In the 15 years since Bitcoin was first created, no one has been able to solve the mystery of the identity of its creator, known only as Satoshi Nakamoto.
Now, a new HBO documentary has reopened the case files and named a new candidate: Canadian cryptography expert and software developer Peter Todd.
However, Todd laughed off this theory in the documentary, calling it “ridiculous.” And considering the long history of failed attempts to discover Satoshi's identity, HBO's attempt may be just one in a long list.
Todd, 39, is one of several figures in the Bitcoin world featured in the documentary. Money Electric: The Mystery of Bitcoin. In this approximately 100-minute feature, filmmaker Karen Hoback speaks with Bitcoin luminaries, investors, and programmers involved in the cryptocurrency's early development. That includes Blockstream CEO Adam Back, whose name has often been mentioned as a possible Satoshi.
Since the documentary was released on Tuesday, Todd has been sharing posts from skeptics on social media.
“I'm not Satoshi,” he said in response to a post on X asking him to deny the theory. In another post, he called this “nonsense” and “hilarious” and mused that “crazy people might try to grab my non-existent fortune.”
Satoshi seemingly disappeared from the internet in 2011, but what hasn't disappeared is his property. Bitcoin's creator reportedly owns 1 million Bitcoins, worth more than $60 billion today.
If Satoshi were still alive, still accessible, and came back to sell those holdings, it would make them billionaires and deal a severe blow to the rest of the Bitcoin economy.
Bitcoin birth story
On January 3, 2009, while the world was reeling from the 2008 financial crisis, the first block of the now infamous blockchain was born. It was the launch of Bitcoin, a digital cryptocurrency that operates on peer-to-peer transactions without intermediaries such as banks, governments, or private companies such as PayPal.
The idea started as a white paper written by someone (or someone) called Satoshi Nakamoto. During the first years of Bitcoin development, Satoshi was active on Bitcoin developer forums, communicating with peers like Buck. Then, in 2011, Satoshi disappeared.
It didn't take long for theories to emerge about Satoshi's true identity, long thought to be a pseudonym. theory exceeded the scope From Adam Back, who invented a concept called “HashCash” mentioned in Satoshi's original white paper, and who also had an email relationship with Satoshi, to the late cryptologist Hal, who was deeply involved in the creation of Bitcoin. Until Finney. To Nick Szabo, the programmer who designed the precursor to Bitcoin called “Bitgold.”
Latest suspect: Peter Todd
In one scene in the documentary, the camera follows Todd as he clambers through the damp, mossy hallways of an abandoned World War II bomb shelter in the Latvian forests. (Todd is an avid caver, and he said he discovered his first cave at a club in Toronto.)
“People basically suspect everyone is Satoshi,” he says.
A few minutes later, when Hoback suggests that he is not the mysterious creator, Todd replies, “Oh, no, I'm Satoshi. Satoshi Nakamoto.”
However, this declaration is far from definitive. Todd jokingly says several times in the documentary that he could be Satoshi, sometimes in the same tone as the suggestion that Buck is Satoshi.
Todd has been involved in Bitcoin's development from an early stage, joining the project as a programmer in 2013 and joining key figures in the Bitcoin world, including Buck and another Blockstream co-founder, Gregory Maxwell. There is a connection with him, but he has never been talked about. Satoshi's many speculations so far.
On January 3, 2009, Bitcoin's mysterious creator Satoshi Nakamoto unveiled the digital currency to the world by posting the “Genesis Block”, the starting point from which Bitcoin could be mined through the blockchain.
He would have only been 23 when the White Paper was released, and said in the documentary that he had spent the mid-2000s completing a fine arts degree. According to Politico, he graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto.
Todd's social media presence has ranged from being a vocal supporter of Ukraine to suggesting that Israel should “nuclear” Iran, and in an HBO documentary where he was “reversely” criticized by another character, Samson Maw. He was described as a “strong person''. Moe previously worked at Blockstream and is currently the CEO of his own company called JAN3, which aims to promote Bitcoin adoption among nations.
“Peter will always try to run against you,” Moe said in the documentary.
The quest to uncover Satoshi's true identity has hit many dead ends. 2014a man named Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto hired a lawyer to clear his name after being accused by Newsweek of being the Satoshi behind Bitcoin. In 2016, Australian entrepreneur Craig Wright declared himself to be Satoshi, but his claims were quickly debunked when it was revealed that he had falsified evidence.
The HBO documentary doesn't just focus on Satoshi Nakamoto. Also, from the proliferation of new cryptocurrencies to the ensuing crash, Bitcoin's surprising resilience despite dire predictions, and Bitcoin's quest to become a viable option used in countries around the world. We have also tracked the rise and fall of cryptocurrencies.
However, Satoshi's issues emerge as a central theme.
The documentary pieces together circumstantial evidence to paint a picture of Todd as an unlikely candidate hiding in plain sight, suggesting his vandalism is a cover-up. The case hinges on a reply Todd made to one of Satoshi's posts on an online Bitcoin forum in 2010, and Hoback actually said that Todd was trying to continue thinking as Satoshi and that he had mistakenly This suggests that this is an example of someone posting the post by mistake while logged in to a different account.
In the documentary, when Hoback presents his theory to Todd and Buck and lays out the evidence he has pieced together, Todd laughs.
“I'm warning you, if you put this into a documentary and a bunch of Bitcoin enthusiasts watch it, it's going to be very funny,” he said.
