Key Points
- The HBO documentary ‘Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery’ suggests Bitcoin developer Peter Todd is Satoshi Nakamoto.
- Despite the claim, both Todd and the crypto community deny the assertion.
The HBO documentary ‘Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery’ has made the bold assertion that Canadian Bitcoin developer Peter Todd is the elusive creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto. However, this claim is not being accepted by the wider cryptocurrency community.
A Case for Todd as Satoshi
The documentary, produced by Cullen Hobak, presents several pieces of supposed evidence pointing to Todd as Bitcoin’s anonymous creator. Todd, who has been a significant figure in the crypto space for numerous years, first became involved with cryptography and blockchain technologies at a young age.
His first documented engagement with Bitcoin dates back to the late 2000s. Around this time, he was already actively participating in the crypto community, shortly after the publication of the Bitcoin white paper in 2008.
Todd has revealed in a podcast episode of What Bitcoin Did that he began interacting with early Bitcoin contributors like Hal Finney and Hashcash inventor Adam Back when he was about 15 years old. These early interactions significantly shaped his later contributions to the Bitcoin space.
Documentary’s Evidence
The documentary argues that Todd’s cryptic online posts, notably one where he referred to himself as “the world’s leading expert on how to sacrifice your Bitcoins,” are veiled admissions. These posts suggest that he may have destroyed access to the estimated 1.1 million BTC attributed to Nakamoto.
The documentary also suggests that Todd once posted from Satoshi’s account on the BitcoinTalk forum in 2010, allegedly by accident. Todd is also credited with being a key advocate for Replace-by-Fee (RBF), a controversial topic within the community. The documentary implies that this technical suggestion could have only come from someone with deep knowledge of Bitcoin’s original code, like Nakamoto.
Community and Todd Deny Claims
Despite these theories, Todd has consistently denied being Nakamoto, even before the documentary aired. The crypto community has also been quick to debunk HBO’s claims. Web3 researcher Pix pointed out several key points where the documentary went wrong.
Pix noted that in 2008, Peter Todd was still finishing a fine arts degree and wasn’t even involved in the cryptography space. This makes it unlikely that he would have needed to use a pseudonym like Satoshi Nakamoto.
Pix also debunked HBO’s claim about a 2010 BitcoinTalk post, arguing that a follow-up post made 13 hours later was more likely a simple comment rather than evidence of a forgotten account switch.
Pix addressed the RBF connection, explaining that Todd introduced RBF in 2014, years after Satoshi had already left the scene. HBO’s suggestion that this feature was pre-planned by Satoshi was dismissed as a major stretch.
Lastly, Pix clarified that Todd’s cryptic comment about “sacrificing bitcoins” was a joke about blockchain integrity, not an admission of destroying access to Satoshi’s 1.1 million BTC. This key piece of evidence, according to Pix, was taken wildly out of context, further discrediting HBO’s claims.
CryptoQuant researcher Ki Young Ju labeled the documentary “disgusting,” and BitMEX Research called the evidence presented by HBO “clearly ridiculous.” Adam Back, who was featured in the documentary, refrained from giving credence to the speculation and simply stated, “no one knows who Satoshi is.”
Unexpected Claim Surprises Bettors
Polymarket, a popular prediction market platform, had listed odds on who HBO’s documentary would identify as Satoshi Nakamoto. However, Peter Todd was not initially included as a betting option. Bettors were primarily focused on figures like Nick Szabo and Len Sassaman, both of whom have been frequently speculated as Bitcoin’s creators. This omission is another testament to how unexpected and widely dismissed the documentary’s claim about Todd truly was.