Who is Peter Todd and why does HBO think he is Satoshi?

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HBO’s highly anticipated documentary, “Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery,” ended up naming Peter Todd as a potential candidate for the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious creator of Bitcoin. Who is Peter Todd and why does HBO think he is Satoshi?

Unmasking Peter Todd: who is he?

Peter Todd, born and raised in Canada, is a known Bitcoin developer and cryptographer who is recognized for his contributions to the Bitcoin ecosystem.

As one of the earliest contributors to the Bitcoin codebase, Todd was one of a few people who communicated directly with Satoshi before their disappearance in 2011. He previously confirmed that he was in his early teens when he began communicating with Hal Finney and Adam Back, two prominent Bitcoin pioneers.

The developer has worked on a handful of blockchain projects, best known as a Bitcoin Core developer at Coinkite since 2014. He has held leading roles in several projects, including as chief scientist at Mastercoin and Dark Wallet.

Todd is also the founder of OpenTimestamps, a project aimed at providing a decentralized timestamping service. He participated in Zcash’s trust setup ceremony in 2016, although he later criticized the process.

Why does HBO identify Peter as Satoshi?

Neither Len Sassaman nor Nick Szabo were named Satoshi in the documentary released by HBO. It is rather Peter Todd, an unsuspected individual, who was spotlighted until a leak just hours before the film’s release.

To support its claims, HBO highlighted an erroneous response in 2010 when Todd accidentally responded to a post Satoshi Nakamoto had made on the Bitcointalk forum using his own account. However, this observation was quickly considered circumstantial, lacking the concrete evidence needed to link Todd to Satoshi.

Many members of the crypto community clarified that Todd was simply correcting or clarifying Satoshi’s post, not impersonating him.

“Believe it or not, that was their most convincing argument, and it’s not convincing at all. It doesn’t look to me like Peter is continuing Satoshi’s thoughts, it just seems like he’s correcting Satoshi, like Peter has done many times,” Pledditor, an X user. declared.

The HBO documentary also touched on Todd implementing the concept of “fee replacement,” which was discussed in the same thread on Bitcointalk. It was claimed that he used the pseudonym “John Dillon” to promote the concept and that this pseudonym was linked to Satoshi.

Additionally, the film suggested that Satoshi and Todd both used British and Canadian spellings in their online communications, making this evidence of their connection. Additionally, he added that Todd’s schedule matched Satoshi’s posting schedule on Bitcointalk.

The show further used Todd’s past discussion of “sacrificing” Bitcoin as evidence that it could be Satoshi, interpreting it as “destructing” the coin.

“Again, this doesn’t prove anything. Just innuendo and weaker circumstances,” Pledditor added.

Although Todd has repeatedly denied being Satoshi, he has faced increasing speculation regarding his identity. The developer actually claimed before and after release that he was not Satoshi.

Backlashes and jokes

Cullen Hoback’s theory, based on old chat logs and a 2010 BitcoinTalk article, has drawn criticism and sarcastic comments from members of the crypto community. Prominent figures and organizations have rallied to Todd’s defense, criticizing the speculative nature of the documentary and the dangers it poses to Todd’s safety.

Cobra, administrator of BitcoinTalk, and Adam Cochran of Cinneamhain Ventures, denounced the irresponsible journalism displayed in the documentary.

A dirty journalist puts people in real physical danger. I’m sorry that you or Adam have to deal with this nonsense. Be careful.

– Cøbra (@CobraBitcoin) October 8, 2024

What a fiasco.

Wild speculation, lack of understanding of the technology that rules it out, no hard evidence.

And irresponsibly names someone like Satoshi, who is alive today, says he is not Satoshi, and does so without solid proof.

The documentary even gives the dates of Todd’s evening… pic.twitter.com/Ct7mbrjP8G

– Adam Cochran (adamscochran.eth) (@adamscochran) October 9, 2024

Few people know this, but I once shared a room with @peterktodd. As he slept, I heard him gurgling, “It must be Craig.” What does that mean?

– Jesse Powell (@jespow) October 9, 2024

The Polymarket punters were right

Oddsmakers at Polymarket accurately predicted that Satoshi Nakamoto was someone who didn’t appear in the poll.

In the days leading up to the documentary’s release, traders initially favored Len Sassaman, with the rating reaching 49%. However, as the show approached, the betting shifted to Nick Szabo. Ultimately, the majority of punters were convinced that Satoshi was someone who hadn’t been considered before.

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