  > Pretty compelling story. Not necessarily for its revelations, but for the fact that John Carreyrou and the NYT decided to publish it at all.

When is the line crossed from journalism into doxxing? Whoever created Bitcoin has a legitimate safety reason to stay anonymous. Anyone suspected of holding that much wealth becomes a target - as does their family.

▲ tptacek 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

There is no such line. The actual line is whether someone is newsworthy; the safeguard you have against journalism abusing random people (which it has done, often, over the last 150 years) is that journalists ordinarily don't write intrusive stories about random people.

(There are some other safeguards, but they're highly situational.)

The conflict between journalism and "doxxing" is a Redditism that people are frantically trying to import into real life. Maybe Reddit norms will upend the longstanding norms (and purpose) of journalism! But nobody should kid themselves that the norms have always been compatible.

▲ an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

[deleted]

▲ empath75 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I hate this idea that doxxing is some kind if crime. “Who is the creator of bitcoin?” is a matter of great public and historical interest. Finding out who he is, is the purest form of journalism.

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catcowcostume an hour ago | parent [-]

Good point, personally I had never considered that doxing could be considered not illegal/crime.

	▲	shimon 37 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		At what point does the use of clues to uncover the identity of a criminal cross the line from solid detective work to doxing? /s

▲ FireBeyond 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Except Satoshi has been "anonymous" and those Bitcoin have never moved, even when the sum total of that wallet might have been $10,000 or so.

And if Satoshi's holdings now exceed $1B, well, for better or worse, multiple courts have ruled that billionaires are inherently public figures, because of their "outsized effect on public discourse".

	▲	lovecg 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		It would be hilarious if he intentionally or accidentally lost the key, and has been trying to cash out through those Bitcoin adjacent business ventures ever since.