309,
- 5:03which were produced between January 11th and January 13th.
- 5:06So you have two days of Bitcoin operating, essentially.
- 5:10And that's another thing people have the Times of London headline in the Genesis block, which was January 3rd.
- 5:18But what many other people don't realize is that the network was like up and running consistently on that date.
- 5:28Yeah, I mean, I'm sorry, I'm not sure if you want me to address specifically something.
- 5:34or I mean, what was the misconception?
- 5:38People thought how was one and like what within the debug file?
- 5:42I mean, oh, yeah.
- 5:43Well, so the thing is like when I saw those things there,
- 5:46so I opened the file and you could see.
- 5:49So the way Bitcoin worked back then when Satoshi launched it.
- 5:53So as we all know, a Bitcoin node is peer to peer,
- 5:56which means it needs to connect to other nodes.
- 5:58But before you connect to other nodes, you need to find them somewhere.
- 6:00Right.
- 6:01So the way Satoshi solved this, he was like,
- 6:03let's use an IRC channel to coordinate this thing.
- 6:05What does it mean?
- 6:06An IRC channel for your younger audience is more,
- 6:10it used to be like a Telegram group or a group chat
- 6:12that was just more bare bones
- 6:14and you connect to the server directly
- 6:15and you could just chat there.
- 6:18And that's what Satorze is.
- 6:19He created a group chat, literally,
- 6:21that was called hashtag Bitcoin.
- 6:23And it was hardcoded in the nodes there.
- 6:26So when your node starts up and connects to the internet,
- 6:28you would connect to this IRC server
- 6:30and then you would go in the lobby there
- 6:32and you would start being,
- 6:33it would start creating a username which will probably go in the name how that is created which
- 6:37is very important also but you can it's it's mostly random it looks like it's random and it
- 6:42looks like a bitcoin address it uses the same stuff that you generate bitcoin addresses with
- 6:46which is also very important which is why we call bitcoin addresses addresses so you can see it's a
- 6:51you can tell it's a username and then there were two other usernames there and these usernames the
- 6:56way it constructs them it's like i did say i claim it's a random a second ago but it's not
- 7:01completely random because the way it is actually structured is that they take the your bitcoin
- 7:06sorry you join the the channel and now you are uh you have to construct your own uh username and
- 7:13register what this thing and your node will do this by default it will create it will take your
- 7:16ip address which is 1.9 point blah blah it will take your port which is 1.9 point six point whatever
- 7:22two dots colon 81084 um and well it takes these things actually that's kind of it actually
- 7:30it takes those things and it converts them in base 58 what is base 58 i mean if you look at a
- 7:37bitcoin address even though it was random you could tell it's a bitcoin address there's something
- 7:41specific about it looks a certain way so um what it does it just eliminates local like characters
- 7:48mostly pretty much right and um well there's some other stuff also which maybe we'll go into
- 7:53so but you have this function which you take like a public key which is a bit
- 7:58bigger and messier and whatever.
- 8:01And then you do some other stuff.
- 8:02You do the checksum and whatever.
- 8:04And then you apply this pretty five function.
- 8:06You make it a bit more prettier, right?
- 8:07So Satoshi takes these IP addresses.
- 8:09And so you take these IP addresses and whatever,
- 8:11and that's how you get the username.
- 8:12So now the reason why this is important is because, well,
- 8:16since we know the usernames are constructed in a certain way
- 8:19deterministically, we can actually figure out what the username
- 8:23means because they're not quite random and how they're
- 8:24information.
- 8:25I forgot to mention one thing.
- 8:26so they do take the ip address and whatever but there's one more thing that it does if your node
- 8:31is connected the via tor for some reason it will actually have an an x and an x in front of it and
- 8:39then the other uh letters are going to be random why well because there's no ip address with a
- 8:45you could have an ip but practically speaking there's no ip address belonging to you so it's
- 8:49like, well, just add some jumbled numbers.
- 8:52So now we can see there how Hal generated his username, which he did this thing that we
- 8:59mentioned.
- 9:00He takes his IP and whatever.
- 9:01And we know Hal's IP address because they were public.
- 9:05And then you can see two other nodes.
- 9:08One has this X in front of it, which is, you know, whatever, blah, blah, blah.
- 9:11And then there's another username that has an at symbol, the email sign in front of it.
- 9:15The at symbol on IRC means that you're the operator of the channel.
- 9:20So already just by looking here, you see those eternames,
- 9:24and they leak so much information that you can get, again,
- 9:27provable information, you know, not speculative.
- 9:30And also, like in the article, I had to read the old sources of Bitcoin.
- 9:33I mean, that was so fucking fun because you have to read the old sources
- 9:36of Bitcoin Core and understand how this thing is done,
- 9:38and it's kind of crazy.
- 9:39And by the way, there's this GitHub repository that Jeremy Rubin,
- 9:44shout out to Jeremy Rubin.
- 9:45boy, genius. He actually looked at this like about, I don't know, a few years ago, and he
- 9:49added comments and stuff like that, you know? So that was really helpful
- 9:53for me anyway. So anyway, so now you have this debug file. You have
- 9:57these free usernames. They're only free. One of them we know is Hal.
- 10:01One of them, it's a Tor node, which we don't know zilch about. And then the other one,
- 10:05there's this node that's the operator. Who would be the operator of the channel? If not Satoshi,
- 10:09I mean, right? Let's be serious. But also, so we know Hal's IP.
- 10:13so that means we know how he generated a username.
- 10:15We can do the math and we can generate a username
- 10:17so we can be certain.
- 10:18We have this Tor node.
- 10:19We don't know nothing about it anymore.
- 10:21And now we have this operator node,
- 10:23but we don't know his IP.
- 10:25Well, if you actually scroll up a bit more
- 10:27in the debug file, you also see the IP.
- 10:29So now you can take this IP of the operator node,
- 10:32we convert it in this thing, and they all match.
- 10:34So even from this alone, it's like, again,
- 10:36it was something that no one ever talked about.
- 10:38And this is, again, there's no speculation
- 10:39because we trust that help updated a real file there.
- 10:42We can still download it today and we can inspect it for ourselves.
- 10:46So this was, again, this was the first thing and the first part.
- 10:49And this was kind of like, wow, this is quite interesting.
- 10:53But also, and I'll shut up and you can feel free to put this in the direction you want.
- 10:59I also forgot to mention that as I'm doing this stuff, I also gathered every single digital artifact that exists from that time, like emails, anything you can imagine.
- 11:08I convert them all to the same time zone, UTC, because just to make it the same, you know.
- 11:13And I also like keep track of the time zones in each email and whatever it has.
- 11:18And then, and also email, sorry, by emails, I mean private emails Hal had with Satoshi, which he made public later on.
- 11:25But also public emails on the cryptography mailing list and also the P2P foundation and other, even the Cypherpunk mailing list.
- 11:32But the last two I didn't really mention because it wasn't much activity.
- 11:35so now that i know there's only two nodes and i know there's almost no activity there you know
- 11:39um i i was confident i'm onto something here and i also was and also like it confirmed what i find
- 11:46here that's also very important you find something and find something that confirms you know yeah
- 11:50let's get on the block 49 why is block 49 so important it is fun just relearning how
- 11:58bitcoin worked in the early days it's it's nuts though it's nuts because you kind of like it's
- 12:04I just even said that there it's like,
- 12:06this is the way you can see how you can feel how that was,
- 12:09you know, and you can trace it with code and stuff like that.
- 12:12Blackboard.
- 12:12And yes, I forgot to mention this.
- 12:14So before we had the stuff in the debug file
- 12:18that I just said with the nodes and whatever,
- 12:21so when there's a debug file,
- 12:22you see the history of what the node did there.
- 12:24But the first thing a node does there,
- 12:26no, sorry, it does connect to the IRC.
- 12:28It finds one of these peers, it tries to connect to it.
- 12:31And then it says to one of those nodes,
- 12:33Hey, how far are you in the blockchain?
- 12:35And give me the block headers.
- 12:37The block header is not the blocks yet.
- 12:38What does this mean?
- 12:40It's kind of like just the import.
- 12:44It's just the short version of the block,
- 12:45just like the main fields and stuff like that, you know?
- 12:48So the house node was like, hey, how far are you?
- 12:51Give me all the headers.
- 12:53And the reason why this is important
- 12:54and they're not blocks and headers
- 12:55is because we know they were easy to transmit right So it wasn like an internet interruption or something like this right So now we see in house debug file he gets a list of all the blocks from zero or maybe to one I don think they got zero right
- 13:07Because it was hard-coded.
- 13:08Yeah, from one, and it goes all the way down
- 13:11to the block Fortnite,
- 13:12and we have the first character of the hash, right?
- 13:14So when you see this thing, you're like,
- 13:17oh my God, this is as far as this.
- 13:19I think the correct, the absolute correct thing to claim
- 13:22would be this is as far as that node went on the blockchain.
- 13:25But practically speaking, that's as far as the blockchain was going, right?
- 13:29So now you can also see like this is when hell entered.
- 13:33So now the, yes, of course it makes sense now.
- 13:36So now you're kind of thinking like, oh, block 49.
- 13:39Well, why isn't it block zero or whatever?
- 13:41And that's when the emails came in handy because another very important thing,
- 13:48and I know I feel like I'm jumping all over the place,
- 13:49but I promise you it's in the correct chronology in the article as things happen.
- 13:54But the thing is that in 2014, hell before he died, he shared his private correspondence with Satoshi.
- 14:04And he did this once with the Wall Street reporter.
- 14:10And then he did it with some, then after he died, some other reporter from Coindesk got some few other emails.
- 14:19and his wife authenticated and says those emails are short.
- 14:26So now we also have some private correspondence from Satoshi to Hal,
- 14:31which one of them was submitted by Hal.
- 14:33We're going to operate on the assumption he was not lying.
- 14:36And that was by the wife, which again, I think we should operate.
- 14:39Well, I'm going to operate at least.
- 14:40You do whatever you want.
- 14:41I'm going to operate on the assumption that they are truthful.
- 14:44And now we have these private emails.
- 14:46And now if we look at his emails, we can actually see that initially Satoshi posts on the cryptography mail in the list.
- 14:55And people get, you know, whatever.
- 14:56How is the only one that likes it?
- 14:58A bit more time passes.
- 15:00But then when Satoshi actually launches the Bitcoin, again, the white paper was launched in 2008, early 2008.
- 15:05And then the Bitcoin was like 8th January.
- 15:10I don't know.
- 15:11The Genesis block was the third, and then depending on time, it was like the eighth or ninth, right?
- 15:17Depending on time zone, it was like the first block, block one.
- 15:22Absolutely, absolutely.
- 15:23Exactly, yeah, yeah.
- 15:24But it's around the eighth, so there was a bit of time.
- 15:26And then when Satoshi actually announced the client on the cryptography mailing list, since literally Hal was the only one who kind of liked this thing, he obviously sent it to him.
- 15:36And he said, by the way, I launched this thing.
- 15:39Here is if you want it.
- 15:40And he goes like, I'll take a look at it over the weekend, which already this was.
- 15:44By the way, I'm sure a lot of people know about this.
- 15:46Take a look over the weekend because I've seen the shirt around.
- 15:50But when you again, now we have another source that confirms like, oh, so Bitcoin started mining in block one when he makes the announcement and whatever and all these things.
- 15:59And then he sends this email.
- 16:00So he's already getting late.
- 16:02So by the time he looks at it, I think this was like a Thursday in California, PST time.
- 16:08And by the time he gets to look at it over the weekend, it gets to block 49.
- 16:13And when he does do this, it crashes because as we'll see, it just didn't work and whatever.
- 16:20So now we have a confirmation because we see block 49.
- 16:24We can look at the time where he sent the email and whatever.
- 16:26And now we have another thing.
- 16:27So this was the first part, which I was like, oh my God, this is insane.
- 16:31this is nuts i cannot believe it i just could i couldn't believe it i there were a few days when
- 16:36i just thought i'm there's something i'm missing because there's no way it's too easy that's why
- 16:41it was you know it was just too easy to figure it out yeah and how's node crashed when he originally
- 16:48tried to to connect to the network because of the tour node right there was some intricacies around
- 16:52how to interact with the tour node that it wasn't that it was just that the so satoshi and he said
- 16:58in the email he did all the tests he can but you know how it is when you do testing then you have
- 17:02launch day he it was just some weird error and um no nodes work not just the tor ones none of them
- 17:09work um so so yeah okay so what what was the do not mine unless connected to appear
- 17:18rule didn't that shape part of your conclusion yes yes yes it did um so this this comes to the
- 17:24interaction between the satoshi node that you're assuming is the the ip because he's the operator
- 17:31of the irc channel and the tor node um which was the first two nodes that were in the irc channel
- 17:37before hal joined and so there's uh he couldn't have mind unless he had another peer on the network
- 17:43right yes so what marty is trying to say here um is that uh i mean this is also kind of this is
- 17:50It's a fairly unknown thing.
- 17:52And I mean, I even wrote about this in the past at some point.
- 17:55But what Martin's trying to say here is like, so when Satoshi made a Bitcoin client, he had this condition where he said, if you are on the internet, don't start mining straight away.
- 18:04You need to have at least one peer connected to you.
- 18:07Either he connects to you because you have to have one peer connected, Elizabeth S for now.
- 18:13You have to have one peer connected to you.
- 18:14And if you're just alone, solo on the network and you don't have anyone connected to you, do not mine.
- 18:18and the reason why he may he added this i mean it's pretty obvious this is why he had is like
- 18:23let's just say we both connect right now on the internet download bitcoin but just because maybe
- 18:28there's a bit of lag or something we have some problems and we don't yet connect to to each
- 18:32other as fast so now you start mining on your own block i start mining on my own block and then we
- 18:36meet each other we have a fork so that's why this this this rule was out there and i know i think i
- 18:41may have even claimed this in the past and people have speculated you always to avoid pre-mining and
- 18:45stuff like that i don't think so i mean i don't think anyone cared about it really there's more
- 18:50coordination to make sure there weren't no forks absolutely i i think that it's time it seems
- 18:56obvious to me that's a reason well so let's dive into this tour note more what uh sorry one second
- 19:01before so so because you actually had a really good point bringing this up right so why is this
- 19:05important because now so so now getting back to the initial thing it's like so we have this debug
- 19:10file we have we know there how joins and there are two other nodes there and now the question is like
- 19:15but why would there be another node there?
- 19:17Why would there be a TOR node?
- 19:18And this is like, well, if there wasn't this TOR node
- 19:20or there was just another node,
- 19:22Bitcoin should have been to block zero.
- 19:24Or what could have happened,
- 19:26maybe there were another nodes
- 19:27and maybe they left.
- 19:28That also could have happened.
- 19:29There were two other nodes before they started a chain
- 19:31and then left.
- 19:32But that's not what happened.
- 19:33We know for a fact at that point there were two nodes.
- 19:35And it seems like maybe there were others,
- 19:37maybe some came in and left,
- 19:39but at least because there was that TOR node,
- 19:41this confirms that that's why,
- 19:42at least that's why Bitcoin was venting.
- 19:45Sorry, I cut you off.
- 19:46Ozo, what are your thoughts behind the tour node?
- 19:50Well, the thing is, like, now I'm kind of like, I have this thing and I figure it out.
- 19:55And I'm like, you know, it's quite interesting and whatever.
- 19:59And I kind of, like, started going on a, I couldn't find any more stuff from back then, you know.
- 20:06Sorry, I'm just scrolling through the article because I feel like we kind of went over the place.
- 20:10shit everyone's chronological but anyway um well the thing is like at this point i'm like i can't
- 20:15believe i made this stuff this is fucking nuts this is incredible this is whatever um and might
- 20:20i want to say i'm not going to give names but i will tell you this i sent it to some people
- 20:24and they shit on me so fucking hard man they shit on me they they said this is bullshit what you
- 20:29call this fucking piece of shit these are not discoveries whatever but you know again i won so
- 20:35you know see in their history books you pieces of shit um so the thing but but but think about
- 20:40and i do want to mention this because i find this thing out i don't want to share with someone i
- 20:44give it some people and again i know it's real at this point and they're just giving me shit
- 20:48and i will tell you this i know this is very pity but i'm a very fucking pity person
- 20:52and they gave me some shit and i and that's when i knew when it happened i said like okay
- 20:56all right fine my life becomes about this i'll make the video i'll make everything we'll see
- 21:00what happens. But so now I'm filled with anger, you know, in my soul, in my mind, and I want to
- 21:06get vindictive. And I said, I need to fucking come up with something just to fucking shove in
- 21:12these people's face. But I didn't have any more leads, right? Because I looked at the emails,
- 21:18I looked at all the things that everyone knows, and I just couldn't find anything else.
- 21:22Then I remember Dustin Trammell. And I'm sure a lot of people that are somewhat
- 21:27involved in Bitcoin and whatever,
- 21:31know who Dustin Tramiel is.
- 21:32He's a Bitcoin VC
- 21:33and he's been around for like a lot of times.
- 21:36And I remember around,
- 21:38when actually was that?
- 21:402000,
- 21:402000,
- 21:402000,
- 21:44oh,
- 21:44in 2021,
- 21:45I think,
- 21:46or maybe the first one was 2018.
- 21:47He makes a tweet and he says,
- 21:50guys,
- 21:50I think I was the,
- 21:51the first Bitcoin miner.
- 21:54And I,
- 21:55I think I was the,
- 21:56sorry,
- 21:56I think I was the second Bitcoin node and I think I may have even beaten
- 21:59Hal. And the thing is like, he, he makes this, this tweet and he claims this.
- 22:03And then he, he, he posts all this again, it's linking the article,
- 22:09everything we're talking about here, go see it in the article.
- 22:11It's explained every, all the assumption, everything can find everything on it.
- 22:15So I remembered this tweet and then, and then just to like, you know,
- 22:18just didn't have empty words or whatever.
- 22:22He also posted a proof that he mined that block.
- 22:29So the thing is like this in Bitcoin,
- 22:31I'm sure everyone knows that the blockchain
- 22:34is a chain of digital signatures.
- 22:36What is a digital signature?
- 22:37A digital signature, so you have a private,
- 22:39you have a secret that belongs to you.
- 22:41And then a digital signature does some mathematical operations,
- 22:44which are more simpler than you think, actually.
- 22:46and the output of that could prove to someone from the exterior
- 22:52that you actually own this public key and the private key which you don't share
- 22:58without actually revealing the private key.
- 23:00That's the main thing.
- 23:01That's what a signature does.
- 23:02And that's what Bitcoin works on.
- 23:04And maybe it sounds overcomplicated.
- 23:06I know everyone understands what a signature is,
- 23:08but the reason why I'm explaining this is because you can use this signature
- 23:12to prove any other things.
- 23:14it's almost like you can you can sign anything so if you if any data is signed by this private key
- 23:21you can say oh it belongs to this private key so you can also do this with random text first of all
- 23:26right and the reason you might do this so you might make a bitcoin transaction where i don't
- 23:30know maybe you donate it to a cause you want to like brag about people are like well i don't
- 23:34believe that you anyone could claim you prove the signature it's 100 there's no denying there's no
- 23:39nothing you can't really say anything about it at this point you know um so he was like well i
- 23:45claimed i mined a block i mined block i mined an early block i have to do the i have to prove this
- 23:51thing right he posted the proof there and you can use bitcoin core and you can verify the proof and
- 23:56it's true so dustin tramell from this proof that he pointed here we know for a fact
- 24:01that he might
- 24:04block
- 24:05what was it again? 309
- 24:08yes
- 24:10so he posted
- 24:13two proofs actually, he posted a proof that he
- 24:15might block 78
- 24:17am I right on 78? I really don't want
- 24:19to like, people are going to be crazy in the
- 24:21comments
- 24:21yeah, 78
- 24:2378 and 309, alright
- 24:26so when he makes the proof
- 24:28he shows two proofs that
- 24:31he mined block 78 and block 309.
- 24:34Now, the interesting part is like the block 78, which he mined.
- 24:37He said that those coins are unconfirmed.
- 24:41Maybe you could take that as sus, but that's what he said.
- 24:44But the proof is still verified, but it's just that we can't see the coins unchain.
- 24:47But then block 309, it's still today.
- 24:51We can still inspect it and whatever.
- 24:52So I'm looking at this stuff here, and now there's kind of like another thing
- 24:57fell into my lap because I was like, oh my God.
- 24:59Now by just by incidentally, I also solved the problem and the question
- 25:04what happened with Dustin because we know we have block 49 from house debug file.
- 25:10We know Dustin may have mine block 78, but certainly has block 309.
- 25:18So we kind of know this perfect.
- 25:21And I'm like, okay, this is interesting, but it's not really like pushing me
- 25:25in the right direction.
- 25:27So what else could I do right now?
- 25:30And I also forgot to mention that there's also this other article where Hal at some point shared a pretty almost close to him dying.
- 25:40He shares this screenshot of his Bitcoin wallet.
- 25:44We're not a reporter.
- 25:45So now and there we can see the first block that Hal mined, which was.
- 25:53Block 170 or no, that was the first transaction.
- 25:56I guess he received Okay Oh wait I sorry I so sorry So dustin trammell blind mind block 70 uh 76 is the one that wasn confirmed and um 390 is the one that is confirmed and now how
- 26:12in this article block mind block 78 which we can still see here and whatever and we can see in this
- 26:20wallet so we can be fairly certain so now there's also quite interesting because so maybe maybe
- 26:25dustin was beforehand by two blocks but we can't prove it you know so um uh where were we going at
- 26:33this uh started with the tour note do we get back to the tour note oh yeah so yeah so so i looked at
- 26:41um at a we were at we left off at dustin so i look at dustin stuff and this is all great
- 26:45another discovery grazia you know i'm going crazy i'm doing this on the ground you know
- 26:52and um but this didn't really help the investigation and i just couldn't come up with
- 26:57any idea of where to look for data anymore and i just needed more data and um i also like i kind
- 27:05of think that there's there isn't going to be any data to find because they're just you could tell
- 27:09from the emails under on the cryptography mainly there wasn't anything left then i'm just sitting
- 27:14there you know and also as it's dramatizing the movie maybe not as dramatic with the lighting and
- 27:19whatnot but it was pretty much that i'm just sitting there and i'm like dude why don't the
- 27:22fuck why i just look at a blockchain maybe i'll find something there you know so i took the the
- 27:28first blocks and i started looking around and i'm seeing when i look uh let me just pull this up here
- 27:35so so i took um i started looking at i took all the blocks from like up to block 49 and i started
- 27:41looking around there and i looked at the times and i'm like dude there's one instance from block 14
- 27:46to 15 where there's like 24 hours and 12 minutes between blocks.
- 27:50There's another one which is 30 minutes, statistically probable,
- 27:55but still worth looking at.
- 27:57And there's another one that's 8 hours and 34 minutes.
- 28:00So now I'm like, oh, I think I'm onto something here.
- 28:02There has to be something.
- 28:04There's so much stuff that doesn't fall into place.
- 28:06Another one, so why don't we look here?
- 28:08So then I started looking around even more,
- 28:10and I took this all the way to block 17.
- 28:13Sure, we should have said.
- 28:15This is actually well known and well established that, which is actually exactly what you hinted at earlier, that there is the famous transaction that Satoshi sent to Hal, and this was at block 170, and it's the first Bitcoin transaction.
- 28:31So I was like, ah, let me just try to see what's happening up until there.
- 28:35So now I look at all the blocks and I'm like, whoa, there's like eight instances where there are big time blocks between, time gap between blocks.
- 28:42Bitcoin is not working, which we know from here.
- 28:46There's all this weird fuzziness going on here.
- 28:49And I'm like, oh man, there's no way this is not connected.
- 28:53There's no way this is a coincidence.
- 28:55But like, how the fuck can I figure out?
- 28:59So now I found the sound suspicious, but now I need another one.
- 29:07So like, I just spent so much time because there's no way I could get more from the blockchain.
- 29:12How could I possibly get more from the blockchain?
- 29:14I'm looking at a blockchain.
- 29:16And then again, after I spent a bit more time and prayed to God and whatever, and went full retard, I realized, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.
- 29:25There's that guy, Sergio Demian Lerner, that estimated how much money Bitcoin Satoshi has.
- 29:32And you may think, well, what does this have to do with everything?
- 29:34Well, the way he does it, he actually looks at some other parts of the data, which I'll explain in a second, in the blockchain.
- 29:43And that's how he was managed to figure out how Satoshi mined blocks.
- 29:46Now, here's the thing.
- 29:47He didn't really figure out how much Bitcoin Satoshi mined.
- 29:50What he did, the conclusion that comes from what he looks at is like, you have a group of blocks and this seems to be mined by a single entity.
- 30:00Well, that's exactly what I'm looking for here.
- 30:01I'm looking to find a way to group blocks to draw the conclusion that there's an entity or another entity, you know?
- 30:08So, yeah.
- 30:09What's up, Freaks?
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- 32:35This is famously known as the Potoshi pattern.
- 32:38And so this is what led you to have an understanding that, correct me if I'm wrong,
- 32:45the TorNode address in the IRC channel probably belonged to Satoshi too, correct?
- 32:53Well, that is where it gets, right? But I didn't knew that. I didn't even dare to suspect that at this point, right? So now I'm looking at this stuff. I have this data. I was like, shit, let's do the Potoshi pattern. So we need to bring a bit of context here on how Bitcoin mining works.
- 33:09so i know i'm more than certain any one of the listeners is familiar and knows that the bitcoin
- 33:17mining is just a big lottery and you have to try a lot of numbers until you get lucky right
- 33:21the thing is like the thing is like when you hash something and this may sound very counterintuitive
- 33:26every output has the exact mathematical probability of being valid like if you sit down and you do a
- 33:32block by hand right now you have the exact same chance as another miner that's why you know people
- 33:36are talking about the bid access and all these things. The only reason the miners make more
- 33:42money, they just try more times than you. That's really what it is. It's just pure dumb luck.
- 33:46There's nothing you can do to game or whatever. That's how mining works. But the thing is like,
- 33:51okay, great. But now we need to look specifically what that actually happens. So what happens is
- 33:56that you're a miner, you get some transactions, you make the block header, which you say,
- 34:00this is block number, whatever. It was mined here. Some other things I'm hand waving a lot.
- 34:05And then you have to put the transactions in order and you hash them.
- 34:09And is this block valid or not?
- 34:13I'm sorry, I should have also clarified the way the mechanism works, what draws the value.
- 34:18Well, I'm sorry.
- 34:19I'm sorry.
- 34:20Let me backtrack again.
- 34:20So you take this transaction, you have the header, you put a transaction and you hash them all and you get a number.
- 34:27All right.
- 34:27And then you can submit this to the Bitcoin network and the Bitcoin network needs to tell if this is a valid block or not.
- 34:33what makes this block valid or not?
- 34:39Well, anything you have on a computer
- 34:41pretty much can be translated to a number, right?
- 34:45And the thing is that we want...
- 34:48So the thing is, like, you have this process that is random
- 34:50that you could have, like, that could be any number and whatever.
- 34:54And then you have this number, and you can set a number here,
- 34:56and you can say, well, if this is below this threshold,
- 34:59this is valid, or if this is...
- 35:01You have this number and you want, sorry, you have the number that draws the validity and then you have the hash.
- 35:06And then you can say if the hash is bigger than the number is valid.
- 35:09And if the hash is smaller than the number is valid.
- 35:10Now, if you have the valid number very small, look at all this gap here.
- 35:15There's so much valid numbers, right?
- 35:17But if you actually make the numbers smaller, smaller, smaller, like if you made the number 10,
- 35:20well, there's only 10 possible outcomes out of literally all the numbers.
- 35:24Well, it's not all the numbers, but it's 2 to the 32 minus 1.
- 35:27But pretty much, you know.
- 35:28and I'm sure at this point everyone goes like,
- 35:31well, that's what makes it difficult.
- 35:33It's like the smaller you make this number,
- 35:35the less number they are.
- 35:37And the reason we have this mechanism
- 35:38and Satoshi came up with this,
- 35:39which is truly probably the only thing
- 35:41that actually he did invent in this Bitcoin stuff,
- 35:44everything was used,
- 35:45is he figured out a way the more people come in,
- 35:47we have to make it harder.
- 35:48How you just make this number smaller, you know?
- 35:51But that's how mining works.
- 35:53And so you take the block,
- 35:56you put the transactions there,
- 35:57you start hashing them.
- 35:58And probably the first time you're going to hash them,
- 36:00this is not going to be in the target there
- 36:04unless you're extremely lucky.
- 36:07And Satoshi realizes and says,
- 36:09well, let's just add a counter here,
- 36:11which you just literally increment.
- 36:12You go tick, tick, tick, tick,
- 36:14and you can try these things, right?
- 36:15And this counter in the block, it's called the nonce.
- 36:19I'm sure a lot of people heard of this.
- 36:21Nonce means number used once, right?
- 36:24And the single purpose of this number
- 36:26is just so you can have lotto tickets pretty much, right?
- 36:29So you can keep iterating, iterating.
- 36:30Now, this number here is 2 to the power of 32,
- 36:34which even though may seem a very big number, it's not.
- 36:37And because of statistical variations and other things
- 36:40and the distribution of, well, distribution of luck pretty much,
- 36:45you could absolutely, because this is a strictly purely random process,
- 36:51you could go for the full range of these numbers
- 36:53and you're just not going to get lucky.
- 36:55It's not enough.
- 36:56So you have to try one more time, you know?
- 36:59And Satoshi knew this also.
- 37:01And he said like, well, you can go for all these numbers
- 37:03from one to the power of two to the 32.
- 37:07And if you don't have another one,
- 37:09we just have a second number here, which you increment.
- 37:12And because another very important thing with a hash,
- 37:15like if you change one small minute thing anywhere,
- 37:18it changes the whole output completely.
- 37:20So now you already went for all the options.
- 37:23You can go from one to the power of 32.
- 37:25So you have a second number.
- 37:26you tweak this and you just get a fresh new new set of numbers quite simple quite brutal but but
- 37:31quite elegant now the first number that i'm talking about you can see it in the block header if you go
- 37:35on memple.space or ever you will see there it says well actually it's called bits but that's the nonce
- 37:40and equivalent is kind of the same thing but the extra nonce is kind of a hack the extra nonce
- 37:45because you're the miner and when you're the miner you create all this transaction you create a
- 37:49coinbase and in the coinbase you pay yourself and except she was like well just tweak a random
- 37:55fucking number here just to get this part of the coinbase here so you can get a fresh new set of
- 37:59numbers this is again from first day right so uh sergio demilera which i mean the guy
- 38:06to come up with his fucking idea in 2000 i don't know 13 whatever it was because everyone looked
- 38:14at this but to look at the second number that you tweak and be like you know what i think we can
- 38:21extract something from here. So what ended up happening, this second number that you, so not
- 38:26the nonce, the nonce is one from two to the power of 42, and it's just really random. But the second
- 38:32tweaked number here, this has a bug. Satoshi fucked up when he implemented this thing, all right?
- 38:37So you would be thinking to yourself, well, this makes pretty much sense. You're like,
- 38:42you're a miner, you start mining one from two to the power of 42, you go for it, you start from one,
- 38:49you make it two and I go again.
- 38:51Maybe you go three times, five times,
- 38:52but then let's just say it takes you five times.
- 38:55These numbers are just, they don't reflect reality,
- 38:57by the way just to be clear So you do it five times you found the block It makes sense to reset this thing and start from zero like a respectable gentleman right And the thing that you do it five times You found the block It makes sense to reset this thing and you know start from zero like a respectable gentleman Right And the thing is Satoshi when he implemented his Bitcoin mining he made some small mistakes and this number doesn reset
- 39:15Right.
- 39:15Even though this number should reset, it only resets when you turn off your node on and off.
- 39:20Let me just pull this bit of code here.
- 39:23Right.
- 39:24So you would expect this number to reset, but it doesn't reset.
- 39:27so now if you turn on your node and you start mining um and this number doesn't reset this
- 39:35number just became an uptime counter right it's just like so how long has this guy been mining
- 39:40from well as long as his extra announce was on and the extra announce is on the blockchain the
- 39:45coinbase so then i have this as a as a as a counter now the thing is that there's like a few
- 39:52things to understand here i'm not sure if like um it makes sense to really like uh explain a bit
- 39:57The thing is like it not only doesn't reset after this thing,
- 40:01but it also increments when it checks for a block.
- 40:03What does this mean?
- 40:05So you are a miner and you're mining, you're doing your own business.
- 40:08But as you are trying to, as you're mining and you're constructing this new block
- 40:12with this new nonce, you have to check, is this valid?
- 40:14Is this below the hash?
- 40:16So because again, it was just like where he placed the function to,
- 40:18well, it's a while loop, it's not a function, to check this thing.
- 40:23He just made such a small error.
- 40:25it just triggers it more times.
- 40:29So the extra announce counter doesn't reset
- 40:31when you find a block.
- 40:32And it also increments when you look for blocks.
- 40:35So not only that it doesn't reset
- 40:37and it tells you how long this node has been online,
- 40:39it also does it at some kind of a random thing.
- 40:43So it makes it like a fingerprint,
- 40:45makes it even more identifiable and whatever.
- 40:47Now, I should be very clear here that,
- 40:50and this was pretty much the criticism
- 40:52that a lot of people threw at the Potoshi pattern,
- 40:55which I don't 100% agree with, but it is somewhat valid.
- 40:58It's like, right, but if you have tens of thousands of miners,
- 41:01which the Potoshi pattern focuses on a bit lower period,
- 41:05other things could happen.
- 41:06There's statistical anomalies and whatever,
- 41:08so maybe you shouldn't be too sure of this.
- 41:10Well, who cares?
- 41:11Who gives a fuck?
- 41:12Because for me, I know at Block 49, there's only three fucking people.
- 41:16One of them couldn't get it up, can't get the node up.
- 41:19Halfini is what I'm talking about.
- 41:21And there's two other nodes.
- 41:22I was like, the chance of having more nodes, let's just say maybe there's five more that came up and whatever.
- 41:28Get out of here.
- 41:29Forget about it.
- 41:29There's no way.
- 41:30There's no way that happened, you know?
- 41:31So for me, this analysis and this logic, it's like sin from heaven because guess what?
- 41:37I have almost no noise here.
- 41:39So I could start looking at and draw my conclusions.
- 41:42And so I did.
- 41:44Let me just take a sip because I just ranted for such a long time.
- 41:47No, it's a good refresher on the difficulty target.
- 41:52nonces, extra nonces.
- 41:54And the fact that Satoshi was fallible
- 41:56in the beginning, launching with this
- 41:58bug, this hard-cut bug.
- 42:00I mean, he was so fucking fallible.
- 42:02So fallible. And he said the word
- 42:04retarded.
- 42:06Which counts for something.
- 42:09Is there any way
- 42:10we can add this
- 42:12picture
- 42:14on the screen?
- 42:15You should be able to share.
- 42:17If you hit share.
- 42:18Oh my god, share my browser.
- 42:21I think it's easier to convince.
- 42:23Here, just send me the link.
- 42:25I'll pull it up.
- 42:28Easier to convince me to have five protected six,
- 42:30what you think of it.
- 42:32Bitcoinminer.com.
- 42:34So I sent it here in the thing.
- 42:39And then this other one also.
- 42:42Oops.
- 42:47Boom.
- 42:48All right.
- 42:48So where we're looking at,
- 42:50We have a chart here, which I'm telling it's way more simpler than you actually think it is.
- 42:56So on the horizontal OX axis, we take blocks.
- 43:00So the number there means that if you go at 50, that's block 50.
- 43:03It goes to 0 to 200.
- 43:05We're focusing on the spirit because we know block 170 is when we know how many of the transactions.
- 43:11So we'll just focus on the spirit.
- 43:12And then on the OY axis, on the other thing there, we're just charting this value, this value of the counter,
- 43:20the externance, the second counter that I was talking about, right?
- 43:24And the thing is like, remember, what happens here is that this number goes up all the time, right?
- 43:31And it tells us how much it goes up.
- 43:34And the thing is like when it resets, we know for a fact it only resets in this particular version of Bitcoin code.
- 43:40It only resets when you turn off your node.
- 43:42Like if you turn it off and you turn it on, that doesn't get saved anymore in the memory and gets resetted.
- 43:46So every time we see, sorry, so we have all these like, so a blue dot here on the chart, if you look there and it's like around 50 and 50, because you can see it there, that means at block 50, there was an extra amount of the value of 50, right? That's what this means.
- 44:05So now we can kind of see that they form this kind of like squiggly things that go like this.
- 44:10And then they're kind of like grouped a bit more.
- 44:13You can always see there's some kind of a grouping or something like this.
- 44:16And the thing is like, this is the way we interpret this.
- 44:18So the number starts from zero at the bottom.
- 44:21And it goes up, it goes up, it goes up, it goes up.
- 44:23And then nothing happens.
- 44:25And then we see it starts another line.
- 44:26So that means that the no reset.
- 44:29Sorry, you were going to say?
- 44:31No, no.
- 44:32So I was going to pull up the other chart, which I think highlights.
- 44:36Let's leave this one for a bit more because I think there's a bit more to clarify here.
- 44:40Okay.
- 44:42Right.
- 44:42So the thing is, like, we can see the reason this grouping's forum is because, again, at some point, the chart goes up, but then it starts from zero.
- 44:51So if we know the number starts, the second count or the extra announced number goes to zero only when a node resets.
- 45:03And now here's another thing to understand.
- 45:04Like, well, if you have the groupings and it goes from one to two, that could be really lucky because all nodes start from zero, all nodes go to one, right?
- 45:14But the thing is, as each number you add, it's less likely to be a random occurrence, right?
- 45:19It just makes sense.
- 45:20It's like if you have one random event and you're like one, okay.
- 45:23It's like the more coin flips you do, the harder it is to guess.
- 45:26You know what I'm trying to say?
- 45:28So not only that this means that the, so the bigger this, this, this thing goes, the more
- 45:34certain we are, because it's like, really, what is the chance someone is going to go
- 45:37up to 200?
- 45:38Come on, let's be honest.
- 45:39And it's not a one.
- 45:40Yeah.
- 45:40You know, you, you can't be sure.
- 45:42So this is, so just by looking here, we can see that, oh, wait a minute.
- 45:46This is quite interesting because we see, we kind of see these groupings here.
- 45:49So we don't know if they're all the same node, but we can say maybe, maybe one third like that with the red thing.
- 45:59I think that's I think that's a node, you know?
- 46:02Yeah. Yeah.
- 46:03Again, going back to the probabilistic chance of different nodes having consecutive higher externance numbers is very low, particularly at this point in time in Bitcoin's history.
- 46:16Absolutely.
- 46:16And so we're assuming, looking at, if you're looking at the screen, if you're not looking, we're looking at the Potoshi pattern.
- 46:24And you basically just assume that Satoshi mined all these blocks that we're highlighting here, or one entity did.
- 46:30Not yet, not yet.
- 46:31We're saying one entity mined at least one third.
- 46:35That's for now, for now.
- 46:36But yes, of course, we're going to get there.
- 46:37But that's where we are right now in the story.
- 46:40That's all we can claim for what we have, for what we have.
- 46:42All right, freaks.
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- 49:01So now we have included context here, which gets back to the fact that the network was halted or may have been halted eight times based off the time analysis that you did on the first, what, 170 blocks.
- 49:19Yeah, so the thing is like, so now this is pretty much the same chart.
- 49:23It's just a bit more elongated.
- 49:25And, you know, the earlier chart was just more obvious that to point out the groupings, right?
- 49:29so every time we see we we go from from um so now we have these groupings and i was like you know
- 49:36what's so interesting because remember i found the big time time gaps right so now i'm just looking
- 49:41at this thing and i was like oh man wouldn't be so strange if somehow there would be some
- 49:46alignment between when then when this thing when this event of of node reset happens and the times
- 49:51and i look at it and i'm like jesus fucking christ this is nuts it actually happens almost
- 49:57every single time with two exceptions, and those should actually help our case, we'll see later.
- 50:02Every single time the node resets, so it goes from top to
- 50:05down, there's a big time gap between blocks, right? So we know that's
- 50:09an event that means the node resets, and then we see a big time gap between
- 50:13blocks. Oh, this means whoever is mining this stuff
- 50:17is turning off their node. That's why there's no more blocks to be produced.
- 50:21And now you're going to be like, yeah, sure, I mean, maybe there was internet or whatever.
- 50:25right but the reason why i'm so certain is turning off because
- 50:27so you can look at all the other time gaps and be like maybe i don't know whatever but it's like
- 50:32when it's 24 hours clearly that person turned off their node there was no enough to get online
- 50:38and the you know no one mined any blocks and so the 24 and the eight hours one i mean i don't
- 50:46think anyone could argue with me right now there's another two hour and 45 minutes one also the same
- 50:50and there's a three-hour one and there's a few like 30 and 44 minutes and you're right
- 50:54that would be statistically sound but it's statistically sound to have some of them but
- 50:58not to have so many right so um when i looked at it sound like oh my god this is kind of
- 51:05interesting because this kind of means there is just no one here and the network halted eight
- 51:10times um and this i mean it's again it just feels so together to not make any sense you know
- 51:16so yeah and so this is where it ties into the tour node right right the tour node exactly i forgot
- 51:24about um so now because that's why we started on this whole fucking thing so now i'm i'm looking
- 51:29at this thing and i'm just kind of thinking to myself well we know for a fact there weren't that
- 51:34many people around here on the network as the first thing and then we know that there were
- 51:39we know we have this condition we need two people to mine two nodes two nodes at least to mine on
- 51:45That being said, you could have like opened the code and changed that.
- 51:48However, I doubt it.
- 51:49And here's the thing why I doubt it because even Satoshi had trouble compiling
- 51:54the code and make it run.
- 51:56So whoever was running this was most probably like using Satoshi's code and
- 51:59whatever.
- 52:00Anyway, so we know there's like no, no, we know there's a very low accessibility
- 52:04We know we have, we need two nodes and we know from house debug, at least at block 49, and there's a yellow line there.
- 52:11So we know at least this, this, um, round, we can be very certain.
- 52:16Uh, we, we, we know, um, what I'm trying to get at, sorry, I'm, I'm over explaining it.
- 52:21I was like, the fucking network is halting.
- 52:24We know there's two nodes there.
- 52:25Jesus fucking Christ.
- 52:27Clearly they must be the same entity because they're two in sync, right?
- 52:30They're two in sync.
- 52:31Like when they go out, both of them probably look like they go out, right?
- 52:34And here's the interesting part.
- 52:36There's an exception to where there's no big time gaps between blocks.
- 52:41You know where the exception is?
- 52:42At block 49, when we know both of the nodes were there, right?
- 52:46You can see there, it's a 12-minute.
- 52:48All the other have big time blocks.
- 52:49Only these ones have 12 minutes, which is like normal and whatever.
- 52:54And I also do a very crude statistical analysis here.
- 52:58And this is from block 29 to block 77.
- 53:00and it looks like again in the average here is about 10.7 minutes which is what we're going for
- 53:07it's not a proof per se but it's actually like looks like he was a healthy thing which again we
- 53:12know this was happening in the in the node so you know when i looked at this stuff and whatever i
- 53:16was like oh my god i just think it's so hard to not really be like it must have been satoshi
- 53:21because satoshi started off you see there she saw not even how was like yeah sure let's let's
- 53:26jump in and whatever it's like dear god if i if i don't have anything here um on this network it's
- 53:32not gonna go further if people need to jump in and also like maybe they start their own bitcoins
- 53:36or whatever let me just spin up a torno you know and then uh to tie it in a bow and whatever
- 53:42there's this other email that satoshi had uh so after this whole hullabaloo happens and whatever
- 53:47and whatnot satoshi writes an email to house is like dude you were keeping the network alive
- 53:51and sorry I can't
- 53:53try things out right now because
- 53:55I'm in a place where I can't accept incoming connections
- 53:58and that is what a Tor node
- 54:00could do at least in the context of this node and whatever
- 54:02it cannot accept incoming connections
- 54:03so I was like oh yeah this is
- 54:05fucking nuts
- 54:06so he couldn't get to his clear net node
- 54:09to accept incoming connections
- 54:11I don't know why
- 54:13Tor wouldn't have done it anyway is that what you're saying
- 54:15not quite
- 54:17I could have been more clear one second
- 54:19so the thing is like
- 54:21and the Bitcoin Core version 0.1, the one we're working with,
- 54:25you could not accept incoming connections.
- 54:28So Satoshi says here,
- 54:34unfortunately, I can't receive incoming connections from where I am,
- 54:39from where I am, which has made things more difficult.
- 54:42Your note receiving incoming connection was the main thing
- 54:44keeping the network going for the first two days.
- 54:47So Satoshi, what I'm reading here is like where I am.
- 54:50So Satoshi is somewhere else where he's not home, but he's on set up.
- 54:54So he's probably just connecting via Tor to be private.
- 54:58And with Tor, you can't accept incoming connections.
- 55:01So it's a hint towards the fact that, again, and again, what is the coincidence?
- 55:04He mentions this when we have the Tor node and whatever.
- 55:09It's fascinating.
- 55:10What fascinates me about how much work he put into this, some research, is that it's just like the first few days of the network online.
- 55:17There's so much in this short period of time, the 72 to 96 hour period that, I mean, you articulated it in the video and in the article.
- 55:28So much rested on this early interaction with the Bitcoin network.
- 55:34Yes.
- 55:35Yes.
- 55:36And the thing is, like, in most of those, by the way, so we didn't really touch this, but most of the emails with Satoshi and Hal, Hal says this doesn't work.
- 55:43And they try to fix it and it's just hair pulling and nothing works and this doesn't work.
- 55:46and there's one note and whatever.
- 55:48So, dude, this thing almost barely take off.
- 55:52I mean, it was the most dinkiest.
- 55:54It almost is like God was pushing it from behind
- 55:58because it's like everything that could have gone wrong
- 56:01went in the absolute worst way that could have gone wrong.
- 56:03You know, it was a fucking shit show.
- 56:06And think about it like this.
- 56:08All this shit show and whatever,
- 56:10it's Hal Finney and Dustin Tramiel.
- 56:14I don't even know what,
- 56:15I mean, they're probably fucking retarded or crazy or something, right?
- 56:17Because you have to be so retarded to look at this and to be like, you know what, man?
- 56:21I think this deserves a chance.
- 56:23I think we need to look at this.
- 56:26Well, again, we can't ask how, but we should ask Dustin at some point.
- 56:29Because it just almost makes no sense, you know?
- 56:31It just, wow.
- 56:33Wow, that's all I can say.
- 56:35Yeah.
- 56:36Now I feel like I need to get Dustin on if he would come on to talk about this stuff.
- 56:40Because it's fascinating.
- 56:40And you highlighted, too.
- 56:42had the emails sort of lining up with Satoshi sending version 0.1.1 to Hal and then him tweeting
- 56:49out a few hours later running Bitcoin. So you can tell that the tweet sort of lines up with
- 56:56the back and forth email he had to try to fix the bugs and get a new version.
- 56:59Yes, absolutely. I think we can turn off the screen share.
- 57:06No.
- 57:06Yeah. And also another question that you may think,
- 57:09but what if Dustin was the Tor node? Sorry, I forgot to mention, Dustin also had some private
- 57:14conversations with Satoshi, which he also released. So I also looked at those emails for some other
- 57:20stuff. And he actually shares his IP address with Satoshi there. So that's why I think it's not him.
- 57:28And I think he even said this. So the thesis is essentially that to bootstrap the network in the
- 57:36In the early days, Satoshi had a clear net node and a node running through Tor that were connected and mining blocks so that when other individuals joined the network like Hal and Dustin, it looked like there was activity already.
- 57:49And they could have peers and begin mining immediately to improve the user experience.
- 57:55So why is this important?
- 57:57Why is it important to know all this?
- 58:00I don't, because it's cool, dude.
- 58:01What do you mean why it's important?
- 58:03It's like, why do you fall in love with a woman?
- 58:05Why do you go there?
- 58:06Why do you sometimes feel like you're like, there, that's, I have to go there.
- 58:10That's where it is.
- 58:10That's the prize.
- 58:11I fucking see it.
- 58:12I know it.
- 58:13That's why you do it.
- 58:14I mean, how could I have ever first seen this?
- 58:16You know, there was no way.
- 58:17I just couldn't leave it alone.
- 58:19I just could not fucking leave it alone.
- 58:22And I was right.
- 58:23I mean, I'm always right.
- 58:24Everyone, when they feel like this, you're always right.
- 58:26It doesn matter what when you just like you know it this tiny string that kind of like and you have to listen you can you can have bullshit around your head because you have to listen to that that that tiny whisper you know or maybe this is how I going to re I telling the world that I fucking
- 58:41crazy and retarded.
- 58:43It's the whisper that told me.
- 58:44We all are.
- 58:45But like, no,
- 58:46I think you made a good point in the video and in the article is like,
- 58:48I think if the thesis that you put out there is believable,
- 58:54which I think it certainly is, what does it debunk?
- 58:57Like was Bitcoin created by the NSA?
- 58:58what was the type of person like what type of person was satoshi i i think that's a very good
- 59:04point and i even forgot about that that kind of came to me later but it was like dude when you see
- 59:09how fucked up this whole thing was and again how many like things were just happening wrong i just
- 59:15feel like the chances of thinking this was created by the nsa i mean i do you have to be really really
- 59:21really i can't prove it right because you could say well the nsa may have done this and whatever
- 59:26but that i think that that's a bit retarded because i mean i just feel like if you would
- 59:32give me a million dollars and you would say construct the chaos like this i don't think you
- 59:36i don't think you could do it i really don't think so so yeah when you look at it and the
- 59:41biggest the fact that it went so bad and so poorly and nothing worked and whatever i think this is
- 59:46the biggest proof that it was organic really you know so yeah and also like this whole bullshit
- 59:52about it was a one nothing against women by the way i'm not trying to say anything it was so maybe
- 59:56it's a woman maybe it's a group of people but dude come on look at this this is some fucking guy
- 1:00:02with a laptop like you and me for some of a fucking reason he figured this out he put her
- 1:00:06on the internet he was talking with with some random guy on the internet and with two random
- 1:00:10guys on the internet that was it he made a fucking pet project i come on let's be honest
- 1:00:15this is what happened you know well that's the other point too like could bitcoin have easily
- 1:00:20died in the cradle of dust and hal didn't care to actually try to get it working
- 1:00:26my opinion is that i mean the thing is like you never know right but i i just feel like
- 1:00:34do you guys know that the video it's a very old video there's this guy this rave on a on a hill
- 1:00:41he's dancing like this and whatever you know and then there's one the first person that comes and
- 1:00:48the other one and whatever and what that and it goes and then oh my god it's it's so passe to not
- 1:00:53be a part of it and do that i just feel like that's really what it is it's like well and see
- 1:00:57the guy the narrator says there is a second guy doesn't come and i think i'm afterward you know
- 1:01:02so i you really feel like it's hard to even put into words how important it was not only how but
- 1:01:08also dusting equally equally absolutely equally um just being willing to do this you know and to
- 1:01:13participate there i mean i know you're focused on the first 170 blocks but like how did you
- 1:01:18research how long it took for more nodes like when a marty mommy join um like when did it get
- 1:01:26beyond three people and the tour node that we're suspecting is satoshi well i haven't really looked
- 1:01:32because it took a year to look at this i don't know what so maybe the next research we'll see
- 1:01:37but um well mommy came way later actually when mommy came he was i i think he came before they
- 1:01:44have they had bitcoin talk which wasn't even called bitcoin talk he was hosted on bitcoin
- 1:01:47that work but it's the same interface um i really don't know i have it in my notes but i don't know
- 1:01:52by but it was it was way more popular at this point there were people talking it was
- 1:01:57it had a community at that point we can claim at least that yeah well that brings up another
- 1:02:01good point like what other forensic excursions do you plan on going on or what are there oh i i
- 1:02:08have a few other things that i'm gonna i mean i already filmed one video it's not as big as this
- 1:02:13one is not as grandiose or a bit more smaller. I also figured out some very interesting, I just
- 1:02:18don't want to like share them because they're not super important, but people have questions about
- 1:02:22like why Satoshi made certain weird decisions in the code and whatnot. And there's a whole many
- 1:02:26questions on Stack Exchange and the answer is always like, you have to ask Satoshi, you know?
- 1:02:31And I think I figured out one of this, but it doesn't change anything. It's just, I just kind
- 1:02:35of have enough context from the chaos and I'm like, oh, that's why it was, it was actually
- 1:02:39nothing burger i just i just could trace it this part of the code you know but what other thing
- 1:02:43that i want to do and whatever i mean i don't have any more for instance investigations but
- 1:02:47i'm making movies man i'm movie director that's what i do so um uh are we wrapping up by the way
- 1:02:54no we don't have to keep going i want to actually wanted to touch on that like the the art side of
- 1:02:58this because i mean the production value was incredible and i think telling thank you these
- 1:03:04Bitcoin stories in this way, in this engaging way is very important.
- 1:03:08And I know you've been sort of iterating on this art form within Bitcoin for years.
- 1:03:13And I think the output is incredible.
- 1:03:16So just like your worldview and bringing this artistic touch to the Bitcoin world.
- 1:03:22Yeah.
- 1:03:23Well, you know, I mean, I never really think about that.
- 1:03:28It's going to sound so insane, but like everything I said here.
- 1:03:31but uh but uh i i just i just want to see that video i know no one is going to make this video
- 1:03:39never ever in a thousand years and i have to see i just need to see that i need to see it on the
- 1:03:44screen i don't get this bullshit about i don't watch my stuff shut the fuck up i watched it i
- 1:03:48watched it yesterday i watched it today i love it i fucking love it how good it is you know and i
- 1:03:53just want to see that video i like it so much i love this stuff i can't get enough of it i everyone
- 1:03:57that knows me or life knows this is how this is what i breathe every time if i'm somewhere i talk
- 1:04:03about bitcoin weird things i just want to see this thing so i just wanted to do it like this that's
- 1:04:08what i was thinking about but i do kind of feel like uh i don't know most of where it goes but i
- 1:04:12feel like what i was sucking my own dick i can set a new standard i think i think i sound as
- 1:04:19i think this is a new standard if i don't say so well good we need to raise the standards it's a
- 1:04:25high standard i mean the the behind the scenes sort of a b-roll cut that you include in there
- 1:04:30we have the camera on the on the track and you're like pushing it toward your laptop and like
- 1:04:35took a lot of time and effort to set it up yeah but the thing is like dude what is dirt house to
- 1:04:42do in life when you think about it man you're gonna die dude you're gonna die everything you
- 1:04:47know is gonna die everyone knows gonna die and and the craziest part is that you can't even be
- 1:04:52sure that when you're awake
- 1:04:54this is real. I mean, just think about
- 1:04:56how many times I sure everyone can relate this you have a dream you think it so sure It goes away That happened this morning I don believe you Really
- 1:05:08Yeah.
- 1:05:09Are you serious?
- 1:05:10Yeah. I mean, I, I, I have pretty vivid dreams. Yeah.
- 1:05:16Well, anyway, the point is like, that's what life could be.
- 1:05:19So the only thing you could do philosophically,
- 1:05:22if you want to be philosophically rational is you have to pick something and go get the high score on that.
- 1:05:27And it doesn't have to be, this is just my own retardation, which is fine, but it could be other things, you know?
- 1:05:34So the reason why it's like you have to put everything in something.
- 1:05:38When you do something, it has to be the best of all time.
- 1:05:41You owe it.
- 1:05:42You owe it to yourself.
- 1:05:43You owe it to whatever.
- 1:05:45It's kind of like, life is like a bag of goodies.
- 1:05:51You keep taking back things.
- 1:05:53only you can put something back because it's so vast and so big and such a crazy
- 1:05:57the hard thing to contribute is you have to really really really give it everything and even if you
- 1:06:01don't contribute something back at least you you spent your time well you know so that's how i think
- 1:06:06about anyway it's never like uh the stuff but yes i like to brag i'm very braggadocious absolutely
- 1:06:11and i do like this i like to be like oh look how good my stuff is yeah i put in the work though
- 1:06:16i appreciate the confidence we need more confident people in this world
- 1:06:19what uh what movies are you working on right now if you're allowed to elaborate absolutely
- 1:06:24i have two movies coming out the um then one that's gonna come out the next month i don't
- 1:06:33know if it's gonna be 30 or 40 days depends it's filmed it's a short movie about bitcoin core
- 1:06:37and it follows this fictionalized story of myself where i start i i use bitcoin core and i need to
- 1:06:43verify the pgp keys and i'm so retarded that i decide that i need to find so when you verify the
- 1:06:48pgp keys there are certain people that sign it and i'm like you know what i'm gonna do i'm gonna go
- 1:06:54across the world take planes and find the people to who verify the pgp key to verify the pgp key
- 1:07:00around them and you have in this video mz uh shorts provost uh you also have some a few other
- 1:07:07cameos there uh and it's it's again it's still very jokey and whatever but it's way more narrative
- 1:07:12and and and by the way if you like this stuff you want a place in history you know what i'm
- 1:07:17looking for sponsors in this uh in the in this movie um because uh i mean um well i just in this
- 1:07:26specific video with a thing i really didn't want to add any sponsors because i wanted to be pure
- 1:07:30and i didn't want to taint it in any way but i'm a business man i'm a fucking priest and cost a lot
- 1:07:34of money out of my own pocket to make these things uh so um i would i would be very happy to have
- 1:07:39sponsors and your logo will be included there and it's not going to be just the fucking logo there
- 1:07:43put it's going to be an object as you can see at the end of the video and whatever so if you want
- 1:07:47to do that please hit me up and i also have this other movie that i've been working on which is
- 1:07:51called satoshis don't exist i started in 2023 um and well again it was just one of those things that
- 1:07:58annoyed me it was like when you think about it the satoshi units don't exist and they're not
- 1:08:03present in the code and i was trying to have conversations with people like this and they
- 1:08:06were so like you're wrong you're stupid i was like can we please just look at a code and i said no
- 1:08:09i was like girl i'll make a movie about it you see and um and the thing is that when i started
- 1:08:15that movie i wasn't so versed in cinematography but i kind of got to that point and then i was
- 1:08:20like oh you know what and i got some money people were very helpful it was it was absolutely cool
- 1:08:25but i just felt like i know at this point with my own two hands a light bulb and a camera i can
- 1:08:30rival any colleague production of course not in scale or like this but i know i mean i know i
- 1:08:35could do that i've done it now um so anyway so i wanted i feel like the satoshi don't exist because
- 1:08:39that's a proper feature film and i also went to azores i filmed there and there's a lot of stuff
- 1:08:44I wanted to really, really show that I'm good at cinematography.
- 1:08:47Give me a lot of money because I know this could be a great thing that's going to go
- 1:08:50all over the world.
- 1:08:51So I took all the money that I raised for that one.
- 1:08:53And I made this MVP version of the Vito short movie, the how to install Bitcoin Core.
- 1:08:59And then I swear to God, I was ready to launch it.
- 1:09:02This whole thing started when I was ready to launch it last year.
- 1:09:04I was absolutely ready.
- 1:09:05And then this thing fell in my lap.
- 1:09:06And I was like, okay, here we go.
- 1:09:08Another side quest.
- 1:09:09Let's go.
- 1:09:10I promise.
- 1:09:11Listen, I promise I'm not taking any side quest.
- 1:09:13and for the people like the movie is filmed by the way it's not gonna take it's filmed it's ready
- 1:09:18i could release it tomorrow if we want to i just i just need to find some sponsorships and whatever
- 1:09:23you know and i mean again just think about it if you want to see more content like this uh
- 1:09:27similar dimension or something because again it it you cannot imagine how hard it is and
- 1:09:31i mean the minimum amount of takes is 50 takes so you know there's there's moments in this movie
- 1:09:36like the beginning of the dusting thing that took two weeks that's a four second shot took two weeks
- 1:09:40just doing it and doing it so you know damn yeah but Alex I was told AI is going to take all the
- 1:09:46all the filmmaking jobs is this true I think there is true this because you know I first of all I
- 1:09:53never use the eye in my stuff because I'm at a as as of this recording there's no AI in the planet
- 1:09:58that could do things better than I could do with a camera on a light bulb but it's going to change
- 1:10:02no one's going to happen here's what I predict and I'm probably I hope I'm going to be one of
- 1:10:05these people I think we're going to have the first feature film dead by a single person and it's going
- 1:10:10to be one guy in his living room and he's going to act up all the parts and whatever, because
- 1:10:15that's the hardest part is directing really with AI and being processed to it.
- 1:10:18And then there's going to be one guy in his living room acting out all the parts and the
- 1:10:22AI will get so good at augmenting this stuff.
- 1:10:24And then you're going to see a lot of stuff like this.
- 1:10:27You know, there's Francis Ford Coppola and there's the famous movie Apocalypse Now.
- 1:10:33And he went through hell.
- 1:10:34And again, I fucking love these stories.
- 1:10:37I like it when someone just tells the world, you're wrong.
- 1:10:40And everyone just tries to fucking bash him and then he wins.
- 1:10:43But the thing is like, and that being said, collaboration is really good.
- 1:10:47And it's not like I'm trying to say like, that's always better,
- 1:10:50but sometimes you can just eliminate the people you don't really need there.
- 1:10:53And they're just trying to bring the vision down and they don't believe in it.
- 1:10:57And you just eliminate overhead and we're going to get better,
- 1:11:01better everything for that, you know?
- 1:11:03Yeah. I love to hear it.
- 1:11:05I love to see you making this art because I'm putting these short films and
- 1:11:10feature films out. I'm very much looking forward to what you release next month.
- 1:11:14What are they called? What are they about?
- 1:11:16What are they called? What are they about?
- 1:11:19I'm talking about you. I said, I love that you're making them.
- 1:11:21Oh, sorry.
- 1:11:23Because like I said we need to elevate the aesthetics and the attention to detail when it comes to storytelling within Bitcoin I think your first Bitcoin miner a short film is what I call it or expose
- 1:11:37I don't know what you're calling it,
- 1:11:39but that's what I view it as.
- 1:11:41It was beautifully done, engaging, and highly educational.
- 1:11:45So thank you for doing it, brother.
- 1:11:47No, thank you for watching, man.
- 1:11:48And I just couldn't be more happy, you know,
- 1:11:50because I will tell, like, there was some time,
- 1:11:52because here's the thing.
- 1:11:53I knew this was good.
- 1:11:54I knew I had lighting in a bottle.
- 1:11:55and i if there's something in my control there's not an ounce of doubt i will fucking find a way
- 1:12:00and i'll find it it never happens that i know i can make out there's nothing that'll get in my way
- 1:12:05to get the vision that i have it never did of course i kick and cry along the way but then
- 1:12:10scream but but i get her eventually no but the thing that you can't control is how people react
- 1:12:14to it and i was there was this moment i was like oh man i mean what if people don't like it and
- 1:12:19also i this just like even if if if they would have shot me in the head i still could not change
- 1:12:24a single pixel of it right so what it was it was never like an option to be like oh well if you want
- 1:12:29people to like it changes like that's not an option i make the art that's all i make the art
- 1:12:34you consume it the end of story there's no changing or anything like that my vision is pure and goes
- 1:12:39out in the world you know yeah how uh was the reaction what you expected or i mean i feel it
- 1:12:47deserves a million fucking views i'm not gonna look 220k is respectable and thank you to everyone
- 1:12:51retweet it i really appreciate it and there are so many people that i know from from a long time
- 1:12:55and they really kind of championed this a lot and and i i without a doubt if they would have not done
- 1:13:00this you wouldn't have got all the you know um the push and whatever so i'm very happy and very
- 1:13:05thankful for that you know um but i feel it deserves some i mean it's the most important
- 1:13:10and the most discussed moment in bitcoin history you know but you know fairness and all jokes and
- 1:13:15all arrogance aside like the thing is like if you would give me this video or this article
- 1:13:21a year ago, I'm going to be honest, it would have took me more than probably two weeks to
- 1:13:25really understand what the fuck is going on here. And I think I have the best context.
- 1:13:30So as this is going to become more mature and whatever, I think people are going to look
- 1:13:34at it. People are going to find things. I hope they find things that are wrong. I hope they build on it.
- 1:13:37And I think I'm pretty confident we'll get to a million views
- 1:13:41at some point. Yeah, it's evergreen content. It'll get out there.
- 1:13:47This will be something that professors reference
- 1:13:49in the future when they're saying you want to understand the early days of Bitcoin,
- 1:13:53go check out Alex Waltz's first Bitcoin miner, Expose.
- 1:13:59I mean, of course, you can see how vain I am as a human being.
- 1:14:03Of course, I wanted to have my name there.
- 1:14:05But in all fairness, I think the thing I'm super happy is that
- 1:14:09I just got to contribute to this thing, man.
- 1:14:12I got to contribute.
- 1:14:13This thing, it's like 30 years now of my existence.
- 1:14:17It was important, this thing.
- 1:14:19and I've only got benefits from it really.
- 1:14:21And I actually made a contribution right now,
- 1:14:23a perfect contribution.
- 1:14:24And again, now I'm switching arrogance back on.
- 1:14:27You know, all the clients
- 1:14:29and all these things that you have here,
- 1:14:30they're going to become obsolete.
- 1:14:32The story will never become obsolete, you know?
- 1:14:34So a hundred years from now or whatever,
- 1:14:36even if it doesn't matter
- 1:14:38if they don't see what's going on.
- 1:14:39But in this darkness
- 1:14:42of what the Bitcoin moment was,
- 1:14:44I had just a tiny bit of a spotlight, you know?
- 1:14:47and that that's everything you know yeah no if anything it shifted uh conversation towards a
- 1:14:52more productive uh more productive uh topic i would argue um because that's the discourse has
- 1:14:59been pretty piss poor last year yeah well you know i also feel like the problem with the bitcoin
- 1:15:05stuff you were saying like do you see coinbase man they have the best marketing on the planet
- 1:15:10they are up to up with with apple right now you know and i really don't i mean i know i'm asking
- 1:15:16for money, I'm probably going to piss off a lot of people, but like, guys, come on.
- 1:15:19You really think you're going to be better than Coinbase and take over the world and
- 1:15:22bring the Bitcoin domestic when you share fucking memes that are low resolution?
- 1:15:26I mean, step up your game.
- 1:15:28If I can hire me to make a commercial for you, you know what I'm saying?
- 1:15:32If you're listening and I know many of you are working at Bitcoin companies, seriously
- 1:15:35take them up.
- 1:15:36We need to elevate the game when it comes to competing with Coinbase commercials and
- 1:15:41telling the story.
- 1:15:43Yeah.
- 1:15:43I mean, you know, at the end of the day, it's like your responsibility to tell the story, you know, because you're going to spit at people to get it and whatever.
- 1:15:49And I think everyone has a really interesting story.
- 1:15:52The problem is you really need to be able to articulate it, you know.
- 1:15:55And I think I don't want to think about that.
- 1:15:57Yeah.
- 1:15:58Well, we're going to link to it in the show notes.
- 1:16:01If you haven't watched it yet, make sure you watch it, Freaks.
- 1:16:04And then if you're out there and support Alex and his work, reach out.
- 1:16:08Got more great art coming to market.
- 1:16:10But thank you for telling the story.
- 1:16:11It was fascinating.
- 1:16:13And I think it's like you said, it's an incredible contribution that will give people better context of the early, the literal early days of Bitcoin, the first few days of Bitcoin.
- 1:16:25Which, again, I think that that was my favorite part is like the attention to detail to a 96 hour period.
- 1:16:32Thank you.
- 1:16:33Well, again, thank you very much for having me on.
- 1:16:36And AlexWaltz.com won't spit like the dance.
- 1:16:38If you want to find other shit that I did, find me on Twitter,
- 1:16:41raw underscore avocado, tweet at me, send me dick pics.
- 1:16:44I'm kidding.
- 1:16:44Only tits.
- 1:16:45Only tits.
- 1:16:46I don't like tits.
- 1:16:47And I don't know if you, if you, if you,
- 1:16:50if you feel like you want to do something great that could change the world
- 1:16:52and whatever, fucking hit me up.
- 1:16:54Let's, let's fucking do it.
- 1:16:55Let's turn the world fucking upside down.
- 1:16:57Let's do it.
- 1:16:58Peace.
- 1:16:58Love freaks.
- 1:17:00Thank you for listening to this episode of TFTC.
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- 1:18:01Thank you.