“I am not a Bitcoin inventor,” says the man named in the HBO film

A new documentary claims to have solved cryptocurrency’s biggest mystery: the true identity of Bitcoin’s inventor.

The question has plagued the Internet since the digital currency was introduced in 2009 by an unknown person or persons named Satoshi Nakamoto.

Now the makers of an HBO film say they finally have the answer: Canadian crypto expert Peter Todd.

The only problem with the theory is that Mr Todd has dismissed it as “ridiculous”.

In “Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery” Peter Todd is confronted by filmmaker Cullen Hoback

Mr. Hoback shows him his evidence and asks him if he is behind the now trillion-dollar invention – a claim that Mr. Todd laughs off.

“I am not Satoshi Nakamoto,” he has since posted on X.

The intrigue surrounding Satoshi stems not only from the mystery of their identities, but also from the enormous wealth they have amassed.

If they still had control of their Bitcoin wallet, it would be worth around $69 billion today – meaning Satoshi would be around the 20th richest person in the world.

Peter Todd is a well-known Bitcoin developer and is credited with many innovations in the world’s first and largest cryptocurrency.

Yet in all the years of trying to unmask the Bitcoin creator, he has never been named as a leading candidate to replace Satoshi.

There is great interest in this latest attempt to solve this mystery. Ahead of the documentary’s release, crypto betting site Polymarket placed more than $44 million in bets on who the program would label as Satoshi.

Cullen Hoback, who has previously tried to expose anonymous online figures like Q of Q Anon, says he came to his conclusion after years of research and interviews.

One of his pieces of evidence that Mr. Todd is Satoshi is a forum post he found by Peter Todd, which appeared to be a continuation of a post by Satoshi.

Another reason is that he once said online that he had intentionally destroyed a large number of the digital coins.

A leading theory is that Satoshi intentionally destroyed access to his vast supply of Bitcoins, which were originally created to create Bitcoin.

The 1.1 million coins are now worth a fortune, but were never issued or transferred.

Satoshi’s supply of unmoved coins represents 5% of all Bitcoins, as the inventor decided that there would only ever be 21 million coins.

However, Mr Todd says his posting history suggests he was not involved – he claims he was “too busy with school and work”.

A number of people from the computer world have previously been credited as creators of the cryptocurrency.

In 2014, a high-profile article in Newsweek identified Dorian Nakamoto, a Japanese-American man living in California, as Satoshi. But he denied it and the claim was widely debunked.

In 2015, Wired and Gizmodo published an investigation that pointed to Australian computer scientist Craig Wright.

Shortly afterwards, Wright stated in interviews with media: including the BBCthat he was actually Satoshi and provided obvious proof.

But his claims were ignored by the community and after years of him claiming to be the inventor, a UK Supreme Court judge ruled that there was “overwhelming” evidence that he was not Satoshi.

Tech billionaire and crypto enthusiast Elon Musk also denied being behind the cryptocurrency after a former employee of one of his companies, SpaceX, suggested it.

For some of the most prominent voices in Bitcoin, keeping Satoshi’s identity secret is part of the appeal and power of the decentralized currency.

Adam Black, one of the core developers (and another potential Satoshi candidate), posted on X ahead of the documentary: “Nobody knows who Satoshi is. And that’s a good thing.”