On Oct. 8. HBO’s documentary Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery identified Peter Todd as Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator — Satoshi Nakamoto.
Todd denied being Nakamoto both before the documentary’s debut and after it aired, bluntly posting on X, “I’m not Satoshi.”
However, the question remains: Who is Peter Todd, and why do some people believe he is Satoshi Nakamoto?
Peter Todd is a prominent Canadian developer with a background in cryptography, computer science, and digital security. He is best known for his contributions to the development of Bitcoin Core, the main software implementation of the Bitcoin (BTC) protocol.
Todd has been a Bitcoin Core Developer at Bitcoin platform Coinkite since July 2014 and a board adviser at digital collectible platform Verisart since 2015.
His contributions to blockchain can be traced back to the birth of Bitcoin itself, placing him as a contemporary of Nakamoto.
HBO’s documentary filmmaker Cullen Hoback goes further, however, naming him as Satoshi Nakamoto himself.
This is linked to what Hoback claims is a new piece of evidence supposedly crucial to the case. In a December 2010 thread on the forum Bitcointalk, Todd replied to Nakamoto in a thread about fees.
Hoback and HBO contend that this reply under Peter Todd’s own account was a careless mistake, that Todd is Nakamoto and had planned to append his previous post as Satoshi.
Is this the crucial piece of evidence that unmasks Satoshi Nakamoto? Source: BitcoinTalk
Although HBO seems convinced that this shows Todd is Nakamoto, not everyone is quite so sure.
BitMEX Research is among those skeptical of HBO’s claims. In an Oct. 8 X post they stated some of the evidence presented in the documentary was “clearly ridiculous,” and there was “zero reason” to believe it.
Source: BitMEX Research
Is Peter Todd Satoshi Nakamoto?
Whether Todd is Nakamoto or not, his longstanding ties to Bitcoin are indisputable. Todd is not only one of the earliest contributors to the Bitcoin codebase, but he is among the few who publicly communicated with Nakamoto before Nakamoto disappeared in 2011.
In a 2019 podcast, Todd said he was about 15 when he started communicating with early Bitcoin contributor Hal Finney and Hashcash inventor Adam Back. Both Finney and Back have also been named as Nakamoto contenders over the years.
Todd was 23 when Nakamoto published the Bitcoin white paper in 2008, outlining a vision for a decentralized peer-to-peer payment system.
Through his years of work on Bitcoin and blockchain more generally, Todd has proven to be an extremely knowledgeable and adept developer. This proves that Todd has the requisite skills and experience to be a worthy Nakamoto candidate.
Todd also has opinions on decentralization and security that broadly align with Nakamoto, although this is almost certainly true of most people in blockchain. Todd also keeps a relatively low profile, suggesting he has similar predilictions to Bitcoin’s inventor.
Although Todd has at times denied being Nakamoto, he has at others said, “I am Satoshi.”
This is widely interpreted as an “I am Spartacus” tactic, allowing the real Satoshi Nakamoto to hide among his peers by creating false positives. Indeed, Todd has also said he believes that almost everyone has a claim to being the inventor of Bitcoin.
In an October 2024 post Todd said, “Satoshi is the entire human race minus Craig Wright.”
Craig Wright is one of the few people who has seriously claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, an argument rejected by a UK judge in March of this year.
Is it possible that Todd, by also claiming to be Satoshi Nakamoto, is similarly seeking to discredit himself? That’s the kind of evasion tactic only a 3D chess grandmaster could pull off successfully — somebody like Satoshi Nakamoto, perhaps.
Additional reporting by Robert D. Knight.