Techmeme: Nakamoto's disappearance was essential to Bitcoin's growth (Timothy B Lee/Bottom-up)

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March 6, 2014, 9:50 PM

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Ryan Nakashima / Associated Press:

Dorian S. Nakamoto denies he's Bitcoin founder, heard of Bitcoin 3 weeks ago — AP Exclusive: Man denies he's bitcoin founder … LOS ANGELES (AP) — The man Newsweek claims is the founder of Bitcoin denies he had anything to do with the digital currency.

More: Los Angeles Times, Forbes, Gigaom, PC World, Business Insider, San Francisco Chronicle, TechCrunch, Wired, Gawker, SlashGear and ExtremeTech

Tweets: @declanm and @mmasnick

See also Mediagazer

Leah McGrath Goodman / Newsweek:

Elusive bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto is reportedly a 64-yr old living in California — The Face Behind Bitcoin — Satoshi Nakamoto stands at the end of his sunbaked driveway looking timorous. And annoyed. He's wearing a rumpled T-shirt, old blue jeans and white gym socks …

More: Re/code, Engadget, Network World, Forbes, Business Insider, CNNMoney.com, Wired, The Verge, New York Times, PandoDaily, Gigaom, SiliconANGLE, Cryptocurrency …, Wall Street Journal, Poynter, On Bitcoin, Mashable, BuzzFeed, The Technology Chronicles, Ars Technica, TechCrunch, The Awl, ParisLemon, Salon, Security Watch, NBC Bay Area, Businessweek, POPSUGAR, The Mac Observer, PC Magazine, The Register, Hollywood Life, Slate, Nextgov, CNET, CoinDesk, Computerworld, InfoWorld, I4U News, SiliconBeat, TechSpot, RT, PC World, BGR, Los Angeles Times, Inquirer, Guardian, SlashGear, VentureBeat, Gawker, The Switch, Fox News, Capital New York, Fortune, Quartz and BBC

Tweets: @anildash, @byandreachang, @kmmokai, @semil, @kmmokai, @levie, @nikcub, @parislemon, @cdixon, @nikcub, @saschasegan, @mikko, @rustyk5, @newsweek, @buzzfeedben, @stevenlevy and @naveen

Thanks:@lainnafader. See also Mediagazer

Timothy B Lee / Bottom-up:

Nakamoto's disappearance was essential to Bitcoin's growth — Why Satoshi Nakamoto worked so hard to hide his identity — We may now know who Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, is. According to Newsweek, he's a reclusive 64-year old Japanese man who lives in Temple City, California.

More: The Verge, Forbes, New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Tweets: @thestalwart

Bloomberg:

Nakamoto Named as Bitcoin Father Denies Involvement, Flees — A 64-year-old physicist, identified by Newsweek magazine as Bitcoin's creator, denied involvement in the digital currency before leading reporters on a multi-vehicle car chase and entering an Associated Press bureau.

More: Reuters, BuzzFeed, Telegraph, Communications …, Business Insider and socalTECH.com

Tweets: @dangillmor, @declanm and @latimes

Jeff Garzik / Bitcoin Foundation:

The Bitcoin project is decentralized; it has no leader by design — We Are All Bitcoin — There is never a dull moment in Bitcoin. Today we have seen heightened media speculation on the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto. As of this writing, we have seen zero conclusive evidence that the identified person is the designer of Bitcoin.

More: newsBTC. Tweets: @rjwile and @jgarzik

Mark Gomes / Seeking Alpha:

Pixelworks Discloses Relationship With Apple — Wednesday afternoon, Pixelworks made a major (and mandatory) disclosure to the SEC that Apple represented more than 10% of its revenue. — The stakes couldn't be higher for Apple. Any consumer device that can run a smart phone operating system is strategically important.

More: Oregonian, Reuters, TheStreet.com, MacNN, iClarified, BGR, PFhub.com ™, MacRumors, Fox Business and 9to5Mac

Brian Solomon / Forbes:

Pixelworks Surges Over 80% After Revealing Relationship With Apple

Brooks Barnes / New York Times:

Disney's Game and Internet Division Cuts One Quarter of Its Workforce — GLENDALE, Calif. - Disney's struggling video game and Internet division laid off roughly 700 employees on Thursday, or 26 percent of its global staff, in a major retrenchment that includes a shift in advertising strategy at Disney.com.

More: Variety, VG247, VentureBeat, SlashGear, GeekWire, Kotaku, WebProNews, Joystiq, Business Insider, Gamasutra, GamesIndustry International and GamePolitics blogs

Jordan Kahn / 9to5Mac:

Mercedes-Benz plans aftermarket CarPlay installations for older vehicles by end of the year — Update: Mercedes told us its “goal is to offer an after market solution by the end of the year.” — There have been a lot of mixed reviews of Apple's CarPlay, a new feature that brings iOS …

More: Engadget, everythingiCafe, Ubergizmo, iMore, stratechery, iDownloadBlog.com …, MacRumors and Pocket-lint. Thanks:@apollozac

Ellis Hamburger / The Verge:

Facebook rolls out a simpler newsfeed redesign a year after first try was scrapped due to negative feedback — Facebook goes back to basics with latest News Feed redesign — After a year testing an aggressive update, Facebook finally settles on a look — Almost exactly one year ago …

More: Facebook, TechCrunch, Re/code, NEWS.com.au, SiliconBeat, Inside Facebook, ReadWrite, The Next Web, Lifehacker, Marketing Pilgrim, internetretailer.com and Engadget

Dan Primack / Fortune:

Sean Parker formally leaves Founders Fund — Sean Parker will not make new investments for Founders Fund, but will maintain board seats like Spotify. — FORTUNE — Sean Parker is no longer making new investments on behalf of Founders Fund, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm …

More: TechCrunch, Forbes, bizjournals, Gawker and Pulse 2.0. Tweets: @tim

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

Spotify Acquires The Echo Nest, Gaining Control Of The Music DNA Company That Powers Its Rivals — Spotify has acquired The Echo Nest, as revealed by an official blog post today. The financial details of the acquisition haven't been revealed, but The Echo Nest is a self-described …

Bloomberg:

Spotify Said to Seek Credit Facility in Step Toward IPO

More: TechCrunch and Quartz. See also Mediagazer

Juli Clover / MacRumors:

Apple Releases Revamped iTunes Festival App Ahead of SXSW, iOS 7.1 Not Required — Apple today updated its iTunes Festival app to version 5.0, ahead of next week's SXSW iTunes Festival, which kicks off on Tuesday, March 11. As noted by MacStories, the iTunes Festival app shows …

More: MacStories, iMore, Cult of Mac, everythingiCafe, 9to5Mac and iPhone Hacks

Chris Welch / The Verge:

Vine officially bans all sexually explicit content — Vine has previously taken steps to hide pornographic and sexually explicit videos that users share, but today it's outright banning the content. The company has updated both its rules and terms of service to prohibit sexually explicit material.

More: ZDNet, Vine, CNET, Los Angeles Times, Gizmodo, Ars Technica, The Next Web, Ubergizmo, Phandroid, The Technology Chronicles and AndroidGuys

Zachary M. Seward / Quartz:

Twitter ad rates down 18% Q4 2013 according to annual report — Twitter's ad rates continue falling, down 18% last quarter — Twitter's advertising rate keeps falling. — The average cost to advertise on Twitter's website and mobile apps dropped 18% in the last three months of 2013 …

Neil Chenoweth / Financial Review:

Apple moved $8.9B in untaxed profits from Australia to Irish subsidiary in last decade — How Ireland got Apple's $9bn profit — US tech giant Apple has shifted an estimated $8.9 billion in untaxed profits from its Australian operations to a tax haven structure in Ireland in the last decade …

More: PandoDaily, Computerworld, iPhone in Canada Blog, ABC, Gizmodo UK, Fortune, Breaking Apple News …, iLounge, SiliconBeat and MacDailyNews

Andrew Webster / The Verge:

Jack Tretton stepping down as president of Sony Computer Entertainment America — At the end of March, Sony Computer Entertainment America president and CEO Jack Tretton will be stepping down from his position after nearly two decades with the company. According to SCEA …

More: PlayStation.Blog, VentureBeat, NEWS.com.au, Engadget, Kotaku, TechnoBuffalo, The Next Web, Re/code, TechCrunch, Electronista and WebProNews

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Machinima to lay off 42 sales employees as it raises $18M more, led by Warner Bros. — Warner Bros. Gets Ready to Bet on YouTube With a Machinima Investment — Screengrab courtesy of Machinima via YouTube — Machinima, the YouTube network for gamers, has finally found the money it has been looking for.

More: PandoDaily, Wall Street Journal and Deadline.com. See also Mediagazer

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Vimeo Pledges $10 Million to Fund Indie Film Projects on Its Internet VOD Platform — Vimeo is upping the ante in trying to bring independent film projects to its online video-on-demand service, announcing that it has set aside $10 million to help creators fund and promote their works on its platform.

More: The Wrap, Bloomberg, VCPOST, Streaming Media, Crain's New York Business, ReelSEO Video Marketing, Tubefilter and VentureBeat. See also Mediagazer

Romain Dillet / TechCrunch:

DigitalOcean Raises $37.2M From Andreessen Horowitz To Take On AWS — Cloud hosting company DigitalOcean raised a Series A round of $37.2 million at a $153 million valuation led by Andreessen Horowitz. Previous investors IA Ventures and CrunchFund also participated, but Andreessen Horowitz …

More: eWeek, Andreessen Horowitz, Forbes, PandoDaily, Slashdot, Re/code, PE Hub Blog, Gigaom, SiliconANGLE and VentureBeat. Tweets: @howardlindzon. Thanks:@ingridlunden

David Cohen / AllFacebook:

Privacy Groups File FTC Complaint Vs. Facebook-WhatsApp Deal — Facebook's $19 billion acquisition of cross-platform mobile messaging company WhatsApp, announced last month, became the target of privacy groups, as the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Digital Democracy filed …

More: CNET, The Technology Chronicles, Ars Technica and Business Insider

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