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Has the Secret Identity of the Inventor of Bitcoin Been Revealed? A New Documentary Suggests It's Solved. A new HBO documentary stirs controversy in its quest to expose Bitcoin's inventor.

By Erin Davis

Key Takeaways

  • Peter Todd, a noted crypto expert, is denying that he is Satoshi Nakamoto after being named by the HBO documentary "Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery" as the potential inventor of Bitcoin.
  • Peter Todd called the claims "ludicrous."
  • Satoshi's untouched Bitcoin cache is valued at more than $65 billion.

HBO's new documentary "Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery" claims to have unearthed the identity of the elusive creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto.

The film suggests that Canadian Bitcoin Core developer Peter Todd is actually Nakamoto, though Todd called the claims "ludicrous."

"I am not Satoshi Nakamoto," he told the BBC.

Related: Jack Dorsey Showed Up to the Super Bowl Rocking a 'Satoshi' T-Shirt

Todd argues that the documentary could compromise his safety—Satoshi Nakamoto is potentially the 20th richest global entity, with a Bitcoin wallet worth more than $65 billion.

Crypto sites are also critical of the news. CoinTelegraph said the documentary is flawed with "contradictions and timeline errors," noting that HBO seems to have taken it too seriously when Todd sarcastically remarks that he is Satoshi in the film.

Bloomberg reports that the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto has been a topic of investigation since at least 2011. A physicist named Dorian Nakamoto denied being Satoshi after Newsweek made the claim in 2014. The next year, the New York Times suggested it could be Nick Szabo, a computer scientist.

Related: Mark Cuban Says He's Received 'Multiple Questions' From Kamala Harris About Crypto

Todd, meanwhile, isn't the only person (jokingly or not) to say that they were the Bitcoin inventor: In March, a U.K. judge ruled that Australian Craig Wright was not Bitcoin's creator after he proclaimed himself to be Satoshi Nakamoto.

In Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery is available to stream on Max.

Erin Davis

Entrepreneur Staff

Freelance Writer

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