GitHub
Peter Todd – photo from his GitHub page
A new documentary claims to have solved cryptocurrency's biggest mystery: the true identity of Bitcoin's inventor.
The question has captivated the Internet since the launch of the digital currency by an unknown person or persons calling themselves Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009.
Now, the makers of an HBO film say they finally have the answer: Canadian cryptography expert Peter Todd.
The only problem with this theory: Mr. Todd called it “ridiculous.”
In Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery, Peter Todd is confronted by filmmaker Cullen Hoback
Mr. Hoback shows him his evidence and asks if he was behind this now billion-dollar invention – a suggestion Mr. Todd scoffs at.
“I’m not Satoshi Nakamoto,” he has since posted on X.
Enormous wealth
The intrigue surrounding Satoshi is not only due to the mystery of their identity, but also the enormous wealth they have accumulated.
If they still had control of their Bitcoin wallet, it would be worth around $69 billion today, meaning Satoshi would be the 20th richest person in the world.
Peter Todd is a prominent developer of Bitcoin and has been credited with numerous innovations in the world's first and largest cryptocurrency.
But he was never named as a top Satoshi candidate in the years people spent trying to unmask the inventor of Bitcoin.
This latest attempt to solve this conundrum is attracting enormous interest. Before the release of the documentary, more than $44 million was placed in bets on crypto betting site Polymarket on whom the program would name Satoshi.
Cullen Hoback, who has previously attempted to unmask anonymous online personalities like Q from Q Anon, says he came to this conclusion after years of research and interviews.
One of his pieces of evidence that Mr. Todd is Satoshi is a forum post he found from Peter Todd that appeared to be a continuation of Satoshi's.
Another reason is that he once said online that he deliberately destroyed a large number of digital coins.
A leading theory is that Satoshi deliberately destroyed access to his huge stash of bitcoins which were the originals created to start bitcoin.
The 1.1 million coins are now worth a fortune but have never been spent or transferred.
Satoshi's pool of unmoved coins represents 5% of all bitcoins, because the inventor decided there would only ever be 21 million coins created.
Mr. Todd, however, says his job history indicates he was not involved – he claims he was “too busy with school and work.”
Previous theories
A number of people from the IT world have already been named as the creator of the cryptocurrency.
In 2014, a high-profile article in Newsweek identified Dorian Nakamoto, a Japanese American living in California, as Satoshi. But he denied it and the claim has been widely refuted.
In 2015, Wired and Gizmodo published an investigation implicating Australian computer scientist Craig Wright.
Shortly afterward, Wright stated in interviews with media outlets including the BBC that he was indeed Satoshi and showed apparent evidence of this.
But his claims were ignored by the community and after years of claiming to be the inventor, a UK High Court judge ruled there was “overwhelming” evidence that he was not Satoshi .
Tech billionaire and cryptocurrency enthusiast Elon Musk also denied being behind the cryptocurrency after a former employee of one of his companies, SpaceX, suggested it.
For some of Bitcoin's most prominent voices, keeping Satoshi's identity a secret is part of the decentralized currency's appeal and power.
Adam Black, one of the lead developers (and another potential Satoshi candidate) posted on X ahead of the documentary: “No one knows who Satoshi is. and that's a good thing.
