Is Peter Todd the Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto?

Very few people expected this: Canadian Peter Todd is said to be the mythical and anonymous Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto. This is what one wants Documentary from the US broadcaster HBO found out that aired last night. The film “Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery” was the talk of the world in advance; There was speculation as to who filmmaker Cullen Hoback would reveal.

Bitcoin is the world’s first cryptocurrency and was invented in 2008 by a still unknown person or group with the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. Satoshi Nakamoto is revered by the Bitcoin community. His vision of an independent monetary system has sparked a global rebellion against banks and governments while their value has risen to over $1,000 billion.

39-year-old Canadian Bitcoin core developer Todd is known for his many years of work as a Bitcoin developer, consultant and other crypto and blockchain software developer.

Todd was 23 years old when Nakamoto published the first Bitcoin white paper outlining his vision for a decentralized peer-to-peer payment system.

Filmmaker Hoback primarily targeted Todd because of a thread on a Bitcoin forum in 2010 in which Satoshi Nakamoto proposed a highly technical change to the Bitcoin code. Todd responded to the change with a correction, leading Hoback to claim that Todd was not correcting Nakamoto, but was Nakamoto. Hoback believes Todd logged into his personal account to correct his post, which was written under the pseudonym.

Todd is known for his deep understanding of cryptographic principles and blockchain technology, Hoback’s film suggests. His early involvement in Bitcoin development and contributions to various protocols demonstrated that his expertise matched the skills needed to create Bitcoin.

What Peter Todd says about the claim that he is Satoshi Nakamoto

Peter Todd himself has his say in the extensively researched, highly exciting HBO documentary, which is also understandable for Bitcoin laypeople. In a key scene he is asked directly if he is Satoshi Nakamoto. Todd answers this ironically: “Well, yeah, I’m Satoshi Nakamoto.” However, he later distanced himself from this statement and explained that he was not the founder of Bitcoin. He criticizes the presentation of the documentation and describes the assumptions as speculative and misleading. Also told CNN He repeated this and accused Hoback of being “irresponsible” and putting his life in danger.

Revealing Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity is problematic for various reasons. On the one hand, it represents a danger to the person – because their Bitcoin assets are estimated at the equivalent of 70 billion dollars. Life without security personnel would then be unthinkable. On the other hand, a suddenly exposed, huge player in a monetary system that is becoming ever larger is a factor of uncertainty.

In the Bitcoin scene, people are skeptical that Nakamoto was really exposed with Peter Todd. The Canadian’s companions spoke out on social media. At just 23 years old, Todd could not have been able to program such a complex cryptocurrency system. Furthermore, the real Satoshi Nakamoto would hardly appear in a documentary about himself.

The search for the brilliant Satoshi Nakamoto has been going on for more than a decade now. It has led to spectacular failures, including the infamous 2014 Newsweek cover story that claimed Nakamoto was hiding out in Los Angeles. The discovery was completely wrong – Newsweek had instead found a confused older man whose last name happened to be Nakamoto.

“Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery” can be seen on HBO. However, the pay channel is not available in Switzerland without a VPN plugin.

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