Friday 7 March 2014

Leah McGrath Goodman loses cred

I saw this on Clever Trevor's blog comments, after having read about it already on my usual daily news sites.

"It would appear that Leah McGrath Goodman has either just broken one of the biggest stories on the planet, or seriously overplayed her hand.

http://mag.newsweek.com/2014/03/14/bitcoin-satoshi-nakamoto.html

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/mar/07/satoshi-nakamoto-denies-inventing-bitcoin

On the sites where people get to comment, there has been a strong backlash against Leah, saying this was a very low thing to do. On one site I even found a predictable reference to HDLG :

"The journalist was sniffing around the island of Jersey because of alleged financial malfeasance and, more bizarrely, supposedly murdered children at the now infamous Haut la Garenne childrens home. I know from my reading on this matter that this is abject bollocks, and made me question her wisdom."
http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2014/03/06/bitcoin_inventor_satoshi_nakamoto_revealed/

( a second story on The Register is about Nakamono's denial : http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/03/07/nakamono_man_denies_inventing_bitcoin/ )

The evidence for him being the inventor seems to be a matter of opinion, hardly anything concrete. Even if he was behind BTC, what right does Leah have to expose him? From being a champion of truth and justice, it seems she has immediately sunken to gutter press levels of self interest. So that's a big "Whoops!" and a blow for the cause of the abuse victims. How sad.

3 comments:

Rob Kent said...

The identification may not be wrong though - see this tweet from one of the acknowledged developers of bitcoin:

"I'm disappointed Newsweek decided to dox the Nakamoto family, and regret talking to Leah."

https://twitter.com/gavinandresen/status/441547758827474946

Whether or not she was right to reveal his name is debatable, although how many journalists who got that story would not print it?

Anonymous said...

"supposedly murdered children at the now infamous Haut la Garenne childrens home. I know from my reading on this matter that this is abject bollocks, and made me question her wisdom."

Why is it 'bollocks', do you know without doubt that the charred and fleshed bones found at HDLG, were not children? If so, it may help if you can provide some evidence at the impending COI.

Crapaudpinion said...

Anon, that comment wasn't mine, I merely quoted it to show the usual rubbish is coming out again. You could try asking the idiot in question on the forum I linked to :)