A recent HBO documentary says it has uncovered the identity of Bitcoin’s creator, the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto. It’s a bold claim, particularly as Peter Todd — the person named by the documentary creators — vehemently denies it.
If you are considering buying Bitcoin (or already own it), you might wonder what all the fuss is about and question whether it matters. The answer is yes, it does matter. Satoshi may not be involved with Bitcoin today, but the founding figure is believed to own a significant amount of the currency. So much so that selling even a fraction of it could destabilize the whole market.
Would the real Satoshi Nakamoto please stand up?
Bitcoin was developed over 15 years ago as a way to take central banks and other middlemen out of financial transactions. The whitepaper that set out the philosophy and technology behind blockchain was authored by Satoshi Nakamoto, who also mined the first block on the Bitcoin ledger.
A few years later, Satoshi disappeared. The last official message from Satoshi on the Bitcoin forum came in 2010. An email in 2011 said the creator had moved on to other things. That was the last anyone heard from Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious figure behind the world’s first digital currency.
There have been several high-profile unmaskings of Satoshi over the years, and none of them have stuck. Most recently, in Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery, director Cullen Hoback names a Canadian developer called Peter Todd. Todd says he is not Satoshi and strenuously denies the documentary’s claims.