6 ms·

yup, agree, also looking how Len writes, he is definitely not Satoshi. You can see on his twitter(Len) - https://twitter.com/lensassaman https://twitter.com/len

yup, agree, also looking how Len writes, he is definitely not Satoshi. You can see on his twitter(Len) - https://twitter.com/lensassaman https://twitter.com/lensassaman that he is quite punctual, ie. sentences end with periods, quotation is accurate. What gives it away is every sentence he writes on twitter is one space after the period, Satoshi is 2 spaces every single time. Also seeing the same thing for Hal Finney(https://twitter.com/halfin https://twitter.com/halfin), so my deduction is neither of them is Satoshi.

stavros 3y ago
Hal's personal site has two spaces after a period.
- subsubzero 3y ago
  I see one space - https://web.archive.org/web/20140403012916/http://www.finney.org/~hal/ https://web.archive.org/web/20140403012916/http://www.finney... EDIT - really interesting, could very well be Hal, every sentence after a period ends with 2 spaces - view-source:https://web.archive.org/web/20140403012916/http://www.finney.org/~hal/ https://web.archive.org/web/20140403012916/http://www.finney...
  - stavros 3y ago
    View source.
    - BlueTemplar 3y ago
      Wait, what causes this kind of replacement ??
      - stavros 3y ago
        HTML considers whitespace insignificant.
        Hamuko 3y ago
        Well, repeating whitespace. Single whitespace still has significance. If you have two display: inline-block <div> elements, it will make a difference if you add a space (or three million spaces) in between.
alisonatwork 3y ago
PINE (the mail client) had a ^J keyboard shortcut to justify the lines. It's been a long time since I used it, but I seem to recall that it would insert double space after period when you hit that key. It might even have been possible to set it up to auto justify on save/send. I suspect that's why a lot of old (plain text) email had the double space after period and perhaps still does in OSS circles. I think the default vim justification worked that way too. Around this time I went through a phase of bloody-mindedly using Mail/mailx and vi on OpenBSD while still sending mail through my ISP's SMTP and using fetchmail to grab it through POP3. I would not at all be surprised if cypherpunk types were doing the same thing, even if their main desktop or laptop was Windows and they used single space after period for non-email communication. Edit to add: I just looked up fmt(1) manpage[0] and it specifically mentions using it to format mails, and that the default is two space after period. [0] https://man.openbsd.org/fmt.1 https://man.openbsd.org/fmt.1
- someplaceguy 3y ago
  The bitcoin whitepaper was written in OpenOffice and it also has double spaces after periods, which doesn't fit your theory.
  - alisonatwork 3y ago
    I don't really have a theory, just sharing my experience growing up being taught to use two spaces, then in the early 2000s consciously adjusting my writing style back to one space, then having my plaintext emails still end up with two spaces anyway. It's interesting that a document written in a WYSIWYG word processor would have two spaces because I think what originally got me to switch to one was word processor auto corrects removing the extra space, or at least putting blue squigglies in during the grammar check. I guess my feeling is that although this might be an indicator of authorship, it's not necessarily a smoking gun one way or the other.
dogman144 3y ago
There’s a great write up on Len that digs into this style of analysis and others, and that’s what sold me. Worth reading if it the topic interests you, it’s linked elsewhere here I think! Lots of fun spacing, timezone to forum posts analysis, who worked and researched with who…

stavros 3y ago

Hal's personal site has two spaces after a period.

subsubzero 3y ago
I see one space - https://web.archive.org/web/20140403012916/http://www.finney.org/~hal/ https://web.archive.org/web/20140403012916/http://www.finney... EDIT - really interesting, could very well be Hal, every sentence after a period ends with 2 spaces - view-source:https://web.archive.org/web/20140403012916/http://www.finney.org/~hal/ https://web.archive.org/web/20140403012916/http://www.finney...
- stavros 3y ago
  View source.
  - BlueTemplar 3y ago
    Wait, what causes this kind of replacement ??
    - stavros 3y ago
      HTML considers whitespace insignificant.
      - Hamuko 3y ago
        Well, repeating whitespace. Single whitespace still has significance. If you have two display: inline-block <div> elements, it will make a difference if you add a space (or three million spaces) in between.

alisonatwork 3y ago

PINE (the mail client) had a ^J keyboard shortcut to justify the lines. It's been a long time since I used it, but I seem to recall that it would insert double space after period when you hit that key. It might even have been possible to set it up to auto justify on save/send. I suspect that's why a lot of old (plain text) email had the double space after period and perhaps still does in OSS circles. I think the default vim justification worked that way too. Around this time I went through a phase of bloody-mindedly using Mail/mailx and vi on OpenBSD while still sending mail through my ISP's SMTP and using fetchmail to grab it through POP3. I would not at all be surprised if cypherpunk types were doing the same thing, even if their main desktop or laptop was Windows and they used single space after period for non-email communication. Edit to add: I just looked up fmt(1) manpage[0] and it specifically mentions using it to format mails, and that the default is two space after period. [0] https://man.openbsd.org/fmt.1 https://man.openbsd.org/fmt.1

someplaceguy 3y ago
The bitcoin whitepaper was written in OpenOffice and it also has double spaces after periods, which doesn't fit your theory.
- alisonatwork 3y ago
  I don't really have a theory, just sharing my experience growing up being taught to use two spaces, then in the early 2000s consciously adjusting my writing style back to one space, then having my plaintext emails still end up with two spaces anyway. It's interesting that a document written in a WYSIWYG word processor would have two spaces because I think what originally got me to switch to one was word processor auto corrects removing the extra space, or at least putting blue squigglies in during the grammar check. I guess my feeling is that although this might be an indicator of authorship, it's not necessarily a smoking gun one way or the other.

dogman144 3y ago

There’s a great write up on Len that digs into this style of analysis and others, and that’s what sold me. Worth reading if it the topic interests you, it’s linked elsewhere here I think! Lots of fun spacing, timezone to forum posts analysis, who worked and researched with who…