Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto is Peter Todd, says HBO doc, he denies it. Truth may never come out as...

Who is the Bitcoin creator who goes by the pseudonym 'Satoshi Nakamoto'? A new documentary from HBO is suggesting that the founder of the top cryptocurrency is the software engineer Peter Todd. But Todd has denied he was the inventor of one of the first cryptocurrencies that hit the market over a decade ago.

The purported revelation and its denial add one more layer to the enduring mystery of the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto. Several people have been identified as the creator, with some even going to court to make the claim.

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The HBO documentary Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery which aired on Tuesday night (Oct 8) in the US features a series of interviews with coders and cryptographers involved in the early development of Bitcoin, such as Blockstream CEO Adam Back.

But for many in the crypto community, director Cullen Hoback did not give any solid proof to back the claim regarding Todd.

Todd himself said it is ironic that a director who is also known for a documentary on the conspiracy theory group QAnon "has resorted to QAnon style coincidence-based conspiracy thinking here too".

As the buzz around the documentary built up, Todd simply wroteon his X handle,"I'm not Satoshi."

Todd was replying to a post by BitMex Research that asked him to come forward and make a public statement.​

Todd was a Bitcoin core developer. The theory that he is Satoshi was made in the documentary from similarities in the writing styles of Satoshi and Todd in Bitcoin forums.

Todd's work with Hashcash, a crypto-related tech firm, was also cited as evidence.

The crypto community was, however, dismissive about the documentary, terming it speculative. They accused it ofrelying on circumstantial evidence, saying it had confirmation bias similar to a Newsweek magazine article in 2014 that claimed to have identified Satoshi, only to be debunked.

Crypto monitoring site Decrypt quoted Samson Mow, the CEO of Bitcoin tech firm JAN3 as saying that the director "probably has a case for it,” but added, “I did say on record in the documentary that it’s probably not Peter.”

Much of the focus of the documentary to 'nail' Todd as the inventor of Bitcoin is from a specific forum post, where Todd, in reply to Satoshi, appears to continue the stream of thought of Satoshi. It looked as if the same person was using multiple accounts, according to the documentary.

Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? The many people associated with the mysterious Bitcoin creator

While the general consensus is that one or a group of people may have used the pseudonym, Satoshi Nakamoto, it is yet to be conclusively proven who the person behind the Japanese-sounding name is/are.

Several names have been cited in the past, with one person even going to court to prove he is Satoshi.

Hal Finney, a cryptography pioneer, was one such person, as he was the first to use the software behind Bitcoin.

Finneya's neighbour Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto, a Japanese-American man living in California, was long-speculated to be the mystery creator of the cryptocurrency, most firmly in a 2014 Newsweek article. The article was widely discussed but eventually, the man himself rejected any connection to Bitcoin.

Nick Szabo, a decentralised currency enthusiast was speculated to be Satoshi, partly based on the fact that he had published a paper on a precursor to Bitcoin that was called 'bit gold'.

Craig Steven Wright, an Australian academic, went to court to prove that he was Satoshi, even suing for libel those who rejected his claims. In March this year, his claim was dismissed by a British court.

Based on the dates and similarity in the phrase 'computationally impractical to reverse' used in a patent filing and a white paper on Bitcoin, three people - Neal King, Vladimir Oksman and Charles Bry- were identified as possible candidates for Satoshi. They also rejected the claim.

We will never know who is Satoshi because...

Satoshi Nakamoto also holds some of the original Bitcoin. This means that there are financial, and possibly taxation, implications for the person or persons to reveal their identity. It could even attract criminals to them.

As per an estimate made in 2021, Satoshi Nakamoto may be owning up to 1 million Bitcoin. At the going rate of the time (which was $68,000), that would add up to $73 billion, making him/them the 15th richest person/s in the world in 2021.

Bitcoin, in spite of its volatility, is still going strong. At the time of writing this, it's valued at $63,126.

As you can see, being Satoshi Nakamoto is a risky business.

(With inputs from agencies)