[Air-L] Fun bit from the NYT reveal into Satoshi’s identity

[Morten Bay]

Just wait until the author hears about newsgroups and USENET.

Also, one of the first (if not THE first)<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdfunding#Early_campaigns> Internet-driven crowdfunding campaign started on a mailing list run by the band Marillion<https://www.loudersound.com/features/crowdfunding-anoraks-and-prog-weekenders-how-marillion-survived-the-90s>, whom I happen to be a massive fan of - so I was on the list when it happened, and I'm still cursing that I didn't keep those email archive files.

My annoyance scream is mostly about the author's semi-dismissive tone describing a part of Internet culture that forever shaped what we do online...

Darn youth of today! (shakes fist at cloud)

M



Morten Bay, Ph.D.
Lecturer
Research fellow, Center for the Digital Future
Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
University of Southern California
On Apr 10, 2026 at 10:44 PM -0700, Roberts, Sarah via Air-L <Air-L at listserv.aoir.org>, wrote:
I thought members of this Internet mailing list, a sort of precursor to today’s message boards, might enjoy the following passage from the New York Times’ recent investigation into the identity of the bitcoin creator pseudonymously referred



I thought members of this Internet mailing list, a sort of precursor to today’s message boards, might enjoy the following passage from the New York Times’ recent investigation into the identity of the bitcoin creator pseudonymously referred to as “Satoshi Nakamoto.” And by enjoy, I mean that it might perhaps make you scream in annoyance, as it did to me:


“Satoshi was also very likely a member of the Cypherpunks, a group of anarchists formed in the early 1990s who wanted to use cryptography, the art of securing communications through code, to free individuals from government surveillance and censorship.


The Cypherpunks interacted mostly through something called an internet mailing list. Ancestors of today’s message boards, mailing lists were large group emails in old typewriter font that subscribers received in their inbox. To communicate, respondents replied-all.”


https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/08/business/bitcoin-satoshi-nakamoto-identity-adam-back.html<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/08/business/bitcoin-satoshi-nakamoto-identity-adam-back.html__;!!LIr3w8kk_Xxm!tS-eZwZg_GxwqF8M2XyeyyT8WsRvTseoVld1ZUbJgI-bmCB_oASnXMwThpNTHJOGdJMzbCMrl_sXBXRIKQ$>


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S a r a h  T.  R o b e r t s,  P h. D.
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