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

[Charles Melvin Ess]

Thanks for this, Morten - first of all, for such an interesting example 
of the fine-grained and local, one that helps fill in and enrich 
otherwise inevitably thin and vague generalizations and, in this case, 
helps correct and extend an important history.

On 13/04/2026 01:31, Morten Bay via Air-L wrote:
> Just wait until the author hears about newsgroups and USENET.

Yes.
Though having taken a bit of time to scan the article, it's interesting 
to note that the authors are a bit calmer about Napster and Gnutella - 
and a touch more informed about their shutdown vis-a-vis the issues of 
copyright as analogues to the governmental control of money that the 
Bitcoiner the authors eventually uncover is most centrally interested in 
countering via the emerging technologies (both internet-facilitated 
communication as well as computational advances in cryptography).

In any case, and to further elaborate on your central point: correct me 
if I'm wrong (as I more and more am these days), but it also seems to me 
that any number of contemporary popular modalities of communicating 
(e.g., the Google groups and subreddits in my recent explorations of 
"retro-computing") either directly or indirectly evolved from and/or 
mimic the earliest models of newsgroups, USENET, and listserves - not to 
mention interactive text gaming?

Moreover: behind what I think you rightly characterize as a 
semi-dismissive tone regarding listserves lies what Bernie Hogan and 
Barry Wellman characterized as "presentism" in what was then called CMC 
scholarship.
One of their examples is even more useful and interesting, as they 
criticize pundits and boosters in the 1990s whose euphoria over (and 
monied interests in) the emerging internet was expressed in a 
characteristic dualism of "revolutionary" new technology vs. whatever 
preceded it by a few years. Hogan and Wellman note that "they forgot 
that long-distance ties had been flourishing for generations, using 
automobiles, telephones, airplanes, and even postal (snail) mail" (2012, 
45).
(The Immanent Internet Redux, in P.H. Cheong, P. Fischer-Nielsen, P, S. 
Gelfgren, C. Ess (eds.), _Digital religion, social media and culture: 
Perspectives, practices, futures_, pp. 43-62. New York, NY: Peter Lang, 
2012).

Another way of putting it: some historians (no matter the field) 
emphasize continuity between different periods, epochs, developments - 
while others emphasize discontinuity, the "revolutionary," etc. In any 
number of ways, especially the US-centric Anglophone discourse and 
narratives surrounding the internet in the 1990s, on my reading at 
least, was much more commonly marked by a breathless enthusiasm for the 
revolutionary ("this changes everything") than an interest in 
understanding the backgrounds and deeper origins that shaped the current 
new buds.
Things may have changed somewhat - especially thanks to historians of 
the Internet, several of whom are on this list - who document these 
continuities. But I'm not sure I see much evidence of that?

However that may be: from my perspective, this is a constant and 
significant problem in our research and scholarship as new technologies 
and their accompanying possibilities, uses, issues, etc. unfold daily 
like mushrooms in the forest after a good rain: "keeping up" is 
demanding enough - much less trying to build up a long-term historical 
overview. (Thank you, historians!)

Beyond its challenges to our research and writing - my larger concern is 
that such presentism, of course, fuels the emphasis on historical 
discontinuity rather than continuity (and resonates with the other 
dualisms - ontological (IRL vs. virtual), epistemological, ethical, 
anthropological (transhumanism and digital immortality) - that run 
alongside this worldview. But that's clearly another story for another 
(very long) day.

In any case: it's hardly surprising to see such presentism and resulting 
dismissiveness in a more popular article - however irritating and 
annoying it may also be.

On a more entertaining note: my recent forays in retro-computing led to 
the happy discovery that BBSs are still somewhat alive and well. For 
those who want to remember or experience for the first time the joys of 
9600 baud communication over serial terminals - and/or simply be amused 
by Star Wars IV being played through your terminal in the form of ASCII 
art - use:
telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl
in the terminal in Mac / Linux or the command prompt in Windows. It 
takes some tinkering to "turn down" the modern terminal to 9600 baud - 
perhaps not worth it for those who have more important and pressing 
things to do. Enjoy in any case.

Many thanks all around,
- c.




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