Fun bit from the NYT reveal into Satoshi’s identity
I thought members of this Internet mailing list, a sort of precursor to today’s message boards, might enjoy the following passage from the New York Times’ recent investigation into the identity of the bitcoin creator pseudonymously referred to as “Satoshi Nakamoto.” And by enjoy, I mean that it might perhaps make you scream in annoyance, as it did to me: “Satoshi was also very likely a member of the Cypherpunks, a group of anarchists formed in the early 1990s who wanted to use cryptography, the art of securing communications through code, to free individuals from government surveillance and censorship. The Cypherpunks interacted mostly through something called an internet mailing list. Ancestors of today’s message boards, mailing lists were large group emails in old typewriter font that subscribers received in their inbox. To communicate, respondents replied-all.” https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/08/business/bitcoin-satoshi-nakamoto-identit... ________ S a r a h T. R o b e r t s, P h. D.
I.. I... I just don't know where to start with this... Thanks for sharing. A good scream (or two or three...) in annoyance helps start the morning right. Best - c. Get Outlook for Android<https://aka.ms/AAb9ysg> ________________________________ From: Air-L <air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org> on behalf of Roberts, Sarah via Air-L <Air-L@listserv.aoir.org> Sent: Saturday, April 11, 2026 8:33:21 AM To: Air-L@listserv.aoir.org <Air-L@listserv.aoir.org> Subject: [Air-L] Fun bit from the NYT reveal into Satoshi’s identity I thought members of this Internet mailing list, a sort of precursor to today’s message boards, might enjoy the following passage from the New York Times’ recent investigation into the identity of the bitcoin creator pseudonymously referred to as “Satoshi Nakamoto.” And by enjoy, I mean that it might perhaps make you scream in annoyance, as it did to me: “Satoshi was also very likely a member of the Cypherpunks, a group of anarchists formed in the early 1990s who wanted to use cryptography, the art of securing communications through code, to free individuals from government surveillance and censorship. The Cypherpunks interacted mostly through something called an internet mailing list. Ancestors of today’s message boards, mailing lists were large group emails in old typewriter font that subscribers received in their inbox. To communicate, respondents replied-all.” https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/08/business/bitcoin-satoshi-nakamoto-identit... ________ S a r a h T. R o b e r t s, P h. D.
Just wait until the author hears about newsgroups and USENET. Also, one of the first (if not THE first)<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdfunding#Early_campaigns> Internet-driven crowdfunding campaign started on a mailing list run by the band Marillion<https://www.loudersound.com/features/crowdfunding-anoraks-and-prog-weekenders-how-marillion-survived-the-90s>, whom I happen to be a massive fan of - so I was on the list when it happened, and I'm still cursing that I didn't keep those email archive files. My annoyance scream is mostly about the author's semi-dismissive tone describing a part of Internet culture that forever shaped what we do online... Darn youth of today! (shakes fist at cloud) M Morten Bay, Ph.D. Lecturer Research fellow, Center for the Digital Future Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism University of Southern California On Apr 10, 2026 at 10:44 PM -0700, Roberts, Sarah via Air-L <Air-L@listserv.aoir.org>, wrote: I thought members of this Internet mailing list, a sort of precursor to today’s message boards, might enjoy the following passage from the New York Times’ recent investigation into the identity of the bitcoin creator pseudonymously referred I thought members of this Internet mailing list, a sort of precursor to today’s message boards, might enjoy the following passage from the New York Times’ recent investigation into the identity of the bitcoin creator pseudonymously referred to as “Satoshi Nakamoto.” And by enjoy, I mean that it might perhaps make you scream in annoyance, as it did to me: “Satoshi was also very likely a member of the Cypherpunks, a group of anarchists formed in the early 1990s who wanted to use cryptography, the art of securing communications through code, to free individuals from government surveillance and censorship. The Cypherpunks interacted mostly through something called an internet mailing list. Ancestors of today’s message boards, mailing lists were large group emails in old typewriter font that subscribers received in their inbox. To communicate, respondents replied-all.” https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/08/business/bitcoin-satoshi-nakamoto-identity-adam-back.html<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/08/business/bitcoin-satoshi-nakamoto-identity-adam-back.html__;!!LIr3w8kk_Xxm!tS-eZwZg_GxwqF8M2XyeyyT8WsRvTseoVld1ZUbJgI-bmCB_oASnXMwThpNTHJOGdJMzbCMrl_sXBXRIKQ$> ________ S a r a h T. R o b e r t s, P h. D.
Thanks for this, Morten - first of all, for such an interesting example of the fine-grained and local, one that helps fill in and enrich otherwise inevitably thin and vague generalizations and, in this case, helps correct and extend an important history. On 13/04/2026 01:31, Morten Bay via Air-L wrote:
Just wait until the author hears about newsgroups and USENET.
Yes. Though having taken a bit of time to scan the article, it's interesting to note that the authors are a bit calmer about Napster and Gnutella - and a touch more informed about their shutdown vis-a-vis the issues of copyright as analogues to the governmental control of money that the Bitcoiner the authors eventually uncover is most centrally interested in countering via the emerging technologies (both internet-facilitated communication as well as computational advances in cryptography). In any case, and to further elaborate on your central point: correct me if I'm wrong (as I more and more am these days), but it also seems to me that any number of contemporary popular modalities of communicating (e.g., the Google groups and subreddits in my recent explorations of "retro-computing") either directly or indirectly evolved from and/or mimic the earliest models of newsgroups, USENET, and listserves - not to mention interactive text gaming? Moreover: behind what I think you rightly characterize as a semi-dismissive tone regarding listserves lies what Bernie Hogan and Barry Wellman characterized as "presentism" in what was then called CMC scholarship. One of their examples is even more useful and interesting, as they criticize pundits and boosters in the 1990s whose euphoria over (and monied interests in) the emerging internet was expressed in a characteristic dualism of "revolutionary" new technology vs. whatever preceded it by a few years. Hogan and Wellman note that "they forgot that long-distance ties had been flourishing for generations, using automobiles, telephones, airplanes, and even postal (snail) mail" (2012, 45). (The Immanent Internet Redux, in P.H. Cheong, P. Fischer-Nielsen, P, S. Gelfgren, C. Ess (eds.), _Digital religion, social media and culture: Perspectives, practices, futures_, pp. 43-62. New York, NY: Peter Lang, 2012). Another way of putting it: some historians (no matter the field) emphasize continuity between different periods, epochs, developments - while others emphasize discontinuity, the "revolutionary," etc. In any number of ways, especially the US-centric Anglophone discourse and narratives surrounding the internet in the 1990s, on my reading at least, was much more commonly marked by a breathless enthusiasm for the revolutionary ("this changes everything") than an interest in understanding the backgrounds and deeper origins that shaped the current new buds. Things may have changed somewhat - especially thanks to historians of the Internet, several of whom are on this list - who document these continuities. But I'm not sure I see much evidence of that? However that may be: from my perspective, this is a constant and significant problem in our research and scholarship as new technologies and their accompanying possibilities, uses, issues, etc. unfold daily like mushrooms in the forest after a good rain: "keeping up" is demanding enough - much less trying to build up a long-term historical overview. (Thank you, historians!) Beyond its challenges to our research and writing - my larger concern is that such presentism, of course, fuels the emphasis on historical discontinuity rather than continuity (and resonates with the other dualisms - ontological (IRL vs. virtual), epistemological, ethical, anthropological (transhumanism and digital immortality) - that run alongside this worldview. But that's clearly another story for another (very long) day. In any case: it's hardly surprising to see such presentism and resulting dismissiveness in a more popular article - however irritating and annoying it may also be. On a more entertaining note: my recent forays in retro-computing led to the happy discovery that BBSs are still somewhat alive and well. For those who want to remember or experience for the first time the joys of 9600 baud communication over serial terminals - and/or simply be amused by Star Wars IV being played through your terminal in the form of ASCII art - use: telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl in the terminal in Mac / Linux or the command prompt in Windows. It takes some tinkering to "turn down" the modern terminal to 9600 baud - perhaps not worth it for those who have more important and pressing things to do. Enjoy in any case. Many thanks all around, - c.
Also, one of the first (if not THE first) <https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Crowdfunding#Early_campaigns> Internet-driven crowdfunding campaign started on a mailing list run by the band Marillion <https:// www.loudersound.com/features/crowdfunding-anoraks-and-prog-weekenders- how-marillion-survived-the-90s>, whom I happen to be a massive fan of - so I was on the list when it happened, and I'm still cursing that I didn't keep those email archive files.
My annoyance scream is mostly about the author's semi-dismissive tone describing a part of Internet culture that forever shaped what we do online...
Darn youth of today! (shakes fist at cloud)
M
Morten Bay, Ph.D. Lecturer Research fellow, Center for the Digital Future Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism University of Southern California On Apr 10, 2026 at 10:44 PM -0700, Roberts, Sarah via Air-L <Air- L@listserv.aoir.org>, wrote:
I thought members of this Internet mailing list, a sort of precursor to today’s message boards, might enjoy the following passage from the New York Times’ recent investigation into the identity of the bitcoin creator pseudonymously referred * *
I thought members of this Internet mailing list, a sort of precursor to today’s message boards, might enjoy the following passage from the New York Times’ recent investigation into the identity of the bitcoin creator pseudonymously referred to as “Satoshi Nakamoto.” And by enjoy, I mean that it might perhaps make you scream in annoyance, as it did to me:
“Satoshi was also very likely a member of the Cypherpunks, a group of anarchists formed in the early 1990s who wanted to use cryptography, the art of securing communications through code, to free individuals from government surveillance and censorship.
The Cypherpunks interacted mostly through something called an internet mailing list. Ancestors of today’s message boards, mailing lists were large group emails in old typewriter font that subscribers received in their inbox. To communicate, respondents replied-all.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/08/business/bitcoin-satoshi-nakamoto- identity-adam-back.html <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:// www.nytimes.com/2026/04/08/business/bitcoin-satoshi-nakamoto-identity- adam-back.html__;!!LIr3w8kk_Xxm!tS- eZwZg_GxwqF8M2XyeyyT8WsRvTseoVld1ZUbJgI- bmCB_oASnXMwThpNTHJOGdJMzbCMrl_sXBXRIKQ$>
________
S a r a h T. R o b e r t s, P h. D.
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Thank YOU for all of these great examples, Charles, and for pointing me to "presentism", which I did not know that Wellman and Hogan had written about at length...I will certainly check that out! And of course, I completely agree with your theoretical points. I am not invulnerable to nostalgia, and the crowdsourced, distributed museum and archive that is constituted by things like the BBS revival is a continuous source of joy for me. I'm still waiting for someone to set up a good ARPANET simulator, though (I'd do it if I had the time and money.) I take it for granted that Kevin Driscoll's 'The Modem World' is already on your bookshelf... The amazing thing about the Star Wars ASCIIMation project (which I recall seeing as early as 1998) is that it is still ongoing! It began in 1997 and the latest scene was added in July last year: asciimation.co.nz In a wonderful example of synchronicity, I'm off to teach Chapter 6 of your 'Digital Media Ethics' book at Annenberg now. Thanks again, Morten Morten Bay, Ph.D. Lecturer Research fellow, Center for the Digital Future Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism University of Southern California On Apr 12, 2026 at 10:48 PM -0700, Charles Melvin Ess <c.m.ess@media.uio.no>, wrote: Thanks for this, Morten - first of all, for such an interesting example of the fine-grained and local, one that helps fill in and enrich otherwise inevitably thin and vague generalizations and, in this case, helps correct and extend an important Thanks for this, Morten - first of all, for such an interesting example of the fine-grained and local, one that helps fill in and enrich otherwise inevitably thin and vague generalizations and, in this case, helps correct and extend an important history. On 13/04/2026 01:31, Morten Bay via Air-L wrote:
Just wait until the author hears about newsgroups and USENET.
Yes. Though having taken a bit of time to scan the article, it's interesting to note that the authors are a bit calmer about Napster and Gnutella - and a touch more informed about their shutdown vis-a-vis the issues of copyright as analogues to the governmental control of money that the Bitcoiner the authors eventually uncover is most centrally interested in countering via the emerging technologies (both internet-facilitated communication as well as computational advances in cryptography). In any case, and to further elaborate on your central point: correct me if I'm wrong (as I more and more am these days), but it also seems to me that any number of contemporary popular modalities of communicating (e.g., the Google groups and subreddits in my recent explorations of "retro-computing") either directly or indirectly evolved from and/or mimic the earliest models of newsgroups, USENET, and listserves - not to mention interactive text gaming? Moreover: behind what I think you rightly characterize as a semi-dismissive tone regarding listserves lies what Bernie Hogan and Barry Wellman characterized as "presentism" in what was then called CMC scholarship. One of their examples is even more useful and interesting, as they criticize pundits and boosters in the 1990s whose euphoria over (and monied interests in) the emerging internet was expressed in a characteristic dualism of "revolutionary" new technology vs. whatever preceded it by a few years. Hogan and Wellman note that "they forgot that long-distance ties had been flourishing for generations, using automobiles, telephones, airplanes, and even postal (snail) mail" (2012, 45). (The Immanent Internet Redux, in P.H. Cheong, P. Fischer-Nielsen, P, S. Gelfgren, C. Ess (eds.), _Digital religion, social media and culture: Perspectives, practices, futures_, pp. 43-62. New York, NY: Peter Lang, 2012). Another way of putting it: some historians (no matter the field) emphasize continuity between different periods, epochs, developments - while others emphasize discontinuity, the "revolutionary," etc. In any number of ways, especially the US-centric Anglophone discourse and narratives surrounding the internet in the 1990s, on my reading at least, was much more commonly marked by a breathless enthusiasm for the revolutionary ("this changes everything") than an interest in understanding the backgrounds and deeper origins that shaped the current new buds. Things may have changed somewhat - especially thanks to historians of the Internet, several of whom are on this list - who document these continuities. But I'm not sure I see much evidence of that? However that may be: from my perspective, this is a constant and significant problem in our research and scholarship as new technologies and their accompanying possibilities, uses, issues, etc. unfold daily like mushrooms in the forest after a good rain: "keeping up" is demanding enough - much less trying to build up a long-term historical overview. (Thank you, historians!) Beyond its challenges to our research and writing - my larger concern is that such presentism, of course, fuels the emphasis on historical discontinuity rather than continuity (and resonates with the other dualisms - ontological (IRL vs. virtual), epistemological, ethical, anthropological (transhumanism and digital immortality) - that run alongside this worldview. But that's clearly another story for another (very long) day. In any case: it's hardly surprising to see such presentism and resulting dismissiveness in a more popular article - however irritating and annoying it may also be. On a more entertaining note: my recent forays in retro-computing led to the happy discovery that BBSs are still somewhat alive and well. For those who want to remember or experience for the first time the joys of 9600 baud communication over serial terminals - and/or simply be amused by Star Wars IV being played through your terminal in the form of ASCII art - use: telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl in the terminal in Mac / Linux or the command prompt in Windows. It takes some tinkering to "turn down" the modern terminal to 9600 baud - perhaps not worth it for those who have more important and pressing things to do. Enjoy in any case. Many thanks all around, - c.
Also, one of the first (if not THE first) <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://en.wikipedia.org/__;!!LIr3w8kk_Xxm!p-iFu... wiki/Crowdfunding#Early_campaigns> Internet-driven crowdfunding campaign started on a mailing list run by the band Marillion <https:// https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.loudersound.com/features/crowdfunding... how-marillion-survived-the-90s>, whom I happen to be a massive fan of - so I was on the list when it happened, and I'm still cursing that I didn't keep those email archive files.
My annoyance scream is mostly about the author's semi-dismissive tone describing a part of Internet culture that forever shaped what we do online...
Darn youth of today! (shakes fist at cloud)
M
Morten Bay, Ph.D. Lecturer Research fellow, Center for the Digital Future Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism University of Southern California On Apr 10, 2026 at 10:44 PM -0700, Roberts, Sarah via Air-L <Air- L@listserv.aoir.org>, wrote:
I thought members of this Internet mailing list, a sort of precursor to today’s message boards, might enjoy the following passage from the New York Times’ recent investigation into the identity of the bitcoin creator pseudonymously referred * *
I thought members of this Internet mailing list, a sort of precursor to today’s message boards, might enjoy the following passage from the New York Times’ recent investigation into the identity of the bitcoin creator pseudonymously referred to as “Satoshi Nakamoto.” And by enjoy, I mean that it might perhaps make you scream in annoyance, as it did to me:
“Satoshi was also very likely a member of the Cypherpunks, a group of anarchists formed in the early 1990s who wanted to use cryptography, the art of securing communications through code, to free individuals from government surveillance and censorship.
The Cypherpunks interacted mostly through something called an internet mailing list. Ancestors of today’s message boards, mailing lists were large group emails in old typewriter font that subscribers received in their inbox. To communicate, respondents replied-all.”
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/08/business/bitc... identity-adam-back.html <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:// https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/08/business/bitco... adam-back.html__;!!LIr3w8kk_Xxm!tS- eZwZg_GxwqF8M2XyeyyT8WsRvTseoVld1ZUbJgI- bmCB_oASnXMwThpNTHJOGdJMzbCMrl_sXBXRIKQ$>
________
S a r a h T. R o b e r t s, P h. D.
_______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://aoir.org__;!!LIr3w8kk_Xxm!p-iFumdHQ18ZvVL... Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir...
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.aoir.org/__;!!LIr3w8kk_Xxm!p-iFumdHQ1...
Thanks much in turn, Morten - glad to know you found the Wellman and Hogan comments useful, first of all. And quite tickled indeed with the addition to my understanding of the Star Wars ASCII work: this is how we learn - thanks! You - and perhaps others on this list - will be happy to know that there is a serious effort to reconstruct a working ARPANET by way of the Raspberry Pi-based replica/emulators of the PDP-10, and, more recently, the PiDP-1. I'm not finding quickly a simple, easily accessible overview - but a primary person here, Lars Brinkhof, posts frequently in the Google Group: <https://groups.google.com/g/pidp-10/>. He has made a short video showing various "Scenarios for Using Arpanet Computers (in 2025)" https://youtu.be/FQnE-nAxzmY He's using his PiDP-10 to demonstrate. It will help to have some familiarity with the PiDP-10 operating systems, login protocols, various commands (not to mention octal ...) - but with or without that, you'll easily get the point that ARPANET connections between PIDP-10s is coming closer to something "out of the box," as was promised by Oscar Vermeulen recently, the amazing fellow behind all the PiDP emulators. This will also include the more recently released PiDP-1, but it's all still very much a work in progress. A good time to jump in, in short, should you have the time. Speaking of synchronicity - more than delighted, of course, to know that DME (3rd) edition is still proving useful. FWIW, I'm hoping that a DME4 will not be too far off, FWIW. So if you - and anyone else on the list who also uses DME3 - have suggestions or comments on possible improvements, additions, omissions, etc., please do pass those along, most especially if these reflect your teaching experience and students' responses. Many thanks in advance / in all events, and all best in the meantime, - c. On 13/04/2026 17:45, Morten Bay wrote:
Thank YOU for all of these great examples, Charles, and for pointing me to "presentism", which I did not know that Wellman and Hogan had written about at length...I will certainly check that out! And of course, I completely agree with your theoretical points.
I am not invulnerable to nostalgia, and the crowdsourced, distributed museum and archive that is constituted by things like the BBS revival is a continuous source of joy for me. I'm still waiting for someone to set up a good ARPANET simulator, though (I'd do it if I had the time and money.) I take it for granted that Kevin Driscoll's 'The Modem World' is already on your bookshelf...
The amazing thing about the Star Wars ASCIIMation project (which I recall seeing as early as 1998) is that it is still ongoing! It began in 1997 and the latest scene was added in July last year: asciimation.co.nz
In a wonderful example of synchronicity, I'm off to teach Chapter 6 of your 'Digital Media Ethics' book at Annenberg now.
Thanks again,
Morten
Morten Bay, Ph.D. Lecturer Research fellow, Center for the Digital Future Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism University of Southern California On Apr 12, 2026 at 10:48 PM -0700, Charles Melvin Ess <c.m.ess@media.uio.no>, wrote:
Thanks for this, Morten - first of all, for such an interesting example of the fine-grained and local, one that helps fill in and enrich otherwise inevitably thin and vague generalizations and, in this case, helps correct and extend an important Thanks for this, Morten - first of all, for such an interesting example of the fine-grained and local, one that helps fill in and enrich otherwise inevitably thin and vague generalizations and, in this case, helps correct and extend an important history.
On 13/04/2026 01:31, Morten Bay via Air-L wrote:
Just wait until the author hears about newsgroups and USENET.
Yes. Though having taken a bit of time to scan the article, it's interesting to note that the authors are a bit calmer about Napster and Gnutella - and a touch more informed about their shutdown vis-a-vis the issues of copyright as analogues to the governmental control of money that the Bitcoiner the authors eventually uncover is most centrally interested in countering via the emerging technologies (both internet-facilitated communication as well as computational advances in cryptography).
In any case, and to further elaborate on your central point: correct me if I'm wrong (as I more and more am these days), but it also seems to me that any number of contemporary popular modalities of communicating (e.g., the Google groups and subreddits in my recent explorations of "retro-computing") either directly or indirectly evolved from and/or mimic the earliest models of newsgroups, USENET, and listserves - not to mention interactive text gaming?
Moreover: behind what I think you rightly characterize as a semi-dismissive tone regarding listserves lies what Bernie Hogan and Barry Wellman characterized as "presentism" in what was then called CMC scholarship. One of their examples is even more useful and interesting, as they criticize pundits and boosters in the 1990s whose euphoria over (and monied interests in) the emerging internet was expressed in a characteristic dualism of "revolutionary" new technology vs. whatever preceded it by a few years. Hogan and Wellman note that "they forgot that long-distance ties had been flourishing for generations, using automobiles, telephones, airplanes, and even postal (snail) mail" (2012, 45). (The Immanent Internet Redux, in P.H. Cheong, P. Fischer-Nielsen, P, S. Gelfgren, C. Ess (eds.), _Digital religion, social media and culture: Perspectives, practices, futures_, pp. 43-62. New York, NY: Peter Lang, 2012).
Another way of putting it: some historians (no matter the field) emphasize continuity between different periods, epochs, developments - while others emphasize discontinuity, the "revolutionary," etc. In any number of ways, especially the US-centric Anglophone discourse and narratives surrounding the internet in the 1990s, on my reading at least, was much more commonly marked by a breathless enthusiasm for the revolutionary ("this changes everything") than an interest in understanding the backgrounds and deeper origins that shaped the current new buds. Things may have changed somewhat - especially thanks to historians of the Internet, several of whom are on this list - who document these continuities. But I'm not sure I see much evidence of that?
However that may be: from my perspective, this is a constant and significant problem in our research and scholarship as new technologies and their accompanying possibilities, uses, issues, etc. unfold daily like mushrooms in the forest after a good rain: "keeping up" is demanding enough - much less trying to build up a long-term historical overview. (Thank you, historians!)
Beyond its challenges to our research and writing - my larger concern is that such presentism, of course, fuels the emphasis on historical discontinuity rather than continuity (and resonates with the other dualisms - ontological (IRL vs. virtual), epistemological, ethical, anthropological (transhumanism and digital immortality) - that run alongside this worldview. But that's clearly another story for another (very long) day.
In any case: it's hardly surprising to see such presentism and resulting dismissiveness in a more popular article - however irritating and annoying it may also be.
On a more entertaining note: my recent forays in retro-computing led to the happy discovery that BBSs are still somewhat alive and well. For those who want to remember or experience for the first time the joys of 9600 baud communication over serial terminals - and/or simply be amused by Star Wars IV being played through your terminal in the form of ASCII art - use: telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl in the terminal in Mac / Linux or the command prompt in Windows. It takes some tinkering to "turn down" the modern terminal to 9600 baud - perhaps not worth it for those who have more important and pressing things to do. Enjoy in any case.
Many thanks all around, - c.
Also, one of the first (if not THE first) <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://en.wikipedia.org/__;!!LIr3w8kk_Xxm!p-iFu... wiki/Crowdfunding#Early_campaigns> Internet-driven crowdfunding campaign started on a mailing list run by the band Marillion <https:// https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.loudersound.com/features/crowdfunding... how-marillion-survived-the-90s>, whom I happen to be a massive fan of - so I was on the list when it happened, and I'm still cursing that I didn't keep those email archive files.
My annoyance scream is mostly about the author's semi-dismissive tone describing a part of Internet culture that forever shaped what we do online...
Darn youth of today! (shakes fist at cloud)
M
Morten Bay, Ph.D. Lecturer Research fellow, Center for the Digital Future Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism University of Southern California On Apr 10, 2026 at 10:44 PM -0700, Roberts, Sarah via Air-L <Air- L@listserv.aoir.org>, wrote:
I thought members of this Internet mailing list, a sort of precursor to today’s message boards, might enjoy the following passage from the New York Times’ recent investigation into the identity of the bitcoin creator pseudonymously referred * *
I thought members of this Internet mailing list, a sort of precursor to today’s message boards, might enjoy the following passage from the New York Times’ recent investigation into the identity of the bitcoin creator pseudonymously referred to as “Satoshi Nakamoto.” And by enjoy, I mean that it might perhaps make you scream in annoyance, as it did to me:
“Satoshi was also very likely a member of the Cypherpunks, a group of anarchists formed in the early 1990s who wanted to use cryptography, the art of securing communications through code, to free individuals from government surveillance and censorship.
The Cypherpunks interacted mostly through something called an internet mailing list. Ancestors of today’s message boards, mailing lists were large group emails in old typewriter font that subscribers received in their inbox. To communicate, respondents replied-all.”
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/08/business/bitc... identity-adam-back.html <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:// https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/08/business/bitco... adam-back.html__;!!LIr3w8kk_Xxm!tS- eZwZg_GxwqF8M2XyeyyT8WsRvTseoVld1ZUbJgI- bmCB_oASnXMwThpNTHJOGdJMzbCMrl_sXBXRIKQ$>
________
S a r a h T. R o b e r t s, P h. D.
_______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://aoir.org__;!!LIr3w8kk_Xxm!p-iFumdHQ18ZvVL... Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir...
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.aoir.org/__;!!LIr3w8kk_Xxm!p-iFumdHQ1...
participants (3)
-
Charles Melvin Ess -
Morten Bay -
Roberts, Sarah