68 Comments
Dec 13, 2022·edited Dec 13, 2022

That signature type didn't exist until after Hal's was out of comission, so it was presumably created by someone who obtained hal's private keys after his death FWIW. You can see that address was actively sending transactions long after hal's death so *unambiguously* someone else has control of the key.

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which signature type?

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Dec 13, 2022·edited Dec 13, 2022

The signature you posted isn't compatible with the Bitcoin blockchain, it's a new signature type we introduced specifically for message signing which was first released in Bitcoin 0.5.0 on November 1st 2011. But the specific format that it's in is an electrum style which wasn't even proposed until mid 2013 -- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=218471.0 I'm not sure when it was first implemented. By the time signmessage was created in late 2011 Hal was profoundly disabled and only able to use a computer with someone elses help, it wasn't widely used until years after. Other commenters have pointed out that this address was active in 2017 so that gives an obvious explanation: The message wasn't signed by Hal but whomever is using his keys now.

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this is very helpful, i am going to reach out to Finney's family to see who has these keys and why would they be signing messages... from the little I know of the Finneys, it does not seem like they would be LARPing and signing random signatures or selling the key pairs

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Extortionists attacked his family previously, and as I understand it they sold some of Hal's bitcoin to pay for his care. It's possible that they did so by just selling the keys (or a whole wallet)-- it would be a convenient way to do so that wouldn't require figuring out how to use it. They are also periodically abused due to allegations that Hal was really Satoshi, so it's not inconceivable to me that they might try to throw people off. The scammer craig wright has proved that people will believe pretty much any claim about Satoshi, esp if it's couched in enough technical obfuscation.

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Very interesting. I have no dog in this fight, and do not care if Satoshi is Le Roux, Finney, neither, or both. It seems very likely the signature was created recently by someone who has gained access to it.

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I believe Hal's estate was trying to sell a 500 BTC Casascius bar around that time as well. The post is somewhere on Bitcointalk... in fact, wasn't that you that posted it Gregory? In regards to "someone passing away". I don't know for certain it was Hal's estate, but the poster on BTCTalk would know.

Perhaps they sold keys along with that. That would make sense. (There was only two 500BTC bars ever made, I had the right to sell the empty one in 2014)

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Martin took the information that I had given him (from a source) and not reported the story appropriately. My question in reply to you Greg, not to denounce or disagree with anything you said, but..

1- If last activity was to sell for funeral costs, wouldn't it not have been in 2017?

2- If the wallet were compromised from hard drive, wouldn't this be public?

3- If the children are tech savvy and have the hard drives, would they sell them?

4- If they did sell, is there an NDA or can they say who?

5- If they didn't sell, did they put the info in based on their fathers testimony?

6- If his wife has followed the twitter saga, wouldn't she be aware of this too?

7- Could Paul be the guy if your speculation about compromised wallets is false?

I think it's necessary to know the truth about this, as the fund Satoshi holds is astronomical. If Paul indeed had those drives, and claims they were taken from his Philipines office (source told me) well, do the feds have them? Does someone malicious have them? Message me on telegram, @pebblenewsca

https://pebblenews.ca/post/paul-leroux-is-satoshi-nakamoto

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Dec 14, 2022Liked by Martin Shkreli

"That's my story. I'm pretty lucky overall. Even with the ALS, my life is very satisfying. But my life expectancy is limited. Those discussions about inheriting your bitcoins are of more than academic interest. My bitcoins are stored in our safe deposit box, and my son and daughter are tech savvy. I think they're safe enough. I'm comfortable with my legacy."

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hello Hal.

please explain the story of Paul Le Roux

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Dec 14, 2022Liked by Martin Shkreli

In the world of magic (as in magic performed with playing cards), there is a famous author who used the nom de plume S.W. Erdnase way back in 1902. To this date, no one really knows who that person really was. People STILL research and argue over this. I wonder whether the mystery of Satoshi's identity will have the same longevity.

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Who sent you the message and signature?

The address was used last time in 2017, while Hall died in 2014. So someone has Hall's private key for that address and signed that bullshit message. And now you are being used to spread that lie....

The message could be created and signed last week by the one which has the private key for that address. Because some one HAS it and is using it (as said, address was used last time in 2017 while Hall died in 2014).

Now, who sent you the message and signature?

@BitMax14

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I did, i got it from a source. contact @pebblenewsca on telegram.

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The failure to answer this question - even by briefly saying why he cannot directly say, is very telling. We can see Martin has been going through the comments. Much as I want Satoshi to be revealed as Paul Le Roux because it fits my bias, this whole thing does not smell right. Feels insincere and another Shkreli stunt.

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whatever it is i hope its just Dr. Shkreli trolling our dearest Faketoshi into an early grave and im more than sure our Creg Satoj is on suicide watch in the bowels of some psych ward exclusively built for closeted pedo scammers. the levels of cregs fuckwittery merit a prank like using leaked ancient Bitcorn keys to further BTFO him. and its doubtful Le Roux actually is satoshi bc being a black hat crime lord you'd think he could leverage literal billions in capital holdings to buy his way out of a prison cell - but he still remains trapped like a rat for years to come.

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Since these private keys have been active after Hal's death, the most interesting question here is: How did you obtain this message?

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This just means someone has Hal’s private key. Once you have the private key, you can make any message you want lol. It’s not written into the blockchain anywhere.

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nice bait but SN = Sergey Nazarov.

its not up for debate. mountain of evidence on it and he will never come out as SN.

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-----BEGIN BITCOIN SIGNED MESSAGE-----

This Transaction was made by Paul Leroux to Hal Finney on January 12, 2009 #bitcoin

-----BEGIN SIGNATURE-----

1Q2TWHE3GMdB6BZKafqwxXtWAWgFt5Jvm3

HM7vpPSUbNsfDHRX6gv8xxWcVNHEc/3pOk0YrVehaGoUdbWizznfzOdELkLd1EjSXsW1oE5vHAkNAPzrAVzhuoI=

-----END BITCOIN SIGNED MESSAGE-----

It surely verifies but it only proves that someone has the private keys of Hal address. Nothing else. The message indicates that someone is just trolling and wants to imply that Leroux is Satoshi, but he is not.

Nice find, though.

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Dec 13, 2022·edited Dec 13, 2022

Did you verify the signature correctly, along with the message?

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author

yes

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Well, who is to say that you are wrong, Martin? Genuinely asking what other obstacles there are to cross if this is all verified and the two things that matter are, in fact, true. The wallet does exist because how else would everything else be verified? If this is correct, Roux is Satoshi, which has real implications.

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Heil Shkreli, my favourite substack

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curious, how are you decrypting the signature?

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author

use any decryption tool, i used several

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1. 1Q2TWHE3GMdB6BZKafqwxXtWAWgFt5Jvm3 is Hal's address, so that means the message was written by someone with Hal's private key (not from Satoshi's).

2. Hal died 2014, that address last sent btc in 2017, so someone else (estate?) had access to the private key. I wouldn't be surprised if the private key got leaked (maybe even sold), so it's entirely possible that someone else signed that message (and recently at that).

3. Not sure if there's evidence that Hal even knew who satoshi was

But yeah, crazy... I verified the message too, I just don't think it's conclusive evidence of who satoshi is/was

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Is it possible to get your thoughts on the new class of migraine medication? I dont know who to trust anymore.

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Jan 7, 2023·edited Jan 7, 2023

Not sure if deleted ot what, but Paul Le Roux is presently at Fort Dix, which I understand is the same place you were: is that right Martin? If so, did you ever get a chance to meet? If not, were you aware of Paul being at Fort Dix?

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https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2020/05/25/craig-wright-called-fraud-in-message-signed-with-bitcoin-addresses-he-claims-to-own/?outputType=amp

this technique has already been used when transactions signed "Craig Wright liar".

who benefits from calling Paul real Satoshi?

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