Craig Wright – the Australian computer scientist who has long claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto – is taking a lot of flak for implementing a new feature into his BSV (bitcoin SV) token.
The Vision of Satoshi Nakamoto Is Arriving in an Odd Place
The new feature is known as a “blacklist manager,” and it’s a software tool that allows users and investors to take back coins from thieves should their assets be stolen. At the heart of the matter is something that appears to be shrouded in noble intent. After all, the crypto space has often been privy to fraud, cybertheft, and criminal activity, though it’s being said the tool will be used by hackers themselves to garner funds that were never theirs in the first place.
In addition, it’s alleged that a “kill switch” tactic was designed by Satoshi – only never put in place – for bitcoin roughly 13 years ago. This leads to further questions regarding Satoshi’s identity, the stance of Craig Wright, and whether both entities are, in fact, one and the same. If such an item was invented over a decade ago, it’s interesting to see that it’s now being applied to a completely different coin.
The speculation stems from a 2010 chat post in which Satoshi himself wrote of a system that would allow a bitcoin or crypto user to lock up their funds in an escrow account. Once a buyer received confirmation that goods and services were bought and received, the money would be released to the appropriate party. The big clincher is that while the buyer could never retract the units, he or she could keep them locked up indefinitely, preventing a seller from receiving the funds they were entitled to.
Now, with the introduction of the blacklist manager to BSV, several commentators and crypto fans are discussing the similarity between it and Satoshi’s original software program. One Twitter user named Wolfgang Lohmann wrote online:
It is not so far away from Satoshi as some may think.
The description of the escrow program is described as follows by Satoshi in the chat forum:
Imagine someone stole something from you. You can’t get it back, but if you could, if it had a kill switch that could be remote[ly] triggered. Would you do it? Would it be a good thing for thieves to know that everything you own has a kill switch and if they steal it, it’ll be useless to them, although you still lose it too? If they give it back, you can reactivate it.
How Does It Work?
A video describes the blacklist manager as such:
The first step of the digital asset freezing process is obtaining a court order or a document of equivalent legal force. The plaintiff commissions a ‘notary’ who can operate a ‘notary tool.’ The notary converts the court order into a machine-readable format and transmits it to the mining network.
