A new documentary claims to have solved one of the biggest mysteries surrounding cryptocurrency: the real identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym borrowed by the person who created bitcoin in 2009. It is believed to be Peter Todd, a Canadian who was at the beginning in his twenties at the time.
Money Electric : the Bitcoin Mysteryby American director Cullen Hoback, was broadcast Tuesday evening on HBO. In the film, the director attempts to determine the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, who completely disappeared in 2011.
Satoshi Nakamoto created bitcoin, the main cryptocurrency, in 2009. He has never revealed his real identity. The person behind the pseudonym would control some 1 million bitcoins which would be worth $63 billion at the current exchange rate.
Mr. Hoback claims to have circumstantial evidence that Satoshi Nakamoto is actually a Canadian developer named Peter Todd. The latter, a young prodigy, was in college at the time. The documentarian claims that an exchange between Satoshi Nakamoto and Peter Todd on the Bitcoin Talk forum in 2010 demonstrates that the two accounts were controlled by the same person.
He offers other evidence to corroborate his words, such as the way Satoshi Nakamoto spells certain words in English, typical of Canada and the United Kingdom, and the fact that the publication history of the creator of bitcoin corresponds to a timetable university student.
The documentary suggests that Mr. Todd may have borrowed a pseudonym when creating bitcoin, since he believed he would not have been taken seriously by the crypto community due to his young age. The film also explores how a war within the bitcoin community in the early days of cryptocurrency caused Peter Todd to stop using the pseudonym.
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Peter Todd once again denied being Satoshi Nakamoto and sharply criticized the documentary in a CNN interview published Tuesday evening. (New window)
I categorically affirm that I am not Satoshi Nakamoto
he assured. He also said that publicly identifying him as the holder of billions of dollars in bitcoins puts his life in danger.
[Cullen Hoback] draws on coincidences to invent a story from scratch. It’s ironic, really, it’s evidence of a conspiracy mentality
he said, referring to Mr. Hoback’s latest film, about the QAnon conspiracy.
Cullen Hoback maintains that the conclusions of his documentary are good.
This is not the first time that a journalist has said they have found the real identity of Satoshi Nakamoto. In 2014, Newsweek had claimed that an American named Dorian Nakamoto was hiding behind the pseudonym, which the latter denied.
