Andreas Antonopoulos Raising Funds For Dorian Nakamoto

Andreas Antonopoulos Raising Money for Dorian Nakamoto

On Friday, Andreas Antonopoulos announced on Twitter that he was considering starting a fundraiser for Dorian Nakamoto in order to help him and his family with legal fees. Antonopoulos received quite a few positive responses suggesting that it was a good idea to start a donation fund.

On Reddit, Antonopoulos developed this idea further and said that he’s officially starting a fundraiser for Dorian Nakamoto. Antonopoulos stated that he does not know whether or not Dorian is Satoshi, and that it doesn’t make much of a difference. He said,

“If this person is Satoshi, then the funds are a small ‘thanks’ and won’t make much of a difference.”

On the other hand, if Dorian is not Satoshi, Antonopoulos says that,

“These funds will serve as a ‘sorry for what happened to you’, help with medical bills his family is facing, any legal bills they may incur, or anything else.”

Antonopoulos: Donations for Damage Control

Besides the previous reasons, Antonopoulos says that the main reason for starting a fund is to lessen the damage that was caused by journalism. It will also express how generous and empathetic the Bitcoin community is.

Antonopoulos says that donations will be collected to a single Bitcoin address until the end of March. The rest of the details and rules are as follows:

• At the end of March, donations will be converted to USD and delivered to Dorian Nakamoto
• If the donation is rejected by Dorian, then the funds will go to a charity of his choice
• If he doesn’t want to choose a charity, funds will be donated to the Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Any funds sent after the deadline, will be donated to Dorian at a later date, or a charity of his choice or EFF as above.

If anyone is worried that the donations will not reach Dorian, Antonopoulos says that after March he will try to contact Dorian and will document the process. This is to prove that the donations were actually delivered. Of course, this will be “as long as that documentation does not affect Dorian’s privacy.”

In addition, because of Bitcoin’s blockchain, Antonopoulos says it will provide transparency that all of the funds have been donated. In addition, the funds will not be shifted from the Bitcoin address until “the funds are delivered to the intended recipient based on the rules above.”

If anyone would like to see the progress of the fundraiser, the link is on blockchain.info.

The donation terms and wallet address are signed by Antonopoulos’s PGP key at pastebin.

Video verification can be found on youtube.

Overwhelming Response

This certainly does prove that Bitcoin users are quite generous. In fact, the fundraising Bitcoin wallet for Dorian has reached over 38 bitcoins so far. That’s over $22,000 according to Bitcoin’s current price. Andreas Antonopoulos himself has donated 1.5 bitcoins (~$900) to the cause.

Knowing that Bitcoin users are pitching in some coins in order to help a man that may or may not be Satoshi Nakamoto, shows the generosity of the community is very high. In addition, it also shows that Bitcoin users are not just obsessed with themselves, and are willing to share some of their money in order to better someone else’s life. Furthermore, it demonstrates that Bitcoin users are willing to group together in order to minimize the negative effect journalism had in Dorian’s life.

Hopefully, Dorian Nakamoto will be pleased by the very thoughtful gesture.

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