HBO’s documentary aimed at outing Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, has reportedly named Canadian Bitcoin core developer Peter Todd as the cryptocurrency’s inventor.
Cullen Hobak — the producer of HBO’s Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery documentary — confronts Todd and Blockstream founder Adam Back with the evidence he stitched together to conclude that Todd was Nakamoto, according to an Oct. 9 Politico report.
The documentary’s finale ends with Todd saying: “Well yeah, I’m Satoshi Nakamoto,” in response to a confrontational question from Hoback.
This admission on behalf of Todd isn’t concrete proof that the Canadian developer is actually Bitcoin’s inventor. Todd is well-known for invoking the phrase “I am Satoshi” as a way of supporting the real creator’s right to privacy.
Todd has publicly denied being Bitcoin’s creator ahead of the documentary’s debut and has questioned Hoback’s conclusion after clips from the documentary leaked online ahead of its debut seemed to point to him as Nakamoto.
Todd again denied being Satoshi on social media after the release of the documentary. In an Oct. 8 response to a comment on X asking him to come out and deny HBO’s claim, Todd wrote, “I am not Satoshi.”
Todd has made the joke about being Satoshi several times before. In a 2019 episode of the What Bitcoin Did podcast, Todd told host Peter McCormack: “I am Satoshi, as is everyone else.”
During the podcast, Told told McCormack he made his first Bitcoin (BTC) purchase when the cryptocurrency was worth around 20 cents, putting the time of purchase in October 2010, roughly two years after Bitcoin’s whitepaper was published on Oct. 31, 2008.
Why Todd was named Satoshi
Holback’s reasoning for claiming Todd is Nakamoto rests on a chat log message Todd wrote where he claims to be “the world’s leading expert on how to sacrifice your Bitcoins,” adding that he had “done one such sacrifice and I did it by hand.”
Related: IMDB reveals HBO’s Bitcoin documentary secret: Everyone in the cast is Satoshi
Hoback classified this message as an admission that Todd had permanently removed his own ability to access the 1.1 million Bitcoin (BTC) — worth $69.4 billion — believed to be held by Nakamoto.
In the lead-up to Hoback dropping the bombshell reveal on Todd, the Canadian Bitcoin developer provided his own reasoning for why Bitcoin’s creator would choose to remain anonymous.
“What if the real reason for using the name Satoshi […] was so that people could take Bitcoin seriously? So they could believe it was created by a real cryptographer and not some kid still in school?”
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