from Hacker News

HBO Documentary Suggests Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto Is Peter Todd

by pat2man on 10/9/24, 1:14 AM with 147 comments

  • by adastra22 on 10/9/24, 1:55 AM

    Absolutely insane.

    (1) It's not Peter Todd. Anyone who knows Peter Todd and/or was around in the early days, can clearly tell Satoshi and Peter are not the same person.

    (2) No good comes from speculation over the identity of Satoshi. When someone living is named, their life becomes absolute hell and the security risk imposed on them is very real. When someone dead is proposed, that hellish experience is passed to their family and heirs.

    (3) It's not Peter Todd.

  • by jawiggins on 10/9/24, 3:08 AM

    Just finished watching the doc on HBO.

    The key piece of evidence seems to be this comment from Peter Todd: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2181.msg28739#msg287...

    It stands out to the producers because: 1) Peter makes it just after joining the form, so he is unlikely to have detailed knowledge of bitcoin. 2) He seems to be finishing Satoshi's thought, as though he returned to an earlier post forgetting which account he was signed into. 3) The post happens just before Satoshi disappears and Peter leaves for a few years.

    The doc also features many scenes with Peter and Adam Back where their eyes kind of shift around and they laugh awkwardly when asked about certain things. Since the doc it seems that Peter has taken to twitter to say he was mislead about the purpose of the interviews.

    I've always kind of thought that Satoshi was probably one person who built it all in isolation, and I never played much attention to theories that Satoshi was actually multiple people. After watching the doc it does seem like Adam and Peter know a good deal more than they are letting on, even if it wasn't them specifically, it seems likely that they have some idea who it was.

  • by ryandvm on 10/9/24, 2:02 AM

    The obvious answer is Satoshi Nakamoto is functionally dead.

    His wallet would be worth around $70 billion dollars today and he hasn't touched it in over a decade.

    Either he is A) dead, B) lost the wallet and wishes he were dead, or C) has achieved such spiritual enlightenment that has no interest in the personal or societal impact that $70 billion dollars could have.

    He is not coming back folks, and even if we figure out who he was, that $70 billion is gone.

  • by sigmar on 10/9/24, 1:28 AM

    Peter Todd is downplaying the accusation on Twitter by retweeting and discussing this tweet: https://x.com/BitMEXResearch/status/1843788557925921052

    To my reading, the bitcointalk reply only makes sense as a snarky comment (ie Todd isn't Satoshi). and the fact it was 1.5 hours after the Satoshi post also suggests it wasn't the same person making a quick correction.

  • by gnabgib on 10/9/24, 1:21 AM

    Discussions

    (49 points, 5 days ago, 48 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41732985

    (52 points, 4 days ago, 62 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41749352

  • by olalonde on 10/9/24, 8:43 AM

    For more serious research on who Satoshi might be: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2206.10257
  • by philsquared_ on 10/9/24, 5:35 AM

    It is Adam Back.

    Who is more likely to build ontop of some obscure code base called "Hash Cash"? Some random people that trolled the same forums or the original creator of it?

    Imo this "secret" is known by many people as I have seen so many censorship and misdirection campaigns throughout the years if people mention Adam being the one.

    Him being Satoshi also makes bitcoin core seem more legitimate. He can guide his creation without being formally known as satoshi.

    It is obvious. Especially if you have ever been a solo dev for an extended period of time (like adam was)

    There is a ton more evidence but seems like no one really wants to dig into Adam.

    Adam literally stopped updating hash cash and a year later Bitcoin is released... check his website on archive.org.

    Its ok. I like that there is still conversation as to who it is. It gives protection to him since there likely wont be anything concrete (if hopefully he was slick enough)

  • by ErikAugust on 10/9/24, 2:07 AM

    A mockumentary on crypto would be much more interesting at this point.
  • by neilv on 10/9/24, 2:43 AM

    If an HBO show suggested that I was the Bitcoin creator, I would be wealthy... from owning HBO, after my team of lawyers (who accepted the suit on contingency) was done with them.

    Then there's Google editorializing a headline at the top of search hits:

    > Top stories

    > Bitcoin creator's identity revealed in new HBO documentary

    Yet none of the headlines they show makes that claim:

    > POLITICO.eu - Bitcoin creator is Peter Todd, HBO film says

    > Bloomberg - HBO Documentary Suggests Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto Is Peter Todd

    > The New York Times - A New Bitcoin Documentary Reopens the Search for Satoshi Nakamoto

    > The Crypto Times - Peter Todd Denies He is Satoshi Nakamoto as claimed by HBO...

    > The New Yorker - Has Bitcoin's Elusive Creator Finally Been Unmasked?

    In general (not just in this case), there should also soon be some huge lawsuits for robo-slander, robo-libel, robo-defamation, robo-reckless-endangerment, etc.

    Government is getting a lot more tech-savvy, and "everything's legal, if you claim an AI/algorithm/computer/dog did it" isn't flying anymore.

  • by yboris on 10/9/24, 2:06 AM

    Headline: ‘I am not Satoshi Nakamoto’: Subject of HBO documentary denies he invented bitcoin

    https://lite.cnn.com/2024/10/08/investing/satoshi-nakamoto-i...

  • by astrange on 10/9/24, 2:03 AM

    I still think it's Paul Le Roux, on the basis that this would be the funniest outcome.
  • by broknbottle on 10/9/24, 2:24 AM

    Nah it's not Peter Todd. It's actually Red Herring.

    https://scoobydoo.fandom.com/wiki/Red_Herring

  • by jeanlucas on 10/9/24, 2:20 AM

    I hope this do not hurt Peter.
  • by amai on 10/9/24, 2:38 PM

    "The Father: Adam Back

    The Son: Peter Todd

    The Holy Ghost: Greg Maxwell"

    https://x.com/CullenHoback/status/1843884010013102314

  • by dools on 10/9/24, 2:14 AM

    I reckon it's James Simon (now deceased) from Rennaisance, heading up a team.
  • by IncreasePosts on 10/9/24, 1:41 AM

    I'm honestly surprised that all of the alleged satoshis haven't been kid napped by armed gangs trying to get the billions locked up in the first mined blocks.
  • by xOSBERTx on 10/9/24, 9:51 AM

    I've been in crypto since March of 2013 and Satoshi is not known. The so called DOC was a money grab.
  • by xOSBERTx on 10/9/24, 10:03 AM

    Satoshi Nakamoto is defined as: Any DEV that participated in Bitcoins 1st year of development.

    Leave it at that.

  • by commafun on 10/9/24, 12:00 PM

    Why people want to find satoshi ?
  • by whimsicalism on 10/9/24, 2:21 AM

    imo it's pretty obvious that he was Hal Finney, potentially with collaborators, and no amount of scripted emails, etc. disproves it for me
  • by trog on 10/9/24, 3:25 AM

    It veers quickly into conspiracy theory territory but I have long thought a nation state is a likely candidate for creator. You can kinda pick from several, all equally free from and evidence, and come up with narratives around why they might have done such a thing.
  • by commafun on 10/9/24, 12:00 PM

    why people are finding satoshi ?