3

The CBS Show "The Good Wife" had a series of shows speaking about the Bitcoin and its creation. Although the show is entertaining, it is prudent for those of you who know the truth to record it for historical purposes, not letting the TV drama perpetuate inaccuracies.

In case you haven't seen it, you can look here: http://www.cbs.com/shows/the_good_wife/video/2186658794/the-good-wife-bitcoin-for-dummies

For example: Is there a Bitcoin manifesto written by Mr. Nakamoto? Is it possible to embed a character string in the block chain? Was Bitcoin incorporated? Was there a lawyer involved who paid people to write code? Has anyone accused Mr. Nakamoto of being a lawyer? (sorry Sir, I know this is a low blow). Is Decode-a-thon the name of the conference where all the cryptologists go?

Improve this question
3
  • 1
    Wasn't it just one show in the series, rather than a series of shows?
    – Chris Moore
    Feb 17, 2012 at 19:34
  • That CBS link tells me that the video is not available in my geographic region. Which is odd because I've watched it here before. I'm in Canada. I wonder if there's some way of embedding the episode in the block chain...
    – Chris Moore
    Feb 17, 2012 at 21:16
  • This is a total LOL to find this as one of the first Google responses to 'is "mr. bitcoin" incorporated?' in March 2018 as I watch the episode on Amazon Prime Video.
    – SDsolar
    Mar 31, 2018 at 1:41

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
5

Is there a Bitcoin manifesto written by Mr. Nakamoto?

Not really. Satoshi wrote some political stuff, but not much. Mostly he focused on the technical issues. This article is the most political thing Satoshi wrote, and it sounds kind of like a manifesto: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com/forum/topics/bitcoin-open-source

The line from the show was very unlike anything ever written by Satoshi, though.

Is it possible to embed a character string in the block chain?

Yes. Anyone can do it. Run strings -n 20 on blk0001.dat and you'll see all of the strings that people have put into the chain.

Notably, the very first Bitcoin block (created by Satoshi) contains this text:

The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks

Also, after The Good Wife someone actually put "Stack is innocent" into the chain. :-)

Was Bitcoin incorporated?

No. Still isn't.

Was there a lawyer involved who paid people to write code?

As far as is publicly known, no one was ever paid for Bitcoin coding until after Satoshi left.

Improve this answer
1
  • 6
    Note that the text Satoshi put in the genesis block served a purpose. It proves that he didn't get a head start generating blocks in advance. He can only have worked on blocks once he knew the headline from that edition of The Times. bitcoin.stackexchange.com/a/791/659 discusses this further.
    – Chris Moore
    Feb 17, 2012 at 23:15
1

Has anyone accused Mr. Nakamoto of being a lawyer?

Not that I know of.

Is Decode-a-thon the name of the conference where all the cryptologists go?

As I recall there were two conferences mentioned, Decode-a-con and Cryptobash. According to Google it seems neither is real. Here is a list of some cryptography conferences and events.

I'd have to rewatch the episode for a full list of inaccuracies. To begin with, the premise of the episode is that creating a currency is illegal in the US, which I'm pretty sure is false. A few things come to mind which might not be factual errors, but I think are misleading:

  1. It was said that bitcoins had been traded at $33 because "people were hoarding". Whatever hoarding is, it's not something that causes prices to soar rapidly. The spike was more likely caused by media hype and the lack of good short-selling options. Also the figure is off, as far as I can tell the all-time high was $31.9099.

  2. Someone was asked if he had paid with "bitcoins that he mined", with a tone suggesting that mining is the only, or even the preferred, method of obtaining bitcoins.

  3. There were some non-Bitcoin-specific "hacking stuff" in the episode which I know very little about, but can only assume do not work like that in the real world.

  4. The final revelation of Satoshi's (who, by the way, is not called "Mr. Bitcoin" in reality) identity is of course strictly the product of the authors' imagination.

Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.