What I said was completely true.
Come one. An IF-clause is true in most cases because I consider you an intelligent person. But that IF-clause of yours does not answer my question.
You question was of a personal rather than technical nature, and directly answering a question like that is usually a bad idea. If I had said "yes, I have the genesis hash memorized" you may have called my a liar and I would have no way to prove myself. If I had said "no" you would have used it as an argument to further blur reality.
Well, not true at all.
I would have said this:
You had answered
YES => "Well, so where did you read it?" If you had answered then 'from trusted hardware/software', go to
NO.
You had answered
NO => "I assume, you copied it form trusted hardware/software. So, where did the trusted hardware/software got it from?"
Well, and as this point, I got you.
Where does the trust come from? => code review, belief, opinions of your friends etc. etc.
Chuck, based on your responses, you do not seem to be making a distinction between an initial release of software as a "centralized authority" and a checkpoint that was later announced for users of an existing cryptocurrency.