HBO Documentary Names Peter Todd as Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto

The film’s conclusion was met with much skepticism from the crypto community, however, including denials from Todd himself. 

The HBO documentary “Money Electric: The Bitcoin History” identified Canadian Bitcoin Core developer Peter Todd as Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin. The much-anticipated show aired on Tuesday evening ET in the United States. 

As evidence, Emmy-nominated filmmaker Cullen Hoback pointed to a chat log message written by Todd in which he claims to be the “world’s leading expert on how to sacrifice your bitcoins.” Hoback suggested that this was an “admission” by Todd that he destroyed his ability to access the 1.1 million bitcoins owned by wallets controlled by Nakamoto.

Hoback also makes his case by claiming that Todd accidentally replied to a 2010 BitcoinTalk forum post made by Satoshi using his own profile. 

Todd has held significant roles in various projects, including serving as Chief Scientist at Mastercoin and Dark Wallet, and is the founder of OpenTimestamps, a project aimed at providing a decentralized timestamping service. He would have been 23 years old when the Bitcoin white paper was made public.

“Todd’s game theory is next level,” Hoback told Politico before his documentary aired. “Just consider, in the run-up to [the documentary’s] release: he’s in the trailer, there’s a multi-million dollar betting pool, hundreds of thousands of tweets about the film and I didn’t see anyone suggest this possibility. He’s a fucking genius.”

The price of bitcoin was largely unchanged after Hoback revealed his pick in the documentary.

Hoback’s theory was met with much skepticism from the crypto community, including from Todd himself.  “I’m not Satoshi,” said Todd on X. He also told CoinDesk that the theory was “ludicrous” around two hours before the documentary began airing.

Early Speculation

In the lead up to the big reveal, the crypto community was rife with speculation that cryptographer Len Sassaman was Satoshi. Initial bets on decentralized prediction platform Polymarket showed 68% odds of  the documentary naming Sassaman as Satoshi. 

Sassaman’s death by suicide in July 2011 coincides with Satoshi’s disappearance from online forums just two months prior. Sassaman’s knowledge of key privacy projects, including Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) software and expertise in cryptography had previously led speculators to the conclusion that he might be Satoshi.

Closer to the documentary’s airing, things began to shift around. On Oct. 7, British cryptographer and Hashcash inventor Adam Back overtook Sassaman in the poll, with American computer scientist and BitGold creator Nick Szabo also in close contention. Todd’s name was not listed as a choice, putting him in the “Other/Multiple” category. 

Then, after leaked footage of the documentary appeared online a few hours before the release, 99% of Polymarket bets were placed on the “Other/Multiple” category. 

Previous Theories

Past attempts to unmask Bitcoin’s creator include Newsweek’s “The Face Behind Bitcoin” article in 2014, which claimed that Dorian S. Nakamoto, a Japanese-American physicist living in California, was the real Satoshi. Dorian Nakamoto vehemently denied the claims and the crypto community largely rejected this theory.

In 2015, Wired Magazine suggested that Australian scientist Craig Wright was Satoshi, based on documents that were supposedly leaked to the publication. Wired later updated the article note they had identified inconsistencies in the evidence and no longer believed Wright was Satoshi. Wright subsequently claimed himself to be the inventor of Bitcoin, but after the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) took him to court, Judge James Mellor concluded there was “overwhelming” evidence to the contrary.

The theory that American computer scientist Nick Szabo was Satoshi gained traction with the publication of “Bitcoin: The Future of Money?” in 2014. In the book, author Dominic Frisby drew parallels between Szabo’s work on digital currency predating Bitcoin and his later work on Bit Gold, including the use of P2P networking for financial transactions. But Szabo himself rejected these comparisons.

Another person with the mix of the proper technical skills and unusual circumstances to be Satoshi is Hal Finney. Finney was one of the first people to download and run Bitcoin’s software, and received the first Bitcoin transaction from Satoshi (interestingly, Finney also lived in the same small town as Dorian S. Nakamoto. But Finney consistently denied being Satoshi until his death in 2014. 

The case for Adam Back being Nakamoto has also gained traction, with Hoback considering the possibility in his documentary before settling on Todd. Back’s invention of Hashcash in 1997 is referenced in the Bitcoin whitepaper. Back was also one of the first people to ever receive an email from Satoshi about Bitcoin, and has proof of his email correspondence with Satoshi.

“no one knows who satoshi is. and that’s a good thing,” Back posted on X on Monday evening ET.  “I think only he knows who he is.  As saying goes loose lips sink ships. Gossiping about secrets while fun is a recipe for leaks,” Back later added.