Who is Peter Todd, alleged to be Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto?

Do we finally know who created Bitcoin?

For years, the world has known the name Satoshi Nakamoto – a pseudonym for the person or persons – who created Bitcoin in 2009.

But now a new HBO documentary is pointing the finger at another name in the world of Bitcoin.

The documentary Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery by filmmaker Cullen Hoback claims that Bitcoin researcher Peter Todd is in fact Satoshi.

Hoback previously directed the HBO series Q: Into The Storm where he potentially unmasked the identity of the shadowy figure Q as Ron Watkins.

But who is Todd? What do we know about him?

Let’s take a closer look:

Todd is a 39-year-old Canadian software developer.

His profile on X describes him as a “cryptochronomancer.”

As per CoinTelegraph.com, Todd is known as a core developer of Bitcoin and other crypto and blockchain software.

Todd was deeply involved in the earliest years of Bitcoin, as per StartUpNews.fyi.

He claims to have taken an interest in it at age 15.

Todd said he began interacting with early Bitcoin contributor Hal Finney and Hashcash inventor Adam Back as a teenager.

Todd graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto, as per Politico.

As per UK Finance, he claims to have bought his first Bitcoin when the price was 20 cents.

The current price of Bitcoin is $63,126.50.

He is among the few persons publicly documented to have communicated with Nakamoto before he disappeared in 2011.

As per New York Magazine, Todd on December 10, 2010, on a Bitcoin blog responded to a post by Satoshi on Bitcoin transaction fees.

Todd in 2001 briefly worked as a Linux system support and service Starnix developer.

Todd’s career began in 2008 when he worked as an Electronics Designer at Gedex Inc.

Since July 2014, Todd has been a Bitcoin Core Developer at Coinkite.

He has also served as a board adviser to digital collectible platform Verisart since 2015.

Todd is currently the chief scientist at open-source Bitcoin wallet Dark Wallet and digital currency and communications protocol Mastercoin.

He founded OpenTimestamps – a project which aims to give blockchain timestamping a standard format.

‘Very convinced’

Hoback remains convinced Todd is Satoshi.

“I obviously made the film. And, I mean, I’m very convinced,” Hoback told New York Magazine. “My supposition for some years now is that, given that nobody found anything electronic, that we’re probably never going to know, and so what’s left is more circumstantial.”

“He clearly put planning and effort to stay anonymous, and based on the fact that nobody found anything for the last 15 years, it looks like he was completely successful and didn’t make any mistakes. So it doesn’t seem likely to me that he would get identified after that if he was intending to not be.”

But Todd has denied being Satoshi.

“I’m not Satoshi,” Todd wrote on X.

“For the record, I’m not Satoshi,” he told New York Magazine.

The speculation over Satoshi’s identity has been ongoing since his disappearance more than a decade ago.

Finney and Back are among a number of high-profile persons in the crypto world suspected to be Satoshi.

Australian entrepreneur Craig Wright had claimed he was Satoshi but was unable to provide proof.

Others investors simply don’t want to know.

Crypto investor Nic Carter told Politico, “There’s no bigger mystery in history.”

“The fact that Satoshi successfully pulled this off — it really is magical. I personally hope we never find out who Satoshi is.”

While grey-suited central bankers print conventional currencies and commercial banks control transactions in them, no one person or entity is in charge of bitcoin. Instead it runs on a decentralised system of shared trust without any third-party verification of transactions - one reason why many people are attracted to it.

Critics, however, say it needs a “benevolent dictator” or at least some “adults” to manage the expansion that it needs to cope with the increasing number of transactions. Someone, or some group, must decide how to meet users’ requirements, they say.

Trades are handled by thousands of “mining” computers around the world which validate blocks of transactions by competing to solve mathematical puzzles every 10 minutes.

The first computer to solve the puzzle clears the transaction and is currently rewarded with 25 new bitcoins. This is how the computers’ owners cover their costs - largely power bills - and make a profit. The system also ensures there is no single point in the system that might fail.

“Satoshi’s biggest achievement was to create a system that doesn’t require his participation to run,” Todd previously told Reuters. “That’s what makes all this stuff kind of funny. It’s like searching for the creator of a system that’s designed not to require a creator.”

With inputs from agencies