- A documentary by HBO says Peter Todd is Satoshi Nakamoto
- Before HBO released the documentary, Todd debunked that he was Satoshi
- Peter Todd is a famous 39-year-old Canadian developer
On October 8, 2024, movie streaming service HBO premiered the highly anticipated documentary it said would reveal the real person behind the world’s largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin.
For weeks, the documentary “Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery” was expected, as many people looked forward to knowing the real identity of Bitcoin's creator, who has been popularly known by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.
HBO claimed before the release that it had identified Satoshi Nakamoto. So, on October 8, it released the documentary, which revealed that a man named Peter Todd is the face behind Satoshi Nakamoto and Bitcoin.
Who is Peter Todd?
While the name surprised many crypto insiders who had expected an Asian name, the question that begs for answers is, who is Peter Todd?
Peter Todd is a popular 39-year-old Canadian developer. Todd has a background in cryptography, computer science, and digital security. His work on Bitcoin Core, the primary software implementation of the Bitcoin protocol, made him most famous.
Since July 2014, Todd has worked as a Bitcoin Core Developer at Coinkite, a Bitcoin platform, and since 2015, he has served as a board adviser at Verisart, a digital collectible platform. He is considered a contemporary of Nakamoto because his contributions to blockchain date back to the inception of Bitcoin itself.
Is Peter Todd really Satoshi Nakamoto?
Many people are perplexed by the connection between Peter Todd and Satoshi Nakamoto, whom he has followed since he was young. Peter must have been in their early 20s when Bitcoin was created, according to the HBO documentary. He was pursuing a fine arts degree then, but he also looked into cryptography and related fields. The numerous incidents that show why Peter is Satoshi were presented by director Cullen Hoback throughout the documentary.
The BitcoinTalk forum post the documentary relied on. Source: BitcoinTalk
The documentary claims that the BitcoinTalk forum post from 2010, in which Todd joined the community just one week before Satoshi's final post, is the best proof that Todd is Satoshi. In an unusual coincidence, Tedd and Satoshi vanished a few days later. Hoback also disclosed that Todd accidentally replied to one of Satoshi's posts regarding petrol prices using a personal account instead of Satoshi's, which made him vanish out of fear of being identified.
The documentary also explained why Satoshi Nakamoto chose to remain anonymous: He reportedly took the action to ensure that people would take the novel and distinctive technology seriously. It is unclear, though, if this raised the price of Bitcoin.
Additionally, the documentary's creators found a link between Satoshi's plans for Bitcoin and the RBF. RBF was first introduced in 2014, according to the documentary, but this has already been refuted.
Before HBO released the documentary, Todd debunked that he was Satoshi, having read rumours that HBO had concluded that he would be named as the face behind Bitcoin.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Todd simply wrote, “I'm not Satoshi.”
Crypto sponsorship of English premier league clubs hit £130 million in 2024
Meanwhile, TheRadar earlier reported that football clubs in the top tier of the English league, the Premier League, secured crypto sponsorship deals worth some £130 million in 2024 alone. This significant surge comes just two years after what experts describe as a global crypto downturn, which affected the valuation of several crypto firms and caused a massive decline in token values.
Data from SportQuake, as quoted by Bloomberg, shows that at the beginning of the Premier League 2024/25 season, sponsorship deals involving crypto firms and Premier League clubs were worth some £130 million ($170 million). This amount is likely to increase before the end of the season as more deals are anticipated.
