One of many ..... 'Interesting articles' following the event on Thursday. I think it is quite sad that the so called 'journalists' who attended have not reported the true story. I now realise that was never their intention. I blame Social Media! There seems to be this insane contest/race to see who can get the most clicks, comments or likes. Truth or accuracy do not feature too highly on the list of attributes considered for compilation. Sensationalism is far higher on the agenda.
I booked the venue for an all-day event from 11.00 to 17.00. I gave the briefest information about myself so that people would know that I at lease come from a technical background and am not one of these "Look I found Satoshi" jokewagon 'Journalists'. I certainly could have spent some time giving some quite impressive facts concerning some of my achievements but simply wanted to set the scene so that the ‘reporters’ would know I have not simply been 'fooled' by Stephen.
I have absolutely no doubt he is 'Satoshi Nakamoto' and if I was not convinced of it, I would not have organised this event and would not have travelled to different countries with him on various projects. Life is too short.
A little credit to ByWire as they have in their previous post identified some of the issues Stephen has faced rather than the comments like the one from someone in the front row at the event indicating there was no way this could be true with the ridiculous remark ".... Why wouldn’t you want anyone to know?? If you really was the inventor you would have been jumping up and down shouting from the rooftops, 'look what I invented ....' Hmmm this was an acclaimed 'world News Reporter' of some description.
Not one of these reporters have given a true account of what happened. No one for example has mentioned that Stephen DID show the workings of the original Genesis block. In fact, by the ridiculous comments being hurled at him by so called Technical Journalists', it soon became clear that they may have heard the word Blockchain and Genesis block etc but they did not have the foggiest idea what they are and how they work. They could have all gone home much wiser and have a genuine story to report about the inventor of Bitcoin and the Proof of Work Blockchain that underpins it.
Rather they jumped on the bandwagon of 'Another Faketoshi' - quite pathetic really when the evidence was there for them but they did not want to see it. They just wanted to rush their story out saying another Faketoshi scammer. So let's think about this ..... how exactly did this scam work? Ah yes ..... Everyone was charged £500 to come in and ask questions weren’t they? That must be right because that is what everyone is saying, right? Or ... would you rather hear the truth?
It was a last minute booking and I wanted to cancel as there was no time to organise it properly. However Stephen who IS the real Satoshi really wanted to get it out there on the day of the Whitepaper anniversary. I was being asked for numbers, by the club, and what would be required etc. To make it a pleasurable experience for all, I considered providing all refreshments and some sort of lunch. I suggested a modest £27 or £37 registration to cover costs. The BBC 'reporter' started crying ... I have NEVER had to pay for anything my whole life .... I am telling my mum on you! Even though others agreed to pay no problem, I decided to scrap any type of registration payment and indicated people would have to provide their own refreshments.
OK but ..... £500 .... right? NOPE! When the press release went out I was bombarded with calls, emails and texts from everywhere imaginable. Many offers of sponsorship were fired at me and a suggested payment schedule was sent to me which included offers to 'be part of the show' with me introducing them and giving them a seat on stage and letting them fire questions at Satoshi. Of all the people that wrote to me, there is only one person I showed that schedule to and that was a buffoon claiming to be a technical expert from the BBC (as it turned out his technical knowledge appeared to be very limited) so he must be the one who started the rumour that I was charging £500 to come in and ask questions. However, when I was told Joe Tidy is still struggling to pay off his Student Loan, I decided to pay his registration for him so that he could still buy ice cream during the break.
That is it guys! The original proposal to collect somewhere in the region of £25 or £35 for registration was scrapped and I paid for the entire event myself. But ..... that is not really a headline grabber is it? So let’s leave it that 'The event was clearly a scam to make money and attendees were forced to pay £500 to attend and £5,000 (which sponsors actually did offer) to sit on stage and ask the questions’. Sounds better right? Bound to get more clicks and likes than 'The event was free entry open only to Journalists who were all able to put their questions to the real Satoshi Nakamoto’.
The most important fact about the conference is that many of these so called ‘Professional Journalists’ were little more than Hecklers sent to spoil the event. Every time that Stephen started to show things and explain what it meant or what was the significance they would shout to the effect of ‘Not interested! Just move the Genesis Block coins!’ They also failed to report that when I stood up and asked if people wanted to see solid physical evidence that Stephen really was the inventor, the response almost was unanimous: ‘No we haven’t got time just move the Genesis Block coins or we’re going home’. This was extremely rude and unprofessional. Journalism never used to be like that. I think it is very sad. We are reaching a point where the general public just don't believe what they read any more as it is purely aimed at outdoing their competitors with an attention-grabbing headline.
I don’t think I will ever put on an event at such short notice again. I spent the entire two days before, answering calls texts and emails from people from everywhere imaginable who desperately wanted to attend but could not make it with such short notice. I imagine this also led to organisations sending their ‘reserve journalists’ with the main ones already booked out somewhere. I can only apologise and assure everyone at the next event, you will get the chance to attend and you will be able to make your own mind up without these biased uneducated hecklers getting involved.
OK So What was the Plan? I mean what did the Reporters miss?
The original plan was that after my introduction. I would ask Stephen some questions so that he could explain everything in detail. The ‘Journalists’ just kept yelling ‘Sign the Genesis Block’ and ‘Move the Genesis Coins’. Stephen was not even 1/3 the way through what he was intending to show before I had to bring it to a close because of the constant rude interruptions. He was going to show some compelling evidence but as soon as he put some early pictures up on the screen they burst into a pathetic cackle without listening to the explanation of their significance and no interest as to how they fit into the big picture; This would have been followed by a break for refreshments and then the practical side consisting of Stephen feeding in secret phrases which were used in the creation of the Genesis block and showing the Hash to be the verifiable hash in the genesis block creation. They very clearly stated they were not interested in any of that and just wanted to see Genesis coins moved.
I could write for another few hours showing all the things that were misreported (some deliberately) and all the things that they were shown and completely ignored or simply did not understood.
Alas hang tight folk. I will keep you updated and I will certainly give more notice when we will do the full reveal in association with the UK Blockchain Association. No exact date as yet but within the next two to three months.