The recent HBO documentary “Money Electric: The Mystery of Bitcoin” alleged that Peter Todd, an early developer of Bitcoin, is believed to be the real Satoshi Nakamoto, the founder of Bitcoin. The almost two-hour film, directed by Cullen Hoback, is termed a jet-setting investigative piece trying to solve one of the crypto world’s famous enigmas.
NEW: Peter Todd denies HBO’s claim that he is #Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto. pic.twitter.com/0GTblFN9LX
— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) October 9, 2024
Peter Todd has, however, quickly dismissed any claims of Satoshi Nakamoto on his X profile. Inside the documentary, there are moments where Todd and director Hoback discuss Todd’s eagerness to accept credits as Nakamoto. However, he retracts any such claims.
This event coincides with Len Sassaman‘s Polymarket win among voters on Tuesday. Many critics needed clarification about the film’s conclusion, and it faced significant online criticism. Some claimed the signs shown in the movie were too weak to prove that Peter Todd is Santoshi Nakamoto.
It is believed that the director thought that Peter Todd was Santoshi Nakamoto due to an incident that took place in 2010. One of the anonymous contributors to Bitcoin was replying to a certain comment on Satoshi Nakamoto’s post on the BitcoinTalk forum and had accidentally and allegedly posted their comment from Todd’s profile. However, there is no clear evidence, and many enthusiasts in the crypto community believe it is a hoax.
The film was released on HBO on Tuesday at 9 PM ET. Hoback, who is well-known for his work on the docu-series monikered ‘Q: Into the Storm,’ which was based on the Qanon movement, faced criticism for being vague. This growing situation leaves room for the question of who Santoshi Nakamoto is and more than a decade since he went underground.
It is estimated that if Santoshi Nakamoto is alive, he possesses roughly 1,100,000 bitcoins, corresponding to around $68 billion. However, it is easy to accept that, as Adam Back had previously stated, “But also the documentary will presumably be wrong as no one knows who Santoshi is.”
