One of the world’s best-kept secrets is the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin. A new HBO documentary explored this mystery and eventually gave a potential face to the anonymous creator.
Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery premiered on Tuesday, exploring the history of Bitcoin and attempting to discover the true identity of the crypto currency’s founder.
However, the documentary falls a bit flat, stringing together a thin theory claiming that Canadian software developer Peter Todd is the famed Satoshi.
Key Highlights
- HBO documents the history of Bitcoin and attempts to discover Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity.
- Satoshi holds 1 million Bitcoin and could eventually become the richest person in the world.
- Peter Todd is speculated to be Satoshi.
HBO Releases Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery
On Tuesday, October 8, HBO released Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery. The documentary pegs itself as “a thrilling investigation into the origins of Bitcoin, and how its enigmatic creator set out to disrupt the global financial order.”
Cullen Hoback served as the documentary’s producer, director, and primary investigator. The piece told a relatively complete history of Bitcoin from its early beginnings and proceeded through the Block Wars, its rise as “digital gold,” and even the rise of altcoins and “shitcoins.”
However, a good portion of the documentary was spent trying to decipher the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin. The infamous white paper for Bitcoin was released by Satoshi on October 31, 2008.
Since then, numerous people have been rumored to be Satoshi. Much of this documentary, though, focused on two men.
Adam Back Was the Early Favorite to Be Satoshi
Much of the documentary explored a theory that Adam Back was Satoshi “hiding in plain sight.” Hoback produced numerous reasons he suspected Back.
Back’s writing style and spelling choices were pointed out as being similar to Satoshi’s. Back has also spent a lot of time editing the Bitcoin Wikipedia page and making numerous technical posts explaining and defending Bitcoin.
Back continually denied being Satoshi during the documentary. His calm demeanor during interviews didn’t always seem to reflect his claims.
What is known for certain is that Back has been in contact with Satoshi in the past. Also, based on his reactions and certain comments made during the piece, it can be reasonably assumed that he may know Satoshi’s true identity.
One such comment that helped lead Hoback down another rabbit hole was that Satoshi “was younger.”
Hoback Ultimately Decides that Peter Todd Is Satoshi
Peter Todd received a lot of focus in the documentary, starting from his work on Bitcoin projects as a young coder to a scandal where he reportedly worked with the CIA to undermine Bitcoin.
Hoback starts looking at some older posts with a different mindset, ultimately creating a theory that points to Todd as Satoshi.
In the end, the documentary floated a theory that a 23-year-old Liberal Arts student created the granddaddy of digital currencies.
The theory effectively surmises that Todd has been posting as himself and Satoshi throughout the years and was both parties in the emails proving the CIA scandal.
When Hoback presented these theories, Todd was almost giddy with laughter, and even Back, who was normally very reserved, seemed amused.
In the end, the documentary floated a theory that a 23-year-old Liberal Arts student created the granddaddy of digital currencies.
If this theory is true, Todd would reportedly know the whereabouts of 1 million Bitcoin, if being the operative word.
Documentary Glosses Over Important Points
Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery is a decent documentary, but it does have room for improvement. It does an above-average job of chronicling the history of Bitcoin but glosses over many important elements.
For example, other than a few brief clips, it does very little to cover the growth of Bitcoin adoption over the years. There is no mention whatsoever of online gambling and how Bitcoin has revolutionized online casino gaming.
Next, it focuses too much on Sampson Mow’s attempts to get other countries to adopt Bitcoin. While an important step forward for Bitcoin, it receives too much time.
Finally, the path by which Hoback comes to his theory on Todd is a bit thin. It almost felt like the producer was running out of time and just threw something together to fit his narrative.
I feel that 20 to 30 minutes of this documentary could have been shaved off or redirected to cover other topics. It is not a bad documentary in terms of looking at the history of Bitcoin, but it falls flat in proving the identity of Satoshi.
Sources
https://play.max.com/movie/90e45730-bcb5-4525-aaea-44425a77c531
https://www.casino.org/news/hbo-doc-claims-expose-identity-bitcoin-creator-satoshi-nakamoto/
