The man identified as Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto in a new HBO documentary has something to say: World, you're wrong again.
In the just-released HBO movie “Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery” about the history of the world's largest digital currency, documentary filmmaker Karen Hoback argues that Bitcoin's anonymous creator was a longtime member of the community. I have come to the conclusion that it is none other than the members. and early Bitcoin developer Peter Todd.
Todd dismissed the claims in a documentary released yesterday, but denied them again when asked by reporters. register.
”[Hoback’s] “The evidence that I am Satoshi is the same kind of chance-based circumstantial thinking that fuels conspiracies like QAnon,” Todd said in an email. [Hoback’s] My previous big project was a documentary about QAnon. He clearly made no attempt to debunk his theory. ”
Hoback's previous project, Q: Into the Storm, aimed to uncover the identity of the person behind QAnon, and was likely interested in uncovering the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto. I guess he had it. But Todd thinks Hoback was just trying to drum up interest in the new movie.
“I think [Hoback] “Satoshi's claims were just included as a marketing ploy; he was actually making a documentary about Bitcoin and needed a hook to get media attention,” Todd said. “He chose me as a target primarily because I was an unlikely candidate, and that helped create excitement.'' Even more attention.
“I don't think he had any interest in finding the real truth.”
To be fair, this documentary appears to be about the history of Bitcoin, its adoption, and the key players in its rise – I suspect Satoshi is among them. The film includes interviews with a number of Satoshi candidates, including Adam Back, the inventor of Bitcoin's predecessor Hashcash, who is the man behind Bitcoin in the film. He is being portrayed as another strong candidate. Clues that the film ultimately focuses on Nakamoto's identity are included throughout, but always as an added layer of uncertainty on top of the one about converting analog currency to digital form. .
Todd even admits early in the film that people suspect him to be Satoshi, but then denies the claims and frequently jokes, “Oh, I'm Satoshi.” This line is often said by Bitcoin insiders involved in the Norm. “Around them.
At the end of the film, when faced with accusations that he is Nakamoto, Todd tells Hoback, “You're pretty creative. You come up with crazy theories.” “It's a crazy story, but it's the kind of theory that someone who spends their time as a documentary journalist would come up with.”
Strictly speaking, it is not a closed case.
The key information in Hoback's documentary that connects Todd to Nakamoto comes from two items. A series of communications between Todd and an unidentified person who called himself “John Dillon,'' claimed to work for the U.S. government's intelligence agencies, and was advocating for his removal. A by-fee (RBF) implementation of the Bitcoin blockchain. Todd later added RBF to the Bitcoin platform.
Mr. Hoback alleges that Mr. Todd used Mr. Dillon as a pseudonymous spokesperson to promote his ideas, similar to what Mr. Todd did when he impersonated Nakamoto on the Bitcoin Talk forum. They claim it's the same thing.
Hoback pointed to one of Todd's earliest forum posts (a direct response to Nakamoto's comments about transaction fees that cause blockchain inputs and outputs to not match exactly), and said Todd It is concluded that Mr. Nakamoto intended to answer as Nakamoto but mistakenly logged into a new account using his real name. , since that post seemed to continue the same train of thought.
However, Todd pointed to comments about YCombinator by fellow early Bitcoin developer Greg Maxwell (who is also named in the documentary as a possible Nakamoto suspect), and that Todd's account at the time was called “retep. '' and that the name was not changed until later.
“If Satoshi actually made that mistake, he would of course abandon the account and not change the handle to his real name after a few years,” Todd said. ”[Hoback] You could have easily fact-checked this yourself, or you could have asked us after the interview if the theory made sense. But he didn't. ”
Hiding your identity when people aren't seriously looking for you isn't actually that difficult
Ultimately, Todd said in the documentary, no one will ever uncover the truth behind Nakamoto's identity, and even if they did, it would be unlikely to prove it.
“If I were Satoshi, I would have ruined my ability to prove that I am Satoshi, because then I would never be tempted,” Todd says early in the film. He tells us that it's unlikely we'll ever know who Satoshi actually is, adding, “It's actually that hard to hide your identity when people aren't seriously looking for you.” “It's not about that,” but he said he's probably taking a dig at Hoback. His conclusion is worthy of ridicule, in part because it puts a huge target on Todd's back.
It is unclear how much Bitcoin Nakamoto holds, but thousands of addresses linked to an unknown individual (or individuals) are estimated to contain up to 1.1 million BTC. , which is worth nearly $70 billion at current market rates.
“When you falsely accuse ordinary people with ordinary assets of having tens of billions of dollars, you put them at risk for obvious reasons,” Todd said. “Karen is well aware that she is putting my life at risk to promote her film. Personally, I have had to make an emergency trip to reduce my own risk. It is.”
Mr Todd said the community joke that “everyone is Satoshi” was also intended to reduce the risk to others. “Everyone in the Bitcoin community knows this,” he said.
At the end of the film, Todd is visibly upset at being directly accused of being Nakamoto. In response, he sarcastically claims that he is not only Satoshi, but also Craig Wright. [who claimed to be Nakamoto, but was proven not to be]he later said he did it to mock Hoback's claims.
“If we put this into a documentary and a bunch of Bitcoiners saw it, it would be really funny,” Todd said at the end of the film. He said that his charges would excite the Bitcoin community because this is “another example of a journalist missing the point in a really funny way.”
“The point is to make Bitcoin a global currency, and people like you who are distracted by nonsense can potentially do some good with it,” he added. .
For those interested in watching the HBO documentary, it is available now. An interesting look at the history of Bitcoin and its rise as a global influence. As for whether or not it actually unmasked Nakamoto, we're as close to knowing the truth as we were two days ago, really. ®
