There are 9 Confederate memorials among the military academies, but their fate is unknown – Military Times

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Service academies are some of the first stops for the Defense Departments renaming commission for bases, ships and more that honor the Confederacy, and according to research by the Southern Poverty Law Center, those campuses are home to eight symbols that should be considered.

They include a portrait of alumnus Gen. Robert E. Lee along with Lee Barracks, Lee Gate, Lee Road and the Robert E. Lee Memorial Award and Beauregard Place at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York.

Buchanan House, Buchanan Road and Maury Hall are locations connected to the Confederacy at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

Symbols of white supremacy should never have been associated with the military because they glorify a system of racial oppression and exclusion, Lecia Brooks, SPLCs chief of staff, said in a Wednesday release. As I testified during a Congressional hearing earlier this year, there is no reason to wait three years to rename the Armys 10 bases, nor the militarys numerous ships, roads, buildings, and memorials named after Confederate leaders. The time to act is now.

Brooks went on to call the displays dehumanizing and oppressive, suggesting that they are directly linked to white supremacist activity in the military.

The renaming commission, stood up this year as required by the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, has until the fall of 2023 to complete renaming projects. The first step is to compile the list.

Visiting West Point is part of that plan, though the military departments will be responsible for submitting their official lists to the commission.

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The memorials at West Point and the Naval Academy are not necessarily under consideration, Army spokeswoman Cynthia Smith told Military Times on Wednesday.

Though the commission is looking beyond base and ship names, as there is no official list compiled yet, she could not say whether Lees portrait, for instance, might be removed from West Point.

Concurrently, SPLC has started its own project, compiling places and things named for the Confederacy.

There are 84 on the list so far, though they include items at The Citadel and the Virginia Military Institute, which are not DoD-affiliated, as well as public memorials in New York City and New Orleans.

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There are 9 Confederate memorials among the military academies, but their fate is unknown - Military Times

The Confederate Flag A Symbol of Twisted Thinking – Voices of Monterey Bay

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By Carol McKibben

I love taking walks in my Carmel neighborhood where I have lived for more than 20 years with my husband and various members of our family. The eclectic style of homes nestled warren-like in weird neighborhood collections of old cottages, interspersed with modern architecture and warm, friendly community, always makes me appreciate this place even beyond its proximity to one of the most beautiful beaches anywhere on earth.

As a historian, I appreciate Carmels equally eclectic past. Once a great artist colony, it also became an intellectual and political center for Lincoln Steffens and so many others on the left, John Steinbeck among them. The Works Progress Administration installed an office in Carmel to help its majority population of writers and artists find work during the Great Depression. When homophobia raged in America during the Cold War (and into the present), the LBGTQ community found refuge in this liberal-minded town.

It is only very recently that Carmel has been aligned in the public mind with other communities of predominantly white elites. Yet those of us who live in the town know that the community of independent thinkers remains very much a part of life here. When I was out for a walk one day in my neighborhood, I realized with full force how twisted that spirit of nonconformity could become.

I stopped cold in my tracks when I saw a Confederate flag flying from the front porch of my neighbors house; it was a person I routinely exchanged pleasantries with, but clearly someone I didnt know at all.

We are used to seeing that flag brandished in everything from marches for white supremacy to the recent attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6. It is not a benign political symbol. Rather, it is a chilling reminder of the worst of America, one exemplified by hate and violence.

The Confederate flag symbolized the effort in the mid-19th century by people living in states located largely in the American South to sustain and spread an economic system based on the enslavement of other human beings. They justified their view by focusing on melanin in a persons skin and on certain facial features. Humans with more melanin in their skin than others (or were thought to have even a tiny bit more) could be treated as though they were farm animals or farm equipment rather than as human beings. People with more melanin became nonentities, invisible as individual human beings, and were forced to labor unremittingly under the most horrific and cruel conditions without compensation until they died. They were routinely tortured.

Slaveholders treated slave families with ruthless indifference; casually and unceremoniously split them up, sold off individual members like livestock, tore babies and children from their parents, sold them to strangers, and sent away without regard for their vulnerability, health or safety, just like one would treat farm animals or mere commodities. As a result of this horrendous cruelty and cold unconcern, slave families were lost to one another forever. This is what slavery was and worse. None of this is in dispute. It represents one of the most shameful periods in American history and it lasted for hundreds of years.

The enforced slavery of one group of human beings by another based on melanin levels and facial features was both absurd and fiercely defended because it produced great wealth. Slavers went to war and attempted to destroy the entire nation to maintain it with the Confederate flag as an emblem. They even persuaded poorer people, those who looked more like them, to fight too, even when the less well-off did not benefit economically from slave ownership. The Civil War was not about states rights. It was a war fought over whether or not America ought to maintain the evil of slavery as a foundation of its economy. As a country, we decided against it.

The harm slavery produced has lasted for generations and is still with us. It led directly to the development of ideologies such as scientific racism, a pseudo-science that perpetuated the ludicrous and farcical notion of innate inequality based on bizarre definitions of physical appearance.

Scientific racism in turn led to the eugenics movement, which became the rationale for all sorts of policies such as anti-miscegenation laws, citizenship and immigration exclusions, and land ownership restrictions, redlining in cities and towns, racial exclusions in neighborhoods and weirdly assigning property value to the perceived racial identity of the inhabitants. These policies became normative. Although many have been overturned, the absurd ideology behind them persists, invisible and usually denied by those who benefit most from systems of inequality that place people with the least melanin in their skin at the top of a human hierarchy and those with the most at the very bottom.

It will take generations working together to undo the untold damage that these almost incomprehensible, insurmountable wrongs did to millions of people and their children just because they had more melanin in their skin. However, the undoing and rebuilding does not just happen magically over time or just because slavery officially ended or just because we believe that we became more modern and liberal in our thinking.

As a community, we need to challenge these inequalities as we condemn and end this hateful representation of our past embodied in the Confederate flag.

We are in a time of our history in which we cant allow for these displays of racism to go unchallenged, so after some thought I knocked on my neighbors door to ask him to bring it down. At first he seemed reluctant to do it, but eventually the flag went down. Those of us who have benefited the most from this countrys ugly past have a duty to advocate for a more inclusive, fair United States of America.

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The Confederate Flag A Symbol of Twisted Thinking - Voices of Monterey Bay

Social Studies: Hollywood economics, the power of Confederate street names, and untimely arrests – The Boston Globe

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Hanssen, A. & Raskovich, A., Does Vertical Integration Spur Investment? Casting Actors to Discover Stars During the Hollywood Studio Era, Journal of Law and Economics (November 2020).

Southern streets

An economist has found that Black people who live in areas with more streets named after Confederate generals are less likely to be employed, are more likely to be in low-status jobs, and have lower wages, relative to whites, even controlling for other socio-economic characteristics of the individual and the studied areas.

Williams, J., Confederate Streets and Black-White Labor Market Differentials, American Economic Association Papers and Proceedings (May 2021).

Borderline deterrence

In surveys conducted in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico while Donald Trump was president, some participants were told that US Immigration had apprehended thousands of their countrymen, while other participants were told not just about the apprehensions but also that their countrymen were placed in long-term detention or denied court hearings. Mentioning those harsh immigration measures made no difference in the share of respondents who intended to migrate.

Ryo, E., The Unintended Consequences of US Immigration Enforcement Policies, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (May 2021).

Born in the wrong year

Examining data on kids in Chicago who were followed into young adulthood, Harvard sociologists found that those born in the early to mid-1980s were more likely to be arrested than those born in the mid-1990s. This was explained not by changes in behavioral, family, or neighborhood characteristics but by broader changes in crime and policing as both crime rates and enforcement fell after the 1990s, especially for drug offenses.

Neil, R. & Sampson, R., The Birth Lottery of History: Arrest Over the Life Course of Multiple Cohorts Coming of Age, 19952018, American Journal of Sociology (March 2021).

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Social Studies: Hollywood economics, the power of Confederate street names, and untimely arrests - The Boston Globe

Allendale shouldnt have a Confederate statue any longer: Activists call for its immediate removal – MLive.com

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ALLENDALE, MI -- Now that a citizen committee has recommended replacing a controversial Civil War statue in Allendale, some activists and community members are calling on township leaders to immediately remove it.

Holly Huber, co-founder of the Michigan Association of Civil Rights Activists which has advocated for the statues removal for months, thanked the committee for its recommendation during the Allendale Township Board of Trustees meeting Monday, May 24.

I hope that the board takes that into consideration and votes to immediately remove those statues, Huber said. Theyre offensive and Allendale should not have a Confederate statue any longer.

The Civil War statue, which joins other sculptures representing veterans of U.S. wars in the townships Garden of Honor, depicts a Union and Confederate soldier standing back-to-back with a Black enslaved child at their feet.

On Monday, the townships Garden of Honor Memorial Committee unveiled its final recommendation for the controversial statue: remove the Civil War statue and replace it with one featuring three diverse Union soldiers standing side-by-side.

The soldiers would be Black, white and American Indian, and their likenesses would be based on real West Michiganders who fought for the North in the Civil War.

Related: Confederate soldier statue that drew controversy in West Michigan should be replaced, committee recommends

No one who called in to the Allendale Township Board of Trustees virtual meeting Monday opposed the recommendation. The committees recommendation wasnt made public until the meeting.

Its now up to the township trustees to decide if they want to adopt the recommended changes, partially adopt them, modify them or reject them entirely. That vote will potentially happen at their next meeting on June 14.

Our Board of Trustees is going to take three things into consideration, Township Supervisor Adam Elenbaas told MLive/The Grand Rapids Press on Tuesday of the boards upcoming decision. We need to be able to voice what our community believes and what our community wants to happen. We need to take into consideration our own personal opinions as board members. And we need to take into consideration whats best for the community.

If trustees approve to replace the current statue, it wasnt immediately clear if it would be taken down in the interim while the township goes through the process of finding an artist and having them sculpt the proposed replacement.

The current statue likely wouldnt be destroyed or sold to a private resident. Instead, some options include giving it to a local museum or historical society.

Allendale Township is located about 12 miles west of Grand Rapids and is home to about 26,700 residents. Its also home to Grand Valley State University. The universitys president last summer urged the township to relocate the statue.

Related: How this Confederate soldier statue became part of a veterans memorial in Michigan

Trustees on Monday expressed thanks for the committees work but none directly opined on whether they supported or opposed the recommendations. The recommendations also included adding statues at the Garden of Honor park representing soldiers from three more wars and informational QR codes to the plaques.

You guys just blew me away, Trustee Candy Kraker told the committee members. That is absolutely amazing, all the work that you did. I am just flabbergasted.

For nearly a year, numerous activists and residents have called on the township to remove the statue, with some calling it racist and demeaning to Black people and still more saying a Confederate soldier has no place among honored veterans.

The calls for removal drew pushback from other residents and counterprotesters. Some residents were concerned those who wanted the statue removed didnt live in Allendale, with Treasurer David VanderWall at one meeting saying he isnt one to be bullied or bow to outside pressure.

Some said removing the statue would be erasing history and the lessons it has to teach us.

The debate over the statue began when the Michigan Association of Civil Rights Activists requested the township remove the statue. The 23-year-old memorial was one of numerous public statues and symbols of the Confederacy that faced renewed scrutiny late last spring as demonstrations against police brutality and racial inequality swept the nation.

Mitch Kahle, a co-founder of the group, told trustees during their virtual meeting Monday this whole situation, which included numerous protests and counterprotests over the statues presence, couldve been avoided if they listened to what activists recommended from the get-go.

We recommended that you simply remove the Confederate statue and remove the enslaved child and put a statue of an African-American Union soldier, like Ben Jones, Kahle said. And guess what youre going to end up doing? Exactly what we said one year ago today. So move forward, get rid of the offensive statues or, to be honest, Allendale is going to be

His public comment ended mid-sentence due to the time limit.

The Allendale Township Board of Trustees formed the Garden of Honor Memorial Committee in June, tasking them to examine the statue, and the park it sits in, over small-scale frank conversations with multiple perspectives and then present trustees with recommended changes.

The committee on Monday also recommended the township add statues representing veterans of the MexicanAmerican War, War of 1812 and the U.S. War on Terror.

Additionally, the committee recommended upgrading signage on all of the statues to include QR codes that people could scan with their smartphones and be directed to informational web pages.

Ive been able to have thousands of conversations with people that I wouldnt normally have had, Elenbaas said. The protest leads to those conversations. So I wouldnt say the protests arent so much the influential component, but its the conversations after that follow when people take the time to sit down and express their viewpoints. And I can tell you that I have personally taken a lot out of those conversations. My viewpoints have been widened over the past several months.

Jessica VanBlaricum-Miller, during public comment, questioned why there needed to be a white Union soldier in the proposed new statue.

Why is it that a Black Union soldier cannot be the only one standing and representing? Why include a white man? What purpose does it serve? VanBlaricum-Miller asked. By doing so we are still white centering, which is perpetuating the racism that continues to happen in Allendale. We should allow (Black, Indigenous and people of color) to have a space without needing the support of their oppressor.

The proposed new statue featuring white, Black and American Indian Union soldiers would have the Black soldiers appearance based on Benjamin Jones, an escaped slave who settled in Ottawa County and served as a Union soldier.

The white soldier would be based on Hiram Knowlton, and the American Indian soldier would be based on Louis Little Feather Miskoguon. The statue wouldnt include the soldiers names.

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Allendale shouldnt have a Confederate statue any longer: Activists call for its immediate removal - MLive.com

Who is DJ Xquizit? Inside With the Musical Artist That’s Rocking the World of Trance Music – Yahoo India News

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So while the world of music continues to expand, who are the people making the rise with it? The answer is simple: the power belongs to individuals capable of shifting and influencing the public opinion. Capitalizing on this shift is Mexico-born DJ Xquizit's star was quickly rising within the Trance scene. He has already started shaping his future and built a name for himself.

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Only a teenager, Xquizit has done work far in a short span of time. In fact, he already holds the keys to his own empire. When the stars align, some very unlikely things happen and sometimes those end up being life changing events. With several plays on major radio shows such as Global Therapy with Above & Beyond, A State of Trance by Armin Van Buuren, and several others, you would expect DJ Xquizit to stick to that niche.

DJ Xquizit shares that Best part of being a Dj is probably seeing the joy that music brings to people. But all this didn't happen until a mutual friend introduced him to Salt Lake City-born OSITO. By saying that OSITO's tagline is "Pop Is Not A Crime", you would think that these two artists couldn't be more polar opposites. But magic seemed to happen. Collaboration after collaboration started getting picked up by some massive Spotify editorials, including their first 1 million stream hit "Dear Gravity" which stayed in the Mint playlist for over a month.

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A curious blend of passion and ambition fuels DJ Xquizits busy lifestyle. His background illustrates just how passionate and talented he is. Seemingly living on a fasttrack, hes grown up knowing how to bring eye-catching music to the table while still being attentive to detail and drawing some serious attention.

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In recent months their first pop collaboration also reached the 1 million mark as well. Now that Xquizit is embracing the pop sound fully, May 28th marks the release of their newest collaboration, "No Time To Die".

Respecting the elements of the original but taking it much more in a dancefloor direction, this synthwave/pop hybird starts with OSITO's amazing voice and quickly builds to the main drop where you can't help but smile and dance.

Releasing on Beat Recordings, the record label behind the only full-time Dance Contemporary radio station in Mexico, Beat 100.9FM, on all platforms on May 28, 2021.

In a digital age of uncertainty, DJ Xquizit is not only rebranding his Trance music, hes rebranding music culture as we once knew it. Only time will be able to tell us what to expect of the future of Trance music. And whatever that future may hold, expect to see DJ Xquizit at the forefront of it.

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Who is DJ Xquizit? Inside With the Musical Artist That's Rocking the World of Trance Music - Yahoo India News

Premiere: Mha Iri parts the sky with trance inspired techno heater, ‘Angels Cry’ – Dancing Astronaut – Dancing Astronaut

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by: Josh StewartMay 26, 2021

Melbournes Mha Iri returns to UMEKs 1605 with her Angels Cry EP, a genre-melting whizzer that further demonstrates why the techno producer from down under remains on the rise.

Mha Iri strays from the conventional in concocting Angels Cry, infusing her latest clubbing cocktail with a vibrantly uplifting build and garnishing it with a delectable trance inspired lead synth. Like many great techno releases, Angels Cry is poised to dominate the dark and dank nightclub cellars of the world, but where Iris newest single really separates her from the pack is in how it doubles as a fully certified arena-ready anthem. Commenting on the creative process behind the release, she says,

I made the track based on the concept when the angels cry, their tears fill up the sky. The mood reflectsmyemotions in dealing with the long lockdown and has a moody yet uplifting feeling to it. The main melody is the Ableton stock synth Analog doubled up on an instrument rack with different manipulation on each wavetable to create a simple yet full andeffectivelead.

Join Mha Iri at Melbournes New Guernica on June 13, where the rising techno titan will be throwing down a three-hour set to celebrate the full release of the Angels Cry EP. Listen to a premiere of the EPs lead single below, and pre-save the entire release before it hits the streets in full on May 28.

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Tags: 1605, angels cry, mha iri, premiere, umek

Categories: Music

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Premiere: Mha Iri parts the sky with trance inspired techno heater, 'Angels Cry' - Dancing Astronaut - Dancing Astronaut

‘I was in a trance watching Swiatek at the French Open,’ says Chris Evert – Tennishead

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Chris Evert was full of admiration for reigning French Open champion Iga Swiatek and believes she is capable of defending her title.

Whilst admitting that the Pole is not yet the finished article, Evert believes she is improving with every match she plays on the surface.

She has won the French Open, she has won one Grand Slam on clay and she certainly is getting better and better, said the 18-time Grand Slam champion.

I think she is still not 100% there, I think she is still learning the tricks and learning the finesse, learning about the sliding. I still think she is in the learning position.

Iga hasnt had enough experience to be considered unbeatable or a true clay court player but she is getting better and better with every tournament.

Discussing her impressive performance at the French Open last year, the American admitted she was shocked by just how good Swiatek played.

I was in a trance watching her at the French Open, beating everyone in her path from Simona Halep onwards and I was like who is this young lady? How did she get so good so fast? said Evert.

The seven-time French Open champion thinks Swiatek could go all the way and successfully defend her title at Roland Garros next month.

Most certainly [she can win again]. If results prove themselves then yes, she has done well these past few tournaments.

I think she probably felt pressure after the French Open in a few matches and lost her way a bit but she has gotten that confidence back.

Right after she won it last year she said Im not satisfied with one Grand Slam, I want to keep on winning many more not many champions say that, not many people who win Grand Slams say that.

She never gets down on herself, thats a championship trait. She never panics when she is losing, she always believes in herself when she is behind thats an intangible quality to have, the mental side of the game that is so underrated but it can pull you through.

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'I was in a trance watching Swiatek at the French Open,' says Chris Evert - Tennishead

Electronic Dance Music – What’s All The Fuss About? – One EDM

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Electronic dance music, also called just electronic dance music, party music, or just dancing music, is an expansive collection of percussive, electronic sound tracks designed primarily for clubs, raves, and parties. Dubbed the new school of electronic music because it was born from a mindset associated with the roots of modern club culture house, trance, techno, breakcore, and hip hop electronic dance music continues to evolve and grow into todays club scene. Despite this, it still retains a fairly large underground following in contrast to, say, rap and hip hop that have very steep popularity drops. This article aims to discuss electronic dance music from a mainstream perspective to provide a broad view of the genre and analyze its influence on the club scene today.

Electronic dance music often has a heavy, distorted, dubstep-type vibe. The reason for this is obvious take a listen to some modern day DJs and youll hear the same underlying structure and basic elements repeated over again. Although the producer may alter the tempo, tone, and tempo variations, the core elements will remain. Most likely, the producer uses reverb, delay, and distortion on the main loop of the track, as well as adding other subtle effects. A popular form of distortion is the reverse heard in hip hop and breakcore. Other common electronic dance music effects are compression, octave division, compression, limiting, fades, and tremolo.

While electronic dance music was once considered to be rather out there, it is now widely accepted and produced by many mainstream dance producers. However, its main focus is typically on drum machines and samplers, as well as having more experimental tendencies. In recent years, dance artists have been drawn to this genre due to the growth of non-mainstream dance styles.

One of the most recognizable characteristic of electronic dance music is the use of samplers, which play back a sequence of audio on a piano or other electronic instrument. In fact, this very feature is what separates electronic dance from other forms of popular music. For example, rock songs generally only use drum samples. Dance samples are common in electronic dance music. Sampling and playing back a sequence of audio is often done with the use of audio manipulation programs. In electronic dance music this can include things such as pitch shifting, playing with time, and other manipulatives that produce completely new sounds.

One of the biggest influences of electronic dance music is drum programming. Originating in the early 1980s, drum programming has grown into one of the largest and most influential trends in electronic dance music. Programmers like tracker, techno, ambient, and even breakcore have all used this method to create unique sounds. While these programs were originally created to provide musical inspiration and build drum sets, they have now become integral parts of electronic dance tracks.

Many modern producers use complex programs in their electronic dance music. Programs such as Massive City, Prodigy, and others have helped to push the limits of electronic dance music. The sounds created by these programs are usually raw and unpolished. They often involve complex sampling techniques and other processing that can create some truly unique sounds.

One of the biggest characteristics of electronic dance tracks is the use of reverb. Reverb is often used to add atmosphere to a track. It can add depth and dimension to a mix, making it sound as though the listener is traveling through space or has inside the track. This is particularly useful for creating funk. Many modern producers who specialize in creating funk tracks will often employ a powerful and aggressive reverb pedal.

One of the newest features introduced to electronic dance music is the ability to mix and match drum beats. Using drum samples from another source, the lead and support vocals can be added to a song. This technique is commonly referred to as synthrap. The use of this technique is on the rise, as many producers attempt to differentiate their music from traditional dance tracks.

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Electronic Dance Music - What's All The Fuss About? - One EDM

This Centuries-Old Trick Will Unlock Your Productivity – The New York Times

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One thing I knew as an aspiring writer was that I was supposed to sit in front of a page for more than 10 minutes. I could not. I had grown up in Colombia during a violent time in the countrys history; my family and I had fled, but I suffered from PTSD. Fear had worked its way under my skin. I wrote a sentence, then questioned whether my surroundings were safe. I got up to check the locks, turn every available light on. The writing came a sentence at a time, but I could hardly finish anything. Even so, I loved writing and longed to do it in spite of personal distress.

First, I tried imagining myself as a cranky office manager. I monitored data. I clocked in and out with timecards. I created pie charts to track my time and the time it took to track my time. I drew elaborate graphs where Y measured the rise and fall of quality pages and X stood for possible culprits starches, desk locations, prying eyes, news consumption, anxiety.

The data did not bring me closer to the state of mind I had identified as the most conducive for writing: a floating between presence and absence, a sense of stillness, awareness and listening.

Reflecting on that ideal mental state, I thought of mesmerism, the precursor to hypnosis, conceived in the 1770s by the German physician Franz Anton Mesmer. One school of his followers favored the somnambulistic trance, instigated by a choreography of visuals and touch. I began to wonder whether such trances could be of use to me, whether they would induce that floating sensation I needed in order to quiet the disturbances of trauma and dedicate myself to writing. And so I began to develop a ritual a way of hypnotizing myself.

This love of ritual has metastasized into a way of life. There is an order to the cups I pull from the kitchen cupboard, a sameness to how I daily prepare what I ingest, five steps to my morning skin-care routine, four steps at night. Once, upon finishing the work of knitting a six-foot blanket, I immediately unspooled it, then reknit the thing.

It began with a color, a muted ultramarine blue that is warmer than navy and bright like royal blue. I found it while scanning the racks for a slip in a hue I did not much wear, one I intended to wear exclusively for writing. Each day, in preparation for my work, I put on the slip and actively imagined for 10 minutes that the color was a place in which intrusive thoughts might not enter. Then I forced myself to sit and write. When I wore the slip, I felt overtaken on a cellular level by a serene form of concentration. Under the spell of chromatic conditioning, I began to accumulate pages and finish my projects.

Over the 13 years Ive dedicated myself to the somnambulistic trance, Ive collected a number of outfits silk slips, slinky tops, linen shorts, acrylic sweaters all in muted ultramarine. At this point, I can no more resist wearing the color and sitting down to write than I can keep myself from taking a breath after an exhale. This mesmerism quiets my mind via an onslaught of repetition. The longer the repetition goes on, the stronger its mesmeric force.

My ritual for self-mesmerism has grown more elaborate over the years. On my designated writing days, I plod to the closet and pick out something in that muted ultramarine, after which I pick a song to play on repeat. It will loop for the next hour (or sometimes the rest of the day). There is always an initial moment of claustrophobia, but the looping music encourages a trance. The operational chatter of my mind grows quiet before it grinds to a halt. I transition into the territory of concentration. I dont have to think about what I will do next: After doing it thousands of times, Ive turned writing into muscle memory.

The best music for self-mesmerism is the kind that embraces repeating and minimally evolving phrases Kali Malone, Caterina Barbieri, Ben Vida and William Basinski are artists I turn to with frequency. They are demanding, beautiful, blisteringly austere. Past the initial weariness of sonic repetition, I experience self-dissolution. I stop hearing the song. It becomes a series of staticky sonic impressions.

At a glance, repetition may look like invariability. But repeated listenings of a song are never identical: Differences emerge out of the drone of a routinized task. A glass may slip, the water I splash myself with may be colder or hotter than I expect. I knit the stitches of my blanket tightly, then loose. The sameness of repetition is never the point. It is a daily door I step through, on the other side of which I am emptied and am filled with something better. I leave the familiar behind to embrace what is unfamiliar and mysterious. No matter what is happening in my life, choosing repetition lets me deliver myself to the moment at hand.

Before self-mesmerism, trauma was something that exiled me from the present, causing me to revisit horrific events. It eroded my perception, until I came to believe that long-gone dangers were extant in the middle of my peaceful everyday. Repetition is how I shed skins of anxiety. The highest abundance I know comes from stripping myself to the minimum. There, I am boundless, timeless and surprising, a magnificent condensation of life.

Ingrid Rojas Contreras is the author of Fruit of the Drunken Tree (Doubleday, 2018). The Man Who Could Move Clouds, a family memoir, is forthcoming from Doubleday.

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This Centuries-Old Trick Will Unlock Your Productivity - The New York Times

Sparkee wins Tisto remix contest with a funky version of ‘The Business’ – We Rave You

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Tisto hit The Business made huge waves upon its release last year, and the buzz hasnt quietened down since. The house anthem produced by the world-renowned artist was born already a success, having wowed fans from the first time the trance master shared it. The Business marked Tisto signing to Atlantic Records and presented us with a musicality quite different from the usual, showing versatility and quality that works both on the radio and on a festival stage. Around the globe, there probably isnt a single soul who hasnt heard this charismatic track. Viral, catchy, brilliant. Tisto does not mess around and shows once again his skills as a maestro in The Business. It wasnt enough that he released a smash hit of this magnitude, Tisto went one step further and teamed up with Ty Dolla $ign to produce the second chapter of this thrilling journey, The Business Part II. It was another bombastic hit.

In March, the music veteran challenged his fans to create their own version of both gems. In partnership with Beatport, Atlantic Records, and Label Radar, Tisto opened a competition that would allow the winner to officially release the track on Atlantic Records, a featured spot on his Club Life radio show and more than $7,000 in prizes. Many were the ones who didnt want to miss this chance, but only one won. Sparkee was the big winner of the contest and the latest remixer of this brilliant track.

Who is he? Sparkee is an award-nominated music producer and guitarist from the east coast of Canada. His sound is classically modern, highly influenced by artists such as Daft Punk, Chromeo, or Nile Rodgers. Lover of nu disco and passionate about funky rhythms, Sparkee designs electronic music meticulously and accurately. He remixed Deadmau5s Strobe and the track went viral. On top of that, Deadmau5 comment that the bassline was technically impossible. Now, his remix of The Business is the talk of the town. Sparkees version was released on Atlantic Records at the end of April and has since amassed over 900,000 streams. On how it all came about, the Canadian artist explains:

I saw that Label Radar was hosting a remix contest for The Business by Tisto and I reallywanted to put my spin on it. I already loved the original track but it was also a hugeopportunity. I went with a bit of a retro vibe and added my funky guitar style to it whichseemed to work out pretty well because I was selected as the winner out of 3500+submissions! In addition to being released on Atlantic Records, I won a slew of prizes that Im absolutely stoked about. This is literally a dream come true!

The remix is a funky version of Tistos track. Keeping the backbone of the hit tune, Sparkee adorned the music with soul and groove. The beat is warm and laid back, very much in the genre of more classic house, in its disco offspring. Provoking a relaxed and enjoyable jam, the remix spreads light and sunny energy, perfect to enjoy on hot days. Sparkee has managed to deliver a cool rendition of The Business, literally. This track is part of a remix compilation that includes renditions by Clean Bandit, 220 KID, Vintage Culture & Dubdogz, and SWACQ.

Winning this contest wasnt Sparkees only ambition for 2021. Challenging himself on every level, he set out to release a new remix every single week in a defiant 52-week remix challenge. The track creation process is streamed live on Twitch every Thursday night to share his methodology with his legion of fans. His remix of The Business is just one of the tracks in this challenge and its worth checking out the others. To do so, just follow Sparkee on his social networks, such as Twitch.

Listen to Sparkee getting down to business on this remix of Tistos The Business below:

Image Credit: Sparkee (Press)

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Sparkee wins Tisto remix contest with a funky version of 'The Business' - We Rave You

20 Cutting-Edge Producers Who Really Dont Sound Like Anybody Else – This Song is Sick

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The one way to get a listeners attention is by breaking the mold. With so much music available to us on demand, its the producers that carve our their own unique sound that really end up catching our ear.

Between constant digging through playlists and sorting through submissions, we listen toa LOTof music, but there are a select few artists out there who simply dont sound like anybody else. These bopsmiths have been changing the game since they stepped foot in the scene, and we keep finding ourselves coming back to their work as a sort of musical palette cleansera breathe of fresh air in a landscape that can be saturated with formulaic strategies.

We thought long and hard about which producers are currently pioneering unparalleled approaches to their sound, and have narrowed it down to a list of twenty artists that you need to have on your radar.

So if youre looking for a change, here is our list of 20 cutting-edge producers who really dont sound like anyone else.

The reason why SOPHIE is starting off this list is that she transcended electronic music. When you think of producers who have reached legendary status and influenced this whole generation of experimental sound design, SOPHIE is the first person most people think of. When she tragically passed away earlier this year the entire music industry felt it. Some even said SOPHIE had a Dilla-like effect on electronic music. Wed have to agree.

This critically-acclaimed rapper/producer has been setting the bar high for beatmakers since the 90s. Throughout his career, he moved from rap beats to jazz-electronic, and recently even collaborated with Four Tet on his latest project, Sound Ancestors.Whether hes Madlib, Quasimoto, or the Mad in Madvillain, Otis Jackson Jr. remains untouched in the game.

Theres a reason why the reclusive South Londoner is so sought after, even over a decade since his last full length body of work. When it comes to innovative, state-of-the-art electronic music, Burial is always one of the first artists that comes to mind. His creative tendrils stretch across the vast spectrum of subgenres, so theres no true way to define his work. Just take a listen to one of his most recent singles, Chemz, below.

People might know Lunice as one-half of TNGHT, but his career trajectory has been insane since the beginning. Hed been producing for about 12 years before founding the electronic duo with HudMo, and becoming one of the most sought-after artists in the industry. Incorporating eccentric sound selection in his design, hes able to give a fresh take on hip-hop and electronic traps normally simplistic cadence.

Theres nobody who gets your spine tingling quite like Four Tet. The musical wizard has somehow been ahead of the game for over two decades, amassing eleven different studio albums (and more under different aliases). Whether hes creating rich, ambient soundscapes or driving house and techno rhythms, hes putting us in a trance. We love when he combines those two approaches into one, like he did on LA Trance.

Whether he likes it or not, Aphex Twin is widely known to be associated with the budding subgenre of IDM. And for exactly the reasons youd assume. Most electronic music can be pretty formulaic, but Aphex Twins unpredictable, left-field composition speaks volumes for itself.

Vegyn has been one of our absolute favorite recent discoveries. The British producer seems to break every single rule when it comes to music, but gets away with it 100% of the time. Little did we know that Vegyns talents were enlisted by the likes of Frank Ocean on both his Blond and Endless projects back in 2016. We wont even try to classify his sound, but think about floating around in a bubble while at an interdimensional nightclub. Hmmm yeah.

Kelly Lee Owens burst onto the scene with our self titled debut album in 2017, but last year she sank her teeth into us with her immaculate sophomore album, Inner Song. While her dreamy and spooky production is something to behold on its own, it reaches new heights when she gets to crooning.

Now that our boy Sammy G has stepped foot into the indie electronic realm, the scope of his music has widened immensely. No matter what genre he makes, Sam Gellaitry is one of the few people who can create full-body listening experiences through his emotion-packed production and visual-inducing storytelling.

If youve been seeing this producers name tossed around as of recently, its for good reason. Her most recent body of work, Youve Got The Whole Night To Go, covers a broad scope of club music, from acid-laced breakbeats to thick, minimal groovers. The young talent has made her way to Berlin, via Sydney, two locations that thrive off of innovation, and were constantly waiting to see what she does next.

While weve already hailed Of The Trees for his boundary-pushing efforts this year, we cant say enough about the newly Denver-based producer. His recent work completely transports us to a different place, combining mystical melodies with ridiculously satisfying low-end sound design.

The underground music scene in Melbourne, Australia proudly boasts Roza Terenzi as of leading artists to come out of the thriving city. She now resides in Berlin, but has retained her Aussie swagger in her music, creating some of the dustiest, rawest techno and electro bangers you could possibly imagine and releasing on her new label, Step Ball Chain. Roza breaks all the rules when it comes to typical song structure, with a single track feeling like its made up of several different ideas all mashed into one, cohesive work of art.

The Godfather of future knock. DECAP created this subgenre of trap to showcase funky, jazzy elements over hard-hitting drums and rap beats. The sound doesnt take itself too seriously and if you watch his Twitch streams, neither does DECAP. But you can always count on them for a fun time.

Although Cashmere Cat was able to make a clean crossover to the mainstream and become a frequent collaborator of pop stars like Ariana Grande, theres no doubt that Cashmere Cat has one of the most distinctive styles out there. We could even say hes one of the main game players in pushing kawaii bounce into popularity.

The duo has been bringing something new to the trap table since 2015, incorporating elements of jungle, breaks, dubstep, and really any electronic genre you can think of, into their music. While many try, the group is able to nail that bombastic yet brooding sound that really shakes you to your core. If you want to get an idea of X&Gs versatility, their PERSONA album is a great start.

If you want to take a trip to the deepest, darkest, and dankest corners of techno, take VTSSs hand let her show you the way. Hailing from Warsaw, Poland, this quickly rising artist is on a tear right now, and some of her recent releases have been brutally tantalizing. This music is designed to pluck at your senses.

Ivy Lab is the blueprint for experimental electronic music. Any genre of music you can think of can be found in their tracks and the duo is able to execute it immaculately. We really cant think of anyone else who can do something like mix soul and drum and bass together, but Ivy Lab delivers. Always paving their own path, they have a record label called 20/20 LDN where you can find even more forward-thinking music.

New Sable Valley signee Deadcrow has been making huge waves in the community. As a power player in officiating the subgenre of wave, Deadcrows atmospheric yet heavy-hitting sound engages you from start to finish.

Old school ravers will often get nostalgic about the sound of the 90s, but nobody channels that drug-fueled euphoria better than this Leeds-born duo. In an interview with Mixmag, Prospa said they wanted to be among the UK greats like The Prodigy. Theyre certainly on their way.

With each and every Rome In Silver release, it becomes clear that there is nothing he cant do. Progressing from trap bootlegs to solidifying his spot in future bass, Rome In Silver now just drops whatever he wants and its somehow always perfect. While he cant be pigeonholed into one genre, you cant miss his distinguishable ethereal melodies.

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20 Cutting-Edge Producers Who Really Dont Sound Like Anybody Else - This Song is Sick

Appreciation: Oregon musician Keith Johnson leaves behind an American jazz legacy – The Register-Guard

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"Marooned Musical," an excerpt from a collaboration between late trumpeter Keith Johnson and painter George D. Green.

"Marooned musical," Keith Johnson and George D. Green.

Register-Guard

Oregon native and trumpeterKeith Johnson, who died of cancer,leaves behind a musical legacy as a jazz mentor and longtime sideman playing with musicians such as Paul Butterfield, Martha Velez, Etta James and Van Morrison.

Born in Vancouver, British ColumbiaJohnson found love in jazz, art and life with his companion, Annie Painter. He diedApril 6 in Portland. He was 80.

Thanks to Johnson's influence, Jeff Young, owner and producer ofHands Down Soundrecording studio in Portland, developed a lifelong love of jazz.

Johnson was the DJ for a jazz show on KFMY, Eugene's first FM radio stationfounded by Young's father in 1958, according to Young. When Johnson left to start his professional music career, Young was obligated to take over the show. Young had the youthful Eugene jazz manto show him the way.

That was the beginning of my jazz-loving era, Young said. I've loved jazz ever since. I'm indebted to Keith for getting me turned on (to jazz).

Johnson and Painter married in 1961while attendingthe University of Oregon. They lived a settled life for 10 years before he landed a gig with the Paul Butterfield Band. Though it was a boon for Johnson's career, it would lead to the couple splitting soon after as Painter returned to anestablished life while Johnson continued on tour.

I was on the road a little bit, but lives changed, Painter said. I became a school principal and went back home to Eugene.

After her second husband, Bob, died, Painter reconnected with Johnson, Here comes Keith again, 50 years later. Painter flew to L.A. to make amends with Johnson in 2016, and the two hit it off on a lovely, platonic weekend.

It just seemed like perfect timing to get right back to business, Painter said, referring to getting back together.

We had a great five years, I swear. It's a big hole in my life," Painter said about him being gone."But I'm happy Im well-situated in the Northwest in this lovely apartment, forging on, as people do.

Johnson began as a lanky, 6-foot-4-inch-tall jazz aficionado who would hang out at a former record store at 13th Avenue and Alder Streetnear UO, Young said.

My dad was down there and met this young jazz lover who was a trumpet player named Keith Johnson, Young said. He talked him into doing the jazz show on his FM station, and I was just in a trance.

After Johnson landed a gig with Butterfield, though, life took him on the road, leaving behind the radio show. When Youngs dad drafted him into taking over, Johnson and Painter, married at the time, invited Young to their South Willamette Street home to show the young man the ropes.

Keith sat me down and he played three tunes to introduce me to jazz, Young said. Opus de Funk by Horace Silver, 'Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting by Charles Mingus and Swing Low, Sweet Cadillac by Dizzy Gillespie. And that just nailed me.

Soon after joining Butterfield, Johnson started to makehis mark in jazz and blues. According to All Music, Johnson was an imposing musical presence who played trumpet and keyboards, but not well-known outside of jazz circles. In 1967, though, he brought a jazzier element to a reconstituted Paul Butterfield Blues Band, playing with them in front of 50,000 people at the Monterey International Pop Festival in California.

Johnsonleft the group in 1970 to make a living as a roving sideman. Over the years, he played with Elephant's Memory, on Mark "Moogy" Klingman'sfirst solo album "Moogy," Van Morrison's His Band and the Street Choir, Martha Velez's Hypnotized and as the musical director for Etta Jamesin her L.A. studio and on the road.

Like many sidemen and artists before him, though, the money did not follow the plaudits and renown.

He talked to me about the odd jobs he had to take to pay the rent, Painter said. Here he was working with the most famous musicians in the whole world in amazing places, but he couldn't pay the rent.

Part of this was fate and self-fortune. After leaving Etta James, the woman became a legend, making up to $50,000 a night for an appearance.

He said, 'Damn, you know, I should have kept my mettle. I was temp-of-the-month for balloons, a cup of coffee and a doughnut,' Painter said.

Slowing down as the years passed, the reconnected couple found peace in each others company.

At 80, being teenagers in love, we basically were interested in being together, Painter said. We both said, Well, why don't we relax and enjoy each other?'

Thatdidnt mean Johnson was over creating music. Settling in northwest Portland, Johnson discovered well-knownabstract illusionist painter George D. Green, whom hed enjoyed at a Lake Oswego exhibit, lived right down the road.

When they met, Green said, "You are my hero,"Painter recalled.

Turns out, Green saw Johnson play in a place calledThe Abyss,a short-lived college venue in a Eugene basement.

George said, 'When my friends and I would come back from San Francisco, they would say, Keiths gonnaplay tonight, and hes got some new licks.

Johnson would go on to write music soundtracks for severalGreenpaintings. The suites (one of which, Marooned Musical, is available on YouTube) are a strange, hypnotic blend, emblematic of a man satisfied with his journey, looking to give just a little more beauty back to the world.

He was just a precious guy with a wonderful optimistic spirit, a lot of talent and full of war stories, Painter said.

At the end, Johnson accepted life and death with an equanimity indicative of a melodious life. Speaking to a friend just days before he died, Johnson knew he would beleaving the world soon.

But he said, Hey, man, what are you going to do? This is what happens, Painter said. I thought, bless his heart. I hope we can all be that way.

Follow Matt on Instagram @CAFE_541. Questions or comments? Email him mdenis@registerguard.com.Want more stories like this?Subscribeto get unlimited access and support local journalism.

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Mystics and visionaries: A fine arts seminar | Penn Today – Penn Today – Penn Today – Penn Today

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Hilma af Klint was an early 20th century Swedish painter and spiritualist who began creating radically abstract paintings in the early 1900s, long before the likes of Vasily Kandinsky and Piet Mondrian embarked on their efforts. Her body of work has only recently begun to receive serious attention, culminating in a Guggenheim 2018-19 exhibition, Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future. It was the first solo exhibition of af Klint in the United States and became the most-visited exhibition in the museums history, bringing in more than 600,000 visitors and leading the Guggenheim to extend it multiple times.

Af Klint requested her paintings not be shown until at least 20 years after her death, saying she felt the world wasnt ready for her work. And it wasnt, not only because she was a woman painting in a style that was yet to be considered true art but also because of the way she received the paintings: After working as a medium for 10 years with a close group of women friends, she received a commission from her spiritual guides to create a radical and unprecedented group of paintings.

For Jackie Tileston, an associate professor in the Department of Fine Arts in the Stuart Weitzman School of Design, the exhibition inspired her to design a seminar using af Klints work as a jumping off point to examine the ways in which mystical and alternative forms of knowledge have fed artistic practices, both in the past and for contemporary artists in cultures around the globe.

The idea became Mystics and Visionaries: Art and Other Ways of Knowing, a fine arts seminar she taught during the spring semester.

I'm using Hilma as a hub out of which we explore artists who work with other modalities, other ways of creating, other ways of working with imagination, intuition, and inspiration, she says. Some of those approaches are not normally part of what we do in academia and are often not taken seriously as a form of research. I felt like it was important to create an intellectual space where we could have these conversations.

The seminar involved a wide range of readings, lectures, discussions, projects, and experiential exercises with visiting lecturers from neuroscience, religious studies, and positive psychology. They studied contemporary artists influenced by Eastern philosophies to Tantra paintings and Tibetan sand mandalas to Carl Jungs Red Book, in which the psychoanalyst explored the unconscious mind in a massive tome of his own art, calligraphy, and writings, which wasnt published until 2009.

One of the hidden blessings of the pandemic is that everythings on Zoom, which allowed me to invite guests from farther afield than in a typical year and to share those guests with the Penn community, says Tileston. This moment allows us to be generous and inclusive in a way that we normally couldnt.

Visiting virtual guests included Corine Sombrun, who Zoomed in from her home in France. She is the first Western woman fully trained in the Mongolian shamanic tradition, and along with psychologist/dream worker Nadine Kreisberger she discussed the intersection of trance, neuroscience, and psychology and the latest research and explorations around the potential of cognitive trance for wellbeing and creativity.

We are using art as a lens to look at how various states of consciousness can contribute to creativity and our perceptions of reality, Tileston says.

Tileston also teamed with Penns SNF Paideia Program to make two of the seminars visiting guest lectures public for the wider community. Those included Other Ways of Knowing: At the Intersection of Neuroscience and the Mystical, a conversation between neuroscientist Andrew Newberg and Justin McDaniel, undergraduate chair of religious studies, and Other Ways of Knowing: The Listening Project, a presentation on by Ernesto Pujol, a site-specific performance artist, social choreographer, and Sachs Professor in Fine Arts, in conversation with music professor Carol Muller.

The SNF Paideia Program believes that dialogue is crucial to higher education and to democracy. Listening seems like it might be the easiest part of engaging in dialogue across difference. In fact, deep and active listening is more demanding than we suppose, says Leah Anderson, executive director of the SNF Paideia Program. These lectures, which explored the art and science of listening, exposed some profound opportunities and challenges we face as we seek to truly hear from and engage with others in robust and meaningful dialogue.

Tileston sees the course as inspired by and an extension of initiatives like the Penn Integrates Knowledge effort, which recruits professors whose work draws from two or more academic disciplines and whose achievements demonstrate an ability to thrive at the intersection of multiple fields.

The fine arts are really a place where thats happening all the time, she says. One of the things that Ive always loved about the arts is how radically inclusive they are: politically, socially, intellectually. There's literally no field of study, or thought, or experience that cant be integrated into an art practice.

Even af Klint herself considered the work she was doing to be research, Tileston says. The seminar was open to both undergraduates and graduates and, although about half of the students enrolled were a combination of MFA students and art and design majors, the rest ranged from physics and Wharton students to computer science and engineering majors. In preparation for the class, she assigned a viewing of neuroscientist David Eaglemans talk on Possibilianism.

They all shared an open mindedness and curiosity, she says. Theyre coming in as true agnostics, just being curious about what the possibilities are of how we think and perceive and experience the world and how that can enable us to be better citizens of the planet, better creators, better thinkers, says Tileston.

Tina (Zetong) Jia, who just graduated with a degree in engineering and computer science, decided to take the class after her roommate told her how much the course in 2019 had changed her perspective on the world.

Jia, who is from a small city just outside Beijing, says so many of her previous classes at Penn were logic-based due to her majors, but since it was her last semester at Penn she wanted to branch out and explore something new.

I was very much a skeptic, but I was interested to see how the class might shift my perspective, she says. I didnt know what to expect other than that it would be something completely out of my comfort zone.

She assumed she would be an outsider just observing the class, but after a few sessions she realized she was gradually changing the way she thought about the topics.

I had shut the door to accepting things like this, but I realize I need to be more open to possibilities and also realize the world is a lot more complex, she says.

She says she began to see these types of mystical experiences as a spectrum, where on one end is something very intense, like af Klints visions, and on the other end is something like a person getting in the zone, doing something they enjoy, being in the flow, and losing track of time.

If you change your perspective and change the way that you interpret things and allow yourself to be more open to these kinds of experiences, maybe you can move toward the other end of the spectrum, she says. Maybe if everyone had these kinds of experiences, and people felt more connected to each other, the world would become a better place, she says. The class has encouraged me to keep exploring in this direction and to be more open in general.

He-Myong Woo is a first year MFA student from New York City, whose work in the program focuses on bringing sound and movement together with videos and photos in installations.

He says hed been developing ways of bringing his understanding of spirituality better into his art practice, and the seminar opened new ways of seeing that helped deepen and clarify his own experiences.

Both he and Jia say the course discussions were amazing and the allotted three hours never seemed like enough.

I dont know if there is another class like this, especially in such a well-known research institution, He-Myong says. But it feels like were coming to a moment when people are more inclined to start to ask questions about spirituality again. Artists in particular are usually at the forefront of thinking about such things, so this class certainly is resonating for this moment.

Two of the courses virtual events can be viewed online on the SNF Paideia Programs YouTube channel, including Other Ways of Knowing: At the Intersection of Neuroscience and the Mystical, and Other Ways of Knowing: The Listening Project.

Mystics and Visionaries: Art and Other Ways of Knowing will be offered this fall (FNAR 240/540-401, Tuesdays 1:45-4:45 p.m.)

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Satoshi Nakamoto: 9 Interesting Facts You Need To Know

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Like the dramatic quest ofHollywood movieFinding Nemo,this quest of finding Satoshi Nakamoto the inventor of Bitcoin has also been dramatic.

Its fascinating to see how Bitcoin has become a multi-billion dollar thing, yet the Father of Bitcoin is still missing.

Satoshi Nakamoto made the Bitcoin software in 2008 and made it open source in January 2009.

And in 2010, Satoshi Nakamoto disappeared.

No one even knows what pronoun to use(he, she, or they)while referring to Satoshi Nakamoto because it is still not clear whether he/she is a person or a group of people.

Whomever Satoshi Nakamoto might be, there are some interesting facts about the entity that gave birth to this multi-billion dollar industry of cryptocurrencies.

Here are 9 interesting facts

The name Satoshi Nakamoto is the pseudonym of the inventor of Bitcoin. In 2008, someone used this name and mailed the Bitcoin white paper to a cryptographic mailing list.

This mailing list contained renowned people who believedin decentralization and cryptography.

Thats why this name is so famous.

As is apparent from the name, its assumed that he was a Japanese man, but his flawless use of English in the white paper raises doubts about this conclusion.

It is believed that Satoshi Nakamoto owns 1 million bitcoins(or more) which makes his present net worth at the time of writing this article to be $2.6 billion.

In 2009 January, Satoshi mined the Genesis block, andin 2010, he officially stopped communicating. Between this period, the bitcoins came into existence exist on the blockchain ledger, but they have not been used or spent. Thisproves how much Satoshi owns.

1 million BTC is a huge number which, if dumped suddenly, could wreak havoc on the crypto market. Thats why Bitcoin has also earned the title of being a Ponzi scheme-because the speculative founder owns a significant share.

The anonymity of Bitcoins founder has led to a mushrooming of a totally new merchandising concept. Now you can buy T-Shirts with Satoshi Nakamoto things printed on them.

Things like:

You can buy one for yourself from e-commerce sites likeZazzleandTeespring.

Some even suggest that Samsung, Toshiba, Nakamichi, and Motorola together created Bitcoin, as you can tell from their names:

Satoshi Nakamoto

However, there is no official proof for such a conclusion.

Nick Szabo, a US computer scientist, and cryptographer is considered by some to be the founder of Bitcoin. Nick coined the concept of digital currency for the digital age by creating Bit Gold. Bit Gold was the ancestor of Bitcoin. However, it was not used by the masses because of limitations.

After analysis of Satoshis white paper, a blogger concluded that Nick Szabo was Satoshi Nakamoto. but Nick has never accepted this hypothesis.

Craig Wright, an Australian Entrepreneur, claimed to the BBC on 2nd May 2016 to be the inventor of Bitcoin. However, when examined by core Bitcoin developers like Peter Todd, Craig was unable to provide any acceptable supporting evidence for such a claim.

Though initially, he said he would come back with relevant evidence, he failed to do so, and said on his blog that he was sorry and didnt have the courage to continue.

In March 2014, another speculation came on the identity of Satoshi. A news source claimed that they had found Satoshi, and he lived inCalifornia, USA.

His full name, as reported, was Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto. He was aphysicist and a systems engineer who had recently been laid off by the government.

Later on, the person identified denied all such claims and said he is not the Nakamoto which everyone has been searching for.

Hal was a cryptographer even before his involvement with Bitcoin. He was on the mailing list that received Satoshi Nakamotos Bitcoin white paper.

Hal claimed that he had been communicating with Satoshi to support his testing, which led to the speculative conclusion that he himself was Satoshi.

Hals writing style also closely resembles that of Satoshis in the Bitcoin white paper. The suspicion evaporated when he showed his email conversation with Satoshi, but that could just be a diversion tactic.

Fun fact:Hal was the first person to receive a Bitcoin transaction from Satoshi on January 12, 2009, after Satoshi mined the genesis block on3rd January 2009 at 18:15:05 GMT.

An employee of Fast Company, a media brand, said thatNeal King, Vladimir Oksman, and Charles Bry were the group of people that created Bitcoin. This employee proved it by searching unique phrases in Satoshis white paper.

They even patented the phrase which appears on the Bitcoin white paper computationally impractical to reverse.

However, all of them have publically denied such allegations.

Whatever anyone may say or think, the anonymity factor of Satoshi Nakamoto has proven to be healthy for Bitcoin.

But theres still a big mystery here:

No one knows the truth.

I would like to end this article by quoting two very early adopters of Bitcoin, Erik Voorhees andRoger Ver(two people who are definitely worth following on Twitter).

Bitcoin is the most important invention in the history of the world since the internet.

Roger Ver, Bitcoin Jesus

This shows how important Bitcoin, blockchain technology, and of course, Satoshi Nakamoto all are!

And yes, Bitcoin has become more important than a single individual, but we would all love to solve this mystery once and for all.

If you know any more interesting facts that I have missed in this article, thendo let me know in the comments below!!!

And if you liked this post, dont forget to share it!

Here are hand-picked articles to read next:

Harsh Agrawal is the Crypto exchange and bots expert for CoinSutra. He founded CoinSutra in 2016, and one of the industrys most regarded professional blogger in the fin-tech space.

An award-winning blogger with a track record of 10+ years. He has a background in both finance and technology and holds professional qualifications in Information technology.

An international speaker and author who loves blockchain and crypto world.

After discovering about decentralized finance and with his background of Information technology, he made his mission to help others learn and get started with it via CoinSutra.

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Satoshi Nakamoto: 9 Interesting Facts You Need To Know

Satoshi Nakamoto – Is The Bitcoin Founder Just a CIA …

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At the beginning of the month, the world-famous Washington Post published documents on the secret service activities of Swiss Crypto AG, the German Federal Intelligence Service, and the American CIA. The "top-secret" report was about decades of spying and listening to over 120 countries around the world.

In a more than proud way, the report says:

It was the intelligence coup of the 20th century.

It all started with a supposedly harmless company: the Swiss Crypto AG. This very company, which was founded after the Second World War, produced encryption devices for governments around the world. Governments use the devices to ensure "supposedly safe" communication - be it in military areas or in communication between diplomats. The Swiss company's clients included countries such as Iran, India, Pakistan, the Vatican and a large number of Latin American countries.

Now we come to the political explosiveness of the topic: Crypto AG was unofficially controlled by the CIA. In other words: the Swiss Crypto AG belonged to the CIA. She was the secret owner. And it is precisely this "home advantage" that the CIA uses to incorporate secret back doors into the encryption mechanisms and devices of Crypto AG. With the help of these backdoors, the Americans were able to eavesdrop on all of the communication between the countries concerned for decades.

Let us slowly approach the absolutely vague and highly speculative thesis: What if Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto was just a CIA construct? - To do this, we have to bear in mind that since the mid-1970s, 120 states have involuntarily and permanently given the most sensitive and important information to the Americans. Also in the context of the NSA publications by Edward Snowden, it became clear that the USA is not exactly squeamish when it comes to skimming private data. Her strength is the operation in the dark and the camouflage of her own software.

And in parallel, Bitcoin has existed since 2009. A cryptocurrency that now has a market cap of nearly $ 200 billion. The network transfers millions to billions of dollars a day and is used worldwide. We use a currency and an underlying technology without knowing exactly who is behind this concept. Sure, a smart guy named Satoshi Nakamoto published the Bitcoin white paper on October 31, 2008.

But who is smart Satoshi Nakamoto? This question remains open. Of course, now you could argue that the "nice and fancy" thing about Bitcoin is the trust in technology and algorithms.

Have you ever wondered if Satoshi Nakamoto really has any meaning? Is there any translation of the name?

The short answer is "yes". Actually, there is a handful of translations.

The Japanese term satoshi has many meanings. Among some other things, Satoshi means "enlightened", "wise" or "intelligent". And last, but not least, Nakamoto means something like "middle", "base", "root" or "central". This would make Satoshi Nakamoto the Central Intelligence 🙂

What do you think about this (absurd?) Thesis?

Can you imagine such a connection or do you see the thesis as completely absurd and unrealistic?

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Satoshi Nakamoto - Is The Bitcoin Founder Just a CIA ...

Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? A Look at the Candidates

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Bitcoin was conceived as a communal project. Designed as an open-source software and released to the public in 2009, Bitcoin was conceived with openness in mind. Functioning on an open ledger that is accessible to the public, Bitcoin is an open-source project.

But despite all its openness, one grand mystery remains unsolved:

Who Created Bitcoin and Who exactly is Satoshi Nakamoto?

Finding an answer to this question isnt easy. We know that all the code that created Bitcoin originated with Satoshi Nakamoto, but that is about all we know. Satoshi Nakamoto didnt work alone on launching Bitcoin.

Some of the early Bitcoin devs have been pointed to as possible Satoshis, but there are numerous issues when it comes to proving that any specific person was the creator of Bitcoin.

First, lets detail what is known for certain. The first step was taken in 2007, when Nakamoto wrote the Bitcoin code. In November 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto published hisnow famous White Paper, which laid the groundwork for the Bitcoin protocol.

On January 3rd, 2009, the first ever Bitcoin block was mined, marking the creation of the cryptocurrency, it bore the message :

The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks

Satoshi was heavily involved with the Bitcoin community, and collaborated with them in order to modify the underlying bitcoin protocol. After two years of involvement, Nakamoto handed the reins to Gavin Andresen, and seized involvement with the Bitcoin project in December of 2010.

In the Spring of 2011, Nakamoto returned to leave a final message, stating in a post that he had moved on to other things, and that Bitcoin was in good hands with Gavin [Andresen] and everyone. That was the last the world heard of the secretive Bitcoin creator.

The mystery behind Nakamotos identity has only grown, as the Bitcoin community eagerly speculates who it could potentially be. Satoshi Nakamoto claims to be Japanese, born on April 5, 1975. To this day, it is unknown whether Nakamoto is male or female, or whether Nakamoto is even a single person or a group of individuals.

Today most people are familiar with digital currency, thanks to the epic crypto rally of 2017. Back in 2008 when this was all getting started, the cryptocurrency world was a lot smaller. We know for sure that some of the people we talk about below knew each other.

In the case of David Kleiman and Craig Wright, there is solid evidence that the two worked together to get bitcoin off the ground, and both had substantial amounts of the tokens. There is an ongoing saga between Kleimans estate and Wright, alleging that there could have been some kind of graft, and that Wright ended up with bitcoins that were rightfully Kleimans.

You might notice that we wrote Kleimans estate and not Kleiman. The sad fact is that some of the people who could be Satoshi Nakamoto have died, which makes a positive identification much harder.

When the first bitcoins were being mined, basically nobody cared about them. The first bitcoin transaction was a trade of 10,000 BTC for two pizzas, which should give you some idea of how playful some of the early devs were with their project. There are a lot of questions surrounding the origins of Bitcoin, and as time goes on, they may become harder to answer.

While Nakamotos identity remains unknown, This has not stopped enthusiasts from investigating his background and drawing up conclusions.

Nakamotos use of perfect English in his posts and his publication of the White Paper has raised skepticism as to his Japanese origin. Furthermore, his occasional use of British English in the code and comments has fueled speculation that he is a native English speaker of commonwealth origin.

Additionally, Stefan Thomas, a Swiss coder and active member in the Bitcoin community, graphed the time stamps of Nakamotos more than 500 posts, showing his or her complete absence of posts between midnight am and 6 am Greenwich Time, further informing investigators as to his potential whereabouts.

To date, there are several potential individuals suspected of being the mysterious Bitcoin creator. One of the first suggestions was Nick Szabo, a decentralized currency enthusiast who published a paper on Bit Gold considered to be a precursor to the first cryptocurrency.

By running a reverse textual analysis, internet researcher Skye Grey found dozens of unique phrases that linked Szabos writing style to that of the original whitepaper. This evidence is only circumstantial, however, and Szabo has repeatedly denied that he is the creator of Bitcoin.

Despite all the denials, the research into how the Bitcoin whitepaper was written shows remarkable similarities between how Szabo writes, and also what was omitted. One of the most curious things is that Satoshi Nakamoto made numerous references to ideas that had been used by Bit Gold, but never talked about Bit Gold directly.

Omitting the origin of relevant ideas strange, unless Szabo was deliberately trying to cover up his tracks. None of this is hard evidence, and to date Szabo has flatly denied being the key driver of Bitcoins launch.

Nick Szabo, Image from The-Blockchain

Another possibility is a Japanese American man living in California, named Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto, birth name Satoshi Nakamoto. First brought up in a March 2014 Newsweek article, Leah McGrath Goodman pointed to Nakamotos training as a physicist at Cal Poly University in Pomona and libertarian background as potential indicators of his identity.

Goodmans biggest piece of evidence was his response to a question regarding Bitcoin: I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it. Its been turned over to other people. They are in charge of it now. I no longer have any connection.This led to a wild media frenzy, which even included a car chase.

However, in a later interview, he recanted his previous position, stating that he had misunderstood the reporters question, thinking it was related to his previous classified work as a military contractor.

Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto, Image from The Verge.

David Kleiman had an interesting life, and was certainly involved in the beginnings of Bitcoin. His involvement with Bitcoin goes back to its earliest days, and he was one of the first Bitcoin miners. Kleiman had a long standing interest in computer security, and had designed systems that were used by the highest levels of the US government to secure their digital systems.

After becoming a paraplegic in a motorcycle accident, Kleiman went barreling into the world of cryptography. He was on the Metzdowd list, which may be where he first came in contact with the Bitcoin whitepaper.

Another theory puts him and Craig Wright at the center of the project. Gizmodo cites an email that allegedly came from Wright that states,

I need your help editing a paper I am going to release later this year. I have been working on a new form of electronic money. Bit cash, Bitcoin and also, You are always there for me Dave. I want you to be a part of it all.

The email is alleged to predate the release of the Bitcoin whitepaper by a few months, which would make it a key piece of evidence in the search for Satoshi Nakamotos true identity.

Sadly, Kleiman died in 2013 under mysterious circumstances, which effectively eliminates him as a future source of information. Given his aptitude for data security, whatever digital information he left behind is also probably going to be difficult to access.

David Kleiman, Image from Gizmodo

Hal Finney is another potential candidate to be the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto. Finney was a pre-bitcoin cryptographic pioneer and was only the second person after Nakamoto himself to make use of the software, file bug reports, and suggest improvements.

Finney was the first to ever receive Bitcoin, stating in an interview that [he] was the recipient of the first bitcoin transaction, when Satoshi sent ten coins to [him] as a test.

Forbes journalist Andy Greenberg speculated after requesting aid from writing analysis consultancy Juola & Associates that Greenberg may have been the ghostwriter for Satoshi Nakamoto.

Further adding to the speculation that Finney was involved with the creation of Bitcoin was his correspondence with the aforementioned Nick Szabo, and the fact that he lived only blocks apart from Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto.

At the time of his death on August 28, 2014, only circumstantial evidence pointed to Hal Finney being the original Satoshi Nakamoto.

Hal Finney, Image from Wired.

Yet another possible contender to be Satoshi Nakamoto is the Australian academic, computer engineering expert, and entrepreneur, Craig Wright.

In early November of 2015, Gizmodo received an anonymous email (referenced above) from an individual stating that not only did he know that Craig Wright was the creator of Bitcoin, but that he had also worked for him.

On December 9, hours afterWiredcertified that Wright was indeed Nakamoto, the Australian Federal Police raided his home, and afterwards stating the [the] matter is unrelated to recent media reporting regarding the digital currency Bitcoin.

Afterwards, Wright deleted his internet presence until May of 2016, when he stepped forward and revealed himself on Twitter as the creator of the digital currency Bitcoin, and claimed he had the proof to back up his statement. Then, amid a torrent of skepticism, Wright retracted his statement and did not offer the extraordinary proof he claimed to have, stating that he did not have the courage to prove his identity.

Craig Wright, Image from CCN.

In an era where information is widespread, Satoshi Nakamoto has managed to maintain his identity a complete secret. So why is uncovering Nakamotos identity so important? If Nakamoto is indeed a single individual, then he or she owns approximately 5% of the worlds Bitcoin supply, placing him or her as the 52nd richest person in the world as of December 12th.

The implications of this wealth are considerable, beyond even the real world implications. If Satoshi Nakamoto were ever to sell the rumored 980,000 Bitcoins in his or her possession (currently worth over $3.9 billion at todays price, as of 18th March 2019 ), the price of Bitcoincould potentially become more volatile than it already is.

A quote that is attributed to Mayer Amschel Rothschild goes like this, Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws!

Like many famous quotes, the authenticity of the above statement is questionable.

On the other hand, the idea expressed is rock-solid. The power-of-the-purse is one of the most important ideas in modern political ideology. Being able to control the issuance of a popular currency gives the controller extreme amounts of power.Bitcoin undermines the idea of a central bank, or the involvement of centralized authorities at their most basic level. As the last decade has shown, the idea of decentralized money or political systems has been met with extreme opposition by many established organizations.

Satoshi Nakamoto wrote,

The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust thats required to make it work. The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust. Banks must be trusted to hold our money and transfer it electronically, but they lend it out in waves of credit bubbles with barely a fraction in reserve. We have to trust them with our privacy, trust them not to let identity thieves drain our accounts, in their now-famous 2009 whitepaper.

In 2008 no one would have seen Satoshi Nakamoto as a threat to global socioeconomic system. Today, that probably isnt true. Nations like China have banned cryptos outright, and the Western central banking cartel has been vocal in its opposition to widespread use of cryptos.

Whoever Satoshi Nakamoto is, they are likely wise to have dropped off the radar when they did. The idea that fiat money could be replaced with a system that marginalizes central authorities is extremely dangerous to the people that currently hold power.

Anyone who could act as a lightening-rod for a global decentralized society would probably face some pretty nasty blowback.

Furthermore, there is significant debate as to the future of Bitcoin. Heated discussions have arisen due to some of the growing pains surrounding Bitcoin, particularly the issue of how to deal with an increase in transaction volume in the Bitcoin network. As the number of blocks increases, the Bitcoin network runs the risk of becoming overloaded.

One side of the debate wants to fundamentally change the Bitcoin node by increasing the block size, in order to allow the system to process transactions more quickly. The other side of the debate sees this as a betrayal of the original concept behind Bitcoin, arguing that this would lead to increased centralization.

Identifying Bitcoins true creator would create more certainty and could potentially lay down the following steps in Bitcoins ever growing development.

The Bitcoin community will be forced to coexist with the enigma that is Satoshi Nakamoto, whether they like it or not. There are a few ways that Satoshi Nakamoto could show that they are, in fact, the creator of Bitcoin, but convincing the entire crypto community will be a challenge.

Even if a plausible Satoshi came forward, they would probably have to deal with ongoing doubts from within the crypto community, and untold difficulties from the global power structure. The raid on Craig Wright by the AFP is a small taste of the legal morass that the real Satoshi Nakamoto would find themselves facing.

Ultimately, identifying Bitcoins creator may be a quixotic endeavor. His or her complete silence since the Spring of 2011 means it is likely we will never hear from them again. Nevertheless, Bitcoin, the open source digital currency created nearly a decade ago, will continue to in spite of this mystery.

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Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? A Look at the Candidates

The founder of Bitcoin will have a statue in Budapest – Entrepreneur

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The sculpture will have a reflective or mirror-like face.

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May24, 20212 min read

Despite the fall in the price of cryptocurrencies in recent weeks, the creator of Bitcoin will have a statue in Budapest, Hungary. The bust of the person known under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto will be made of life-size bronze, according to local media.

To this day, it is not known with certainty who or who the creators of this digital asset are, for this reason the statue will have a reflective or mirror-like face so that people who come to admire it will be able to see their reflected face.

According to Index, Hungary , the goal is for the idea that everyone is the creator of the cryptocurrency, we are all Satoshi, come to life in the European country. Also, this is a reminder that Bitcoin is characterized by being decentralized and independent.

The sculpture will be in charge of the artists Rka Gergely and Tams Gilly, while the idea was conceived by Andrs Gyrfi. On the other hand, the financing will be carried out by four organizations called Mr. Coin, Crypto Academy, Blockchain Hungary Association and Blockchain Budapest.

Likewise, the cryptocurrency community in the country joined the financing to place the missing amount. In total, 3 million florins were collected (10,556.94 US dollars, and 209,649 Mexican pesos approximately).

It is the name or pseudonym of the person or intelligence agency that developed Bitcoin and the reference software for the digital currency. His work allowed the transfer of values between two users located anywhere in the world without the need for a third party such as a financial organization or a bank.

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The founder of Bitcoin will have a statue in Budapest - Entrepreneur

Why The Father of Bitcoin Is Nowhere to Be Found – Robb Report

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Nothing fires the imagination like an anonymous hero with a secret identity. Its been an enduring trope since the Scarlet Pimpernel rescued his first aristocrat from Madame la Guillotine. From Batman to the street artist Banksy, each hero has his own reason for donning the mask of anonymity.

This phenomenon has come to the world of finance in the person of Satoshi Nakamoto, the so-called father of Bitcoin. He appeared out of the ether in 2008 and disappeared just as abruptly three years later, after establishing the worlds first cryptocurrency. On April 23, 2011, he sent a farewell email to a fellow Bitcoin developer. Ive moved on to other things, he wrote, assuring that the future of Bitcoin was in good hands. He has not been heard from since.

Today, Bitcoin is valued at more than $1 trillion, and while Nakamotos identity might be simply a matter of speculation for some, it means far more to others: He is said to own over 1 million Bitcoins with a current value hovering somewhere around $60 billion. Thats equivalent to about 5 percent of the total number of bitcoins currently in circulation.

Should the personor personsbehind the name Satoshi Nakamoto decide to sell just some of this hoard, the transaction would completely upend the cryptocurrency market. Cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase, which went public on the Nasdaq on April 14, noted the potential revelation of Nakamotos identity (and the movement of that persons Bitcoin holdings) as a risk factor in its IPO filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Coinbase even went so far as to send a copy of the filing to the last known email address for Nakamoto.

Increasingly, financial services behemoths like BlackRock, JPMorgan and BNY Mellon are offering cryptocurrencies and related services to their customers, adding legitimacy to an asset that Berkshire Hathaways Charlie Munger once characterized as contrary to the interests of civilization.

Bitcoin came to life when Nakamoto published his famous white paper on a cryptography mailing list describing a digital currency that would allow secure, peer-to-peer transactions without the involvement of any middleman, whether that be the government, financial system or a company. These transactions would be tracked through a blockchain, a ledger like those used by any financial institution, except that this ledger would be distributed across an entire network, with exact duplicates held by all participants and visible to all, secured by cryptographic means. There would never be more than 21 million Bitcoin.

Nakamoto created his cryptocurrency with the goal of wresting control of currency from financial elites and putting it in the hands of the common man. The first Bitcoin transaction occurred when Nakamoto sent 10 Bitcoins to Hal Finney, a well-known developer who had downloaded the Bitcoin software on its release date. The first commercial transaction came in 2010, when a programmer named Laszlo Hanyecz bought himself two Papa Johns pizzas for 10,000 Bitcoin. At Bitcoins current price of nearly $60,000, those were some very expensive pizzas.

Bitcoin is open source, meaning its design is public. No one person owns or controls Bitcoin, and anyone can participate. While Satoshi continued to control Bitcoins development, users and developers congregated in Bitcoin forums to contribute code and work on the project, which had become a collaborative effort. The users running the Bitcoin software were the ultimate authority.

Many programmers and developers have written code for Bitcoin, but Gavin Andresen was one of the most enthusiastic. He reached out to Nakamoto in 2010 and became the founders right-hand man. When Nakamoto withdrew from sight, he left Bitcoin in Andresens hands. Today, even Andresen himself has grown more reclusive: He no longer serves as core maintainer of Bitcoins code; in fact, that role may soon become as decentralized as the cryptocurrency itself.

Throughout the history of Bitcoin, efforts to unveil Nakamoto have continued unabated. Gossips in cryptocurrency forums have engaged in wild speculation: Nakamoto is a member of the Yakuza, part of a cabal of developers, a money-launderer or maybe even a woman.

In 2014, a reporter from Newsweek identified 70-year-old Dorian Nakamoto, a soft-spoken resident of Los Angeles, as Bitcoins creator. While his long and distinguished career in engineering was cited as evidence, Nakamoto has vehemently denied any involvement with the cryptocurrency. The day after Dorian Nakamoto released a public statement, Satoshi surfaced in an online forum. He posted I am not Dorian Nakamoto before vanishing once again.

Dorian Nakamoto, a 70-year-old resident of Los Angeles, vehemently denied a 2014 Newsweek report that he was the founder of Bitcoin. Sakatoshi Nakamoto also released a statement refuting the claim.Nick Ut/Associated Press

Australian Craig Wright claimed to be Nakamoto in 2016, and Bitcoin developer Andresen corroborated the statement, saying he was 98 percent sure that Wright was the elusive Satoshi. The cryptocurrency community wasnt having it, and Wright backed away from the claim.

Suspicion also fell upon Nick Szabo, a secretive crypto expert who contributed significantly to the development of Bitcoin. Linguistic researchers analyzed Szabos writing as well as writing from other suspected Satoshis. The linguists claimed that there were definitive similarities between Szabos writings and Satoshi Nakamotos. The New York Times even went so far as to pin Szabo as the shadowy Nakamoto, but Szabo strenuously denied the claims.

The upshot is that Satoshi Nakamoto remains anonymous, a mythical creature with a Bitcoin stash of epic proportions. He has strong incentives to remain anonymous. Owning a $60 billion fortune makes personal security a compelling concern. Given Bitcoins potential to challenge sovereign fiat currencies, Nakomoto could fear potential legal actions by governmentsif not other forms of government sanction.

Unquestionably, efforts to uncover the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto will continue. The threat he poses to the cryptocurrency market is too great and the mystery surrounding his identity is too compelling. In a world where anonymity is increasingly difficult to pursue, Satoshi Nakamoto has succeeded beyond imagination in keeping his secrets.

Rebecca Baldridge, CFA, is an investment professional and financial writer with over 20 years of experience in the financial services industry. She is a founding partner in Quartet Communications, a financial communications and content creation firm.

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Why The Father of Bitcoin Is Nowhere to Be Found - Robb Report

Satoshi Nakamoto – CoinDesk

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Satoshi Nakamoto is inventor of the Bitcoin protocol, publishing a paper outlining it via the Cryptography Mailing List on November, 1 2008.

He then released the first version of the Bitcoin software client in 2009 and participated with others on the project via mailing lists until he finally began to fade from the community toward the end of 2010.

Nakamoto worked with people on the open source Bitcoin team but took care never to reveal anything personal about himself. The last anyone heard from him was in the spring of 2011, when he said that he had moved on to other things.

But he was Japanese, right?

Satoshi means clear thinking, quick witted, wise. Naka can mean medium, inside or relationship. Moto can mean origin or foundation.

Those things would all apply to the person who founded a movement by designing a clever algorithm. The problem, of course, is that each word has multiple possible meanings.

It is not known for sure whether Satoshi Nakamoto was Japanese or not. In fact, its rather presumptuous to assume that he was actually a he. Allowing for the fact that this could have been a pseudonym, he could have been a she, or even a they.

Does anyone know whoNakamoto was?

No, but the detective techniques that people use when guessing are sometimes even more intriguing than the answer. The New Yorkers Joshua Davis believed that Satoshi Nakamotowas Michael Clear, a graduate cryptography student at Dublins Trinity College.

He arrived at this conclusion by analyzing 80,000 words of Nakamotos online writings and searching for linguistic clues. He also suspected Finnish economic sociologist and former games developer Vili Lehdonvirta. Both have denied being Bitcoins inventor.Michael Clear publicly denied being Satoshi at the 2013 Web Summit.

Anonymous group of people

Adam Penenberg at FastCompany argued instead that Nakamoto may actually have been three people: Neal King, Vladimir Oksman and Charles Bry. He figured this out by typing unique phrases from Nakamotos Bitcoin paper into Google to see if they were used anywhere else. One of them, computationally impractical to reverse, turned up in a patent application made by these three for updating and distributing encryption keys. The bitcoin.org domain name originally used by Satoshi to publish the paper had been registered three days after the patent application was filed. It was registered in Finland, and one of the patent authors had traveled there six months before the domain was registered. All of them deny it.

In any case, when bitcoin.org was registered on August 18th 2008, the registrant actually used a Japanese anonymous registration service and hosted it using a Japan-based ISP. The registration for the site was only transferred to Finland on May 18th 2011, which weakens the Finland theory somewhat. Others think that it was Martii Malmi, a developer living in Finland who has been involved with bitcoin since the beginning and developed its user interface.

A finger has also been pointed at Jed McCaleb, lover of Japanese culture and fomer resident of Japan. McCaleb created troubled bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox. He also co-founded industry startups Ripple and Stellar.

Another theory suggests that computer scientists Donal OMahony and Michael Peirce are Satoshi based on a paper they authored concerning digital payments along with Hitesh Tewari, based on a book that they published together. OMahony and Tewari also studied at Trinity College, where Michael Clear was a student.

Israeli scholarsDorit Ron and Adi Shamir of the Weizmann Institute retracted allegations made in a paper suggesting a link between Satoshi and Silk Road, the black market web site that was taken down by the FBI in October 2013. They had suggested a link between an address allegedly owned by Satoshi and the site. Security researcherDustin D. Trammell owned the address, and disputed claims that he was Satoshi Nakamoto.

In May 2013, Internet pioneer TedNelson threw another hat into the ring: Japanese mathematicianProfessor Shinichi Mochizuki, although he admits that the evidence is circumstantial at best.

In February 2014, Newsweeks Leah McGrath Goodman claimed to have tracked downthe real Satoshi Nakamoto. Dorian S. Nakamoto has since denied he knows anything about bitcoin, eventually hiring a lawyer and releasing an official statement to that effect.

No, Satoshi Nakamoto is not a Japanese man living in California.

Hal Finney, Michael Weber, Wei Dai and several other developers were among those who are periodically named in media reports and online discussions as potential Satoshi Nakamoto candidates.A group of forensic linguistics experts from Aston Universitybelieve the real creator of bitcoin is Nick Szabo, based upon analysis of the Bitcoin whitepaper.

Dominic Frisby, a comedian and writer, also suggests that bit gold creatorSzabo was the most likely candidate to be Satoshi in hisbook, Bitcoin: The Future of Money. His detailed analysis involved thelinguistics of Satoshis writing, judging the level of technical skill in C++and evenSatoshis likely birthday.

In Nathaniel Poppers book, Digitial Gold, released in May 2015, Popper reveals that in a rare encounter at an event Szabo denied that he was Satoshi.

In early December 2015,reports by Wired and Gizmodotentativelyclaimed to have identified Nakamoto as Australian entrepreneur Craig S Wright.WIREDcited an anonymous source close to Wright who provided a cache of emails, transcripts and other documents that point to Wrights role in the creation of bitcoin.Gizmodocited documents sourced from someone claiming to have hacked Wrights business email account as well as efforts to interview individuals close to him.The idea that the Wright-Satoshi connection is nothing but a hoax has been floated byobservers, though.

What is known?

One thing that is known, based on interviews with people that were involved at an early stage in the development of bitcoin, is that Satoshi Nakamoto thought Bitcoin out very thoroughly. His coding wasnt conventional, according to core developer Jeff Garzik, in that he didnt apply the same rigorous testing expected from a classic software engineer.

How rich is he?

An analysis by Sergio Lerner, an authority on Bitcoin and cryptography, suggests that Satoshi mined many of the early blocks in the network, and that he had around 1 million BTC.

What is he doing now?

No one knows what Satoshi is up to, but one of the last emails he sent to a software developer, dated April 23 2011, said Ive moved on to other things. Its in good hands with Gavin and everyone.

Did he work for the government?

There are rumors, of course. The obvious question would be why one of the three-letter agencies would be interested in creating a cryptocurrency that would subsequently be used as an anonymous trading mechanism, causing senators and the FBI alike to wring their hands about potential terrorism and other criminal endeavors.

Perhaps it doesnt matter. Core developer Jeff Garzik puts it succinctly. Satoshi published an open-source system for the purpose that you didnt have to know who he was, and trust who he was, or care about his knowledge, he said. Open source code makes it impossible to hide secrets. The source code spoke for itself, Garzik added. Moreover, it was smart to use a pseudonym, he argues, because it forced people to focus on the technology itself rather than on the personality behind it. At the end of the day, bitcoin is now far bigger than Satoshi Nakamoto.

Having said that, if the real Satoshi Nakamoto is out there get in touch!

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Satoshi Nakamoto - CoinDesk

Crypto banks are gaining momentum over traditional banks – Finextra

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The massive popularity of crypto-industry is visible in numbers. For example, the bitcoin market cap reached more than $1 billion and blockchain is expected to hit $23.3 billion. The general market cap of cryptocurrencies is expected to hit $1087,7 billion by 2026. Due to these very eye-catching numbers, crypto banks remain on the rise, while the traditional banking system already is undergoing several backlashes.

The public survey has shown that 79% of Americans have heard of cryptocurrency and a big number of them are investing in it. One of the biggest markets coinbase has verified more than 56 million users. To compare the engagement of the website to the traditional investment management company Fidelity. According to the official statistics, they have 35 million user accounts. Cryptocurrency banks are surpassing traditional banks, but what about traditional institutions?

Crypto banks VS Traditional Banks

The terms such as Blockchain, AI, cryptocurrencies are the ones that are trending on almost every platform where the financial market is discussed. This is a period when we are facing significant changes and those changes are especially driven by the crypto-industry as the number of transactions is increasing not from year to year but on a daily basis. It is assumed by the financial experts that the compound annual growth rate will be roughly to say 12 % by 2024. This is when people started questioning the role or even the future of tradition. Fiat currencies, while we have been using traditional currencies for centuries already, the massive use of cryptocurrency will help it to gain the role of technologies in our lives even more. One of the major obstacles that traditional banks are facing in comparison to crypto banks is that the transaction speed is way lower than in the case of executing crypto transactions.

Limitations of traditional banks

The use of cryptocurrency makes the transaction and investment process way different from what we are used to during the last few decades. The global financial crisis that occurred in 2008 has shown the entire world that the banking system is also vulnerable to economic challenges. When it became clear that those financial institutions could not secure their funds, the demand for alternative ways of securing their funds was massively increased. This is when Satoshi Nakamoto invented the first-ever virtual asset, named bitcoin.

The main advantage of it was to remove the traditional banking payment system from the process, also known as third-party involvement. Today we see that the price change in one bitcoin is wild since it has reached the historical maximum of $64,000.

The role of decentralized technology

The obstacles that the traditional banking system created for the people, was its own policy, regulations, and mainly, interest rates that promoted the insufficient processes for the clients. The new crypto payment system was offering them the service that not a single bank was able to provide them with, this is a customer-centric approach and they are given the possibility to hold the assets anonymously.

The solution to the complex banking system was the decentralized banking process, which first came up in Nakamotos head. This new system has its own risks of course, but it also has advantages that people cannot refuse to take.

Digital Dollar

The Federal Reserve has announced that they are about to implement the digital dollar in summer 2021. This does not mean that the digital dollar will be cryptocurrency, neither will it be decentralized, nor will it be built on blockchain technology. It will be a traditional, fiat currency in a digitized form.

The main reason why the government has decided to create the digital dollar is to make even economically poor Americans gain access to the banking system. This might also be an attempt to overcome the challenge that the crypto-industry has created for the traditional banking systems. Many other huge corporations that operate on the financial market, for example, Mastercard and Visa are trying to collaborate with the central banks to create a customer-oriented approach and modify the old-fashioned system.

Crypto Banking

There are a plethora of crypto enterprises however, crypto banking means the process of how digital currencies get introduced into the market in order to be exchanged or transacted. There are special crypto platforms created that allow registered users to hold or store virtual assets. When we say crypto banks, we mean the apps for the platforms that are created online. The users, while signing in to their accounts are able to see their secured digital wallets and execute the transactions they wish for, and all those happening just in seconds.

It is believed that the whole crypto banking system has a bright future ahead. There are still big security challenges that not only the crypto-industry but the blockchain system has to overcome as they both have a superior nature.

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Crypto banks are gaining momentum over traditional banks - Finextra