The identity of Satoshi Nakamoto intrigues the world. This anonymous creator of Bitcoin, revolutionary in his time, is at the heart of numerous speculations, but no one has ever been able to lift the veil on his identity… until today. HBO, with its documentary Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mysterythrew a wrench into the pond, bluntly asserting that Peter Todd, a Canadian developer, is the real Satoshi Nakamoto. This explosive revelation caused an uproar in the crypto community, and reactions were quick to flow.
HBO's shocking statements on Bitcoin and Satoshi Nakamoto
In this 100-minute documentary, produced by Cullen Hoback, HBO attempts to build an argument based on circumstantial evidence, which would place Todd as the mysterious creator of Bitcoin.
The argument put forward? Todd allegedly used the pseudonym Satoshi to mask his identity and give more weight to his project, at a time when he was just finishing his studies.
For Hoback, Todd's strategy would have consisted of simulating the creation of Bitcoin by a seasoned cryptography expert, and not by a little-known student.
Among the clues put forward, the documentary highlights several messages published by Todd online, which would have been, according to Hoback, so many “nods” to his supposed role in the birth of Bitcoin.
For example, in one disturbing post, Todd describes himself as the “world's leading expert on how to sacrifice your Bitcoins,” a phrase that has been interpreted as an allusion to the supposed destroyed access to 1.1 million BTC attributed to Nakamoto.
Additionally, an intriguing anecdote resurfaced: in 2010, Todd allegedly accidentally posted a message from Satoshi's account on the BitcoinTalk forum, further fueling speculation.
Finally, HBO is leveraging Todd's support for the controversial Replace-by-Fee (RBF) feature. For Hoback, only those who mastered the basics of Bitcoin's original code could have understood the technical subtlety of this proposition.
Thus, the documentary pushes the hypothesis that only someone who participated in the development of Bitcoin, like Nakamoto himself, would have had this influence.
A hard blow for Polymarket speculators
The release of this documentary not only shook the Bitcoin community; it also caused waves on Polymarket, the decentralized prediction platform, where thousands of users had bet on Satoshi's identity.
Before the broadcast, speculation mainly revolved around Len Sassaman, an influential cypherpunk, with a 67% probability that he was Satoshi. However, after HBO's revelations, Sassaman's ratings collapsed in a few days, stabilizing below 10%.
The documentary also caused damage among proponents of other popular theories. Nick Szabo and Adam Back, two names closely associated with the history of Bitcoin, were among the favorites ahead of the release.
The most widespread hypotheses suggested that Satoshi Nakamoto could even be an identity shared by several people, bringing together the talents of an anonymous collective of cryptographers.
Polymarket saw trading volumes exceed $44 million, a sign of the frenzied interest this mystery continues to generate.
For the Bitcoin community, which has long idealized the image of a visionary and selfless Satoshi Nakamoto, these revelations are disturbing to say the least. The idea that Peter Todd, a well-known figure in the crypto world, could be the one who laid the foundation stone of the Bitcoin ecosystem arouses more skepticism than fascination. Many reject this theory as “ridiculous”, preferring to preserve the mystery rather than see the Nakamoto legend debunked in this way. Meanwhile, Metaplanet injects 1 billion yen into btc.
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