The identity of Bitcoin's enigmatic founder, Satoshi Nakamoto, has remained a mystery since the publication of BTC's white paper in 2008.
However, HBO documentary producer Cullen Hoback pointed to Peter Todd, a well-known Bitcoin core developer, as the potential real-world figure behind the anonymous person.
Todd, who began working with Bitcoin in 2010, has been an influential figure in its development. Bitcoin, now a $1.2 trillion asset, has seen its value skyrocket over the past 15 years. If Nakamoto still controls an estimated 1.1 million BTC associated with his early activities, they could be worth close to $70 billion.
In his documentary Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery, Hoback suggests that choosing a pseudonym like Satoshi Nakamoto may have been done to give Bitcoin credibility and make people take it seriously. He questions Todd directly, speculating that Todd, who was completing his art degree in 2008, may have been the person behind the white paper.
Hoback also suggests that Todd, along with Adam Back, CEO of Bitcoin development company Blockstream, may have created an anonymous profile on the BitcoinTalk forum under the name John Dillon. According to Hoback, this profile served as cover for Todd’s future contributions, including a 2015 Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) 125 and a 2010 post responding to Nakamoto that Hoback claims may have been mistakenly posted using Todd’s profile.
Hoback’s argument is based on a chat log in which Todd refers to himself as “the world’s leading expert on how to sacrifice your Bitcoins” and claims to have committed such an act. Hoback interprets this as an admission that Todd destroyed his access to an estimated 1.1 million BTC linked to Nakamoto. However, Todd denies these claims that he is Satoshi Nakamoto and calls Hoback’s conclusions “ridiculous.”
“When you put this in a documentary and a bunch of Bitcoiners watch it, it’s going to be hilarious,” Todd said during the shoot.
Leaked clips from the documentary have already made the rounds on social media platform X, causing a stir ahead of its official release. In a statement to Coindesk, Todd reiterated his stance, denying the allegations and accusing Hoback of “dragging his boat.”
A Canadian developer who began contributing to Bitcoin’s code in 2012, Todd has since become a prominent figure in the cryptocurrency community. During Bitcoin’s block size war from 2015 to 2017, Todd supported the “small blockers” who advocated keeping Bitcoin’s block size at 1 megabyte. The opposing group, the “big blockers,” eventually forked the Bitcoin network, giving rise to Bitcoin Cash.
Todd is also the founder of OpenTimestamps, an open-source project that aims to create a standardized format for blockchain timestamps. Over the years, he has worked on various Bitcoin 2.0 projects, including Counterparty, Mastercoin, and Colored Coins. In 2016, he collaborated with NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden in launching the privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash, destroying the computer used to create the cryptocurrency to ensure its security.
*This is not investment advice.