The HBO documentary *”Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery”* sparked significant interest and speculation within the Bitcoin community this past week regarding the identity of Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto.

The reveal of Nakamoto’s true identity, if actually revealed, would be a sudden volatility-boosting event for crypto markets.

The past history of Satoshi-doxxing has been largely, unproductive and inconclusive. However, HBO’s “Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery,” which aired in the U.S. on Tuesday night, was supposed to be different. It claimed it would “provide compelling proof as to who invented Bitcoin, putting the world’s greatest mystery to bed, for good.”

That’s not what happened, however. Instead, the HBO documentary suggested that Bitcoin developer Peter Todd might be Nakamoto, basing their claims on pieces of online evidence from Bitcoin’s early years.

Todd formally denied the accusations in an interview with CoinDesk, and the Bitcoin community on X has largely dismissed HBO’s findings.

In an email to CoinDesk, Todd commented that filmmaker Cullen Hoback, best known for identifying the person behind the QAnon conspiracy theory in an earlier HBO series, was “grasping at straws” by identifying him as Satoshi.

“Of course, I’m not Satoshi,” Todd said. “It’s ironic that a director who is also known for a documentary on QAnon has resorted to QAnon-style coincidence-based conspiracy thinking here too.”

Money Electric

Since Bitcoin’s creation in 2009, it has transformed from a niche digital currency into a trillion-dollar asset class. It is now seen as a store of value for those skeptical of traditional monetary systems, a speculative vehicle for outsiders in the financial world, and a method of payment used in both legal and illegal transactions, including cyber-fraud and narcotics. Its rise has been fueled by vocal advocates like Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, pushing Bitcoin to the forefront of financial discourse.

The mystery of Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity has baffled experts and enthusiasts for years. After publishing the original Bitcoin white paper in 2008, Nakamoto communicated through message boards and emails, leading a group of cryptography and coding experts known as cypherpunks. In 2010, Nakamoto vanished, with his final message warning against Bitcoin’s association with WikiLeaks: “WikiLeaks has kicked the hornet’s nest… I make this appeal to WikiLeaks not to try to use Bitcoin.”

Over the years, several individuals have been suspected of being Nakamoto, though none have definitively proven their claim. In 2014, journalist Leah McGrath Goodman falsely identified Japanese-American Dorian Nakamoto as Satoshi. In 2016, Australian cryptographer Craig Steven Wright claimed to be Satoshi but failed to provide evidence and faced legal disputes that ultimately discredited him.

Among the most commonly suggested candidates are late software engineer Hal Finney, computer scientist Nick Szabo, and Hashcash inventor Adam Back. The Bitcoin community has long advocated for respecting Nakamoto’s privacy, arguing that without proof such as moving Bitcoins from a Satoshi-linked wallet, any claim to his identity is speculative.

The Polymarket betting platform had favored Len Sassaman as the candidate that HBO would reveal as Satoshi. On Tuesday afternoon, hours before the premiere of the odds on Polymarket’s bet over whom the film would identify as Satoshi overwhelmingly favored “Other/Multiple.” Earlier, bettors had favored Len Sassaman, but leaks on X dramatically shifted the odds as it became clear the documentary would look to Todd.

Source: Polymarket

Who Was Len Sassaman?

Len Sassaman, a cryptographer who passed away in 2011, was renowned for his work in privacy and decentralization. He contributed to projects like Mixmaster, an email anonymization tool that helped protect users’ identities. Sassaman was a key figure in the cryptographic community and had connections with Hal Finney, a prominent early Bitcoin developer and the recipient of the first Bitcoin transaction from Satoshi Nakamoto.

In 2008, Satoshi published the whitepaper that introduced Bitcoin. As the cryptocurrency began to gain traction, Satoshi vanished in 2011, the same year Sassaman died, with his wife reporting his death as a suicide. This timing has fueled conspiracy theories suggesting that Sassaman’s death may be connected to Satoshi’s disappearance, with some speculating he took his life to protect his and Satoshi’s privacy.

“For years, there’s been endless speculation about the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto,” said Bitcoin podcaster Peter McCormack. “Yet, until someone signs the private keys linked to Satoshi’s addresses, all of this remains mere conjecture.”

McCormack emphasized the importance of respecting Satoshi’s anonymity: “Satoshi gave the world a profound gift in Bitcoin but deliberately chose to remain anonymous. Efforts to unmask them are not just irresponsible but potentially dangerous.”

If Hoback’s investigative skills prove accurate, the documentary could bring closure to one of the longest-running mysteries in modern technology. However, like previous attempts to identify Nakamoto, the final proof lies in the movement of Satoshi’s coins—a feat no claimant has yet been able to achieve. We agree with McCormick that the identity of Satoshi is best left a mystery.

The Evidence Is Not Convincing

The documentary explored Bitcoin’s history but did not present any solid evidence linking Todd to Satoshi. There was some circumstantial evidence, such as Todd’s early interest in cryptography, his relationship with Adam Back (who had emailed with Satoshi), and Todd’s use of British/Canadian spellings, similar to Satoshi’s. The most tangible “evidence” was a 2010 public forum post in which Todd replied to one of Satoshi’s posts. Hoback argued that Todd’s reply was a continuation of Satoshi’s post, mistakenly sent from Todd’s account instead of Satoshi’s.

However, the documentary did not definitively conclude that Todd was Satoshi. Even the final confrontation between Hoback and Todd, seen in leaked clips, was speculative. Hoback later pointed to a blog post where Todd claimed to be “probably the world’s leading expert” on how to sacrifice bitcoin, though Hoback acknowledged that this was “a tenuous confirmation at best.”

“It was hard not to read this as an admission, like Peter wanted his inner circle to trust that he had, in fact, sacrificed the bitcoins and destroyed all access,” Hoback said. “But this wasn’t proof.”

The fact that Bitcoin mined by Satoshi has never moved from its wallet has fueled speculation that Satoshi is either dead or has purposefully prevented themselves from accessing the coins.

We Are All Satoshi

On X, @Pledditor argued the documentary showed how “Satoshi sleuths have been going about it the wrong way,” chasing a single individual, when in reality, it could have been many people, a group, or indeed, an individual.

“This documentary is emblematic of why all of the Satoshi Nakamoto theories are bunk. They all hinge on the belief that only a very small amount of people in the world are capable of building Bitcoin, so the theorists just pick a notable person known for their achievements and work backwards retrospectively to find a bunch of ‘coincidences’ in their lifestyle/background to support their confirmation bias. It’s a broken methodology which results in stalking and unethical doxxing. In reality, the potential amount of people with the profile and background capable of creating Bitcoin in 2008 was in the tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands. The likelihood that Satoshi was any one of these semi-public figures that regularly get accused of being Satoshi is pretty slim. That’s why if you don’t have concrete proof, you should probably keep your Satoshi Nakamoto identity theories to yourself. All it does is put a $60 billion dollar bounty on the back of what is (most likely) the wrong person.”

Bitcoin’s Future depends on Satoshi Remaining Unknown

While the real identity of Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto may never be definitively uncovered, the important thing is that the technology works without his involvement. Further, Bitcoin is strengthened by the fact that its creator is anonymous as people can focus on the technology without the distractions of its creator.

From this perspective, the enigma of Satoshi Nakamoto is what gives Bitcoin its mystical origin – a necessary precondition for the creation of a new form of money, and the birth of a new asset class. Nakamoto’s decision to remain anonymous has contributed to the mystique and enduring fascination surrounding Bitcoin and blockchain technology. It has allowed the focus to remain on the decentralized and revolutionary aspects of the technology, rather than on the identity or motivations of its creator.

With crypto often appearing to be under attack from regulators around the world, for Bitcoin to continue to attract new users, and for politicians to be prepared to fight for Bitcoin, it is vital that the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto remains unknown.