Software developer Peter Todd wants to send a clear message to the HBO and for viewers of one of his new films: he didn't invent Bitcoin.
“I am not Satoshi,” Todd stated in an email sent to Bloomberg, denying that he is the true identity of the pseudonym behind the creation of the cryptocurrency, Satoshi Nakamoto.
In the documentary “Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery”, filmmaker Cullen Hoback uses circumstantial evidence to suggest that Todd was Nakamoto. In one example, the film suggests that Nakamoto may have accidentally used Todd's account on an internet discussion forum to continue a post previously made under Nakamoto's username.
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Todd explained to Bloomberg that at the time these posts were published, his account on the platform was called “retep,” and the user's identity was not known. Most participants in the forum where Satoshi Nakamoto discussed Bitcoin used anonymous names. If Todd had made a mistake in continuing Nakamoto's post under the “retep” account, he stated that he could have simply stopped using that account and created another one to post under his own name. Instead, Todd later renamed the “retep” account to his real name.
“If Cullen really wanted to find Satoshi, he could have easily verified these facts,” Todd said in the email. “Based on what happened and his behavior, I strongly suspect that naming me Satoshi was just a marketing strategy to generate attention for the documentary.” Todd called Cullen's film a “precarious, coincidence-based, circumstantial-evidence approach to trying to find Satoshi.”
A representative for HBO did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Todd said the documentary's revelations left him concerned about his security, in large part because digital wallets belonging to the real Satoshi Nakamoto still contain about 1 million Bitcoins, equivalent to approximately $62 billion at current prices.
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“Obviously, falsely accusing someone of having tens of billions of dollars puts them at risk for robbery and kidnapping,” Todd said. “He’s putting my life at risk to promote his film.”
Who exactly Nakamoto is — be it a person or a group — has been the subject of much speculation since the launch of Bitcoin in January 2009. Since then, the cryptocurrency has become popular and is on the balance sheets of companies like MicroStrategy, in addition to being acquired by index funds in the United States, which hold billions of dollars in tokens.
Over the years, various publications have suggested different names as Satoshi Nakamoto. In 2014, the Newsweek stated that it would be physicist Dorian Nakamoto, who denied the accusation. In 2015, the New York Times named computer scientist Nick Szabo as the possible creator of Bitcoin. Australian Craig Wright even declared himself Satoshi Nakamoto, until a British judge ruled that he was not the creator of Bitcoin.