A new HBO documentary Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery claims that Canadian developer Peter Todd is Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous founder of cryptocurrency bitcoin.Supplied
There is a new candidate for the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious and pseudonymous creator of bitcoin: a 39-year-old Canadian cryptography consultant named Peter Todd.
In a recently released documentary for HBO, filmmaker Cullen Hoback confronts Mr. Todd with evidence that the Canadian is the person behind the alias. Mr. Todd coyly laughs off the assertion as Mr. Hoback outlines his theory, which forms the film’s finale. “I will admit you’re pretty creative. You come up with some crazy theories,” he tells Mr. Hoback in Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery.
The true identity of bitcoin’s creator has enthralled online sleuths and journalists for years, especially as the digital currency’s market capitalization has soared past US$1-trillion. The person – or persons – behind the Satoshi name published a white paper outlining bitcoin in 2008 and made a number of online posts, before seeming to disappear entirely.
Mr. Todd was an early bitcoin developer and was among those who interacted with Satoshi online. Part of the evidence Mr. Hoback collected during his investigation is an old post on a web forum made by Mr. Todd that appears to be a continuation of a previous message from Satoshi. The bitcoin creator also used Canadian spellings for words like “favour.”
In an e-mail, Mr. Todd told The Globe and Mail that he is not, in fact, Satoshi. He participated in multiple interviews for the film but hasn’t seen it yet. “I didn’t know it was coming out or that it would point to me as Satoshi until journalists started contacting me,” he wrote.
Mr. Hoback said he isn’t surprised by the denial, and that he stands by the evidence he gathered. “We’re making a case in the film. I think it’s an incredibly strong case,” he said in an interview. For him, Mr. Todd’s reaction during that final sequence is even more telling than any of the material he assembled to build his case. “He’s just at a loss for words. And he’s not a guy who’s usually at a loss for words.”
Part of the intrigue around the creator of bitcoin is that digital wallets believed to be associated with Satoshi hold about US$69-billion worth of bitcoin, enough to rank among the top 25 richest people in the world.
Mr. Todd said that no one knows how much bitcoin Satoshi has access to, if any. “That said, the false claims that I’m a multibillionaire are a genuine risk to my safety, so I’ve done some unexpected travel to mitigate that risk,” he said.
Naturally, he did not reveal where he is currently living.
Mr. Todd grew up in Toronto and became interested in privacy and freedom of speech when he was in high school. To him, it was obvious that cryptography was necessary to protect these fundamental rights. He even attempted to build his own bitcoin-like project. “I failed,” he wrote. But when he later found out about bitcoin, he immediately recognized its importance.
A graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design, Mr. Todd remains a staunch believer in the fundamental principles of cryptocurrency. The federal government’s decision to freeze bank accounts belonging to protesters during the 2022 blockades in Ottawa is proof of the necessity of a currency that is beyond the reach of the state, he argued.
“If government can arbitrarily seize people’s money, by seizing bank accounts, they have the ability to restrict speech and political participation,” he said. “I’m quite concerned about cash disappearing for this reason.”
Others have tried – and failed – to unmask Satoshi. A 2014 story in Newsweek claimed that a man in California named Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto created bitcoin, which led to journalists showing up at his home and tailing him as he rode around Los Angeles in a car with another reporter. He told journalists he had nothing to do with bitcoin, even mistakenly pronouncing it as “bitcom.”
An Australian computer scientist named Craig Wright has said for years that he created bitcoin, and has been embroiled in litigation to assert his claim. Calvin Ayre, the Canadian entrepreneur who started online gambling company Bodog and has since become immersed in the crypto world, has been a supporter of Mr. Wright.
“I spent millions over 10 years researching Craig and his tech and in all cases he checked out. He is for sure Satoshi,” Mr. Ayre wrote on X in February.
A month later, a judge in Britain ruled that Mr. Wright was not Satoshi, calling the evidence “overwhelming.”
As for Mr. Todd, he understands the impetus to finally identify Satoshi Nakamoto. “It’s a great story,” he said. But he doesn’t think it ultimately matters. “The truth is Satoshi just got the ball rolling.”
Mr. Hoback, of course, disagrees. The Satoshi pseudonym was a marketing gimmick for bitcoin that has now turned detrimental. “Over the years, a number of people have had their privacy invaded so that Satoshi could keep theirs,” he said, referring to others hounded for being possible bitcoin authors.
“The most responsible thing Satoshi could do is either come clean or burn the bitcoin stash so that all of this comes to an end.”