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 pointing to 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 well-known Bitcoin core developer and cryptographer who has gained recognition for his contributions to the Bitcoin ecosystem.

An early contributor to the Bitcoin codebase, Todd is among the 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 pioneers of Bitcoin.

The developer has worked on a handful of blockchain projects, best known as Bitcoin Core Developer at Coinkite since 2014. He has held prominent 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 attended the Zcash trust configuration ceremony in 2016, although he later criticized the process.

Why is HBO identifying Peter as Satoshi?

Neither Len Sassaman nor Nick Szabo were named Satoshi in the documentary released by HBO. Rather, the spotlight shone on Peter Todd, an unsuspecting individual, until a leak just hours before the film’s release.

To support its claims, HBO pointed to a botched reply in 2010, when Todd accidentally replied to a post that Satoshi Nakamoto started on the Bitcointalk forum using his own account. However, this observation was quickly seen as circumstantial, lacking the hard 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 compelling argument, and it’s not convincing at all. It doesn’t seem to me that Peter is carrying on Satoshi’s thoughts, he seems to be correcting Satoshi, as Peter has done many times,” Pledditor, an X user. he stated.

The HBO documentary also brought up the fact that Todd implemented the concept of “replacement by fee”, 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 both Satoshi and Todd used British/Canadian spellings in their online communications, making it proof of their connection. He further added that Todd’s schedule matched Satoshi’s posting schedule on Bitcointalk.

The show went on to use Todd’s earlier talk about “sacrificing” Bitcoin as evidence that he might be Satoshi, interpreting it as “destroying” the currency.

“Again, this is not proof of anything. Just less innuendo and circumstance,” Pledditor added.

Although Todd has repeatedly denied being Satoshi, he has faced increasing speculation surrounding his identity. The developer did indeed claim before and after release that it wasn’t Satoshi.

Reactions and jokes

Cullen Hoback’s theory, based on old chat logs and a BitcoinTalk post from 2010, drew 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, the administrator of BitcoinTalk, and Adam Cochran of Cinneamhain Ventures denounced the irresponsible journalism displayed in the documentary.

A shitty journalist puts people in real physical danger. I’m sorry you or Adam have to deal with this crap. Stay safe.

— Cobra (@CobraBitcoin) October 8, 2024

What a bust.

Wild speculation, lack of understanding of the technology that rules it out, smokeless gun.

And irresponsibly calls someone like Satoshi who is alive today, says they are not Satoshi, and does so without solid evidence.

The documentary even gets the data from Todd’s… https://t.co/chLUjIo7fh pic.twitter.com/Ct7mbrjP8G

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

Few people know this, but we once shared a room @peterktodd. As he slept I heard him gurgle “It must be Craig”. What does this mean? https://t.co/rfuzTpwH9s

— Jesse Powell (@jespow) October 9, 2024

The Polymarket punters were right

Polymarket punters have correctly predicted that Satoshi Nakamoto is someone not in the poll.

In the days leading up to the release of the documentary, traders initially favored Len Sassaman, with odds reaching 49%. However, as the show drew to a close, the odds turned to Nick Szabo. In the end, most punters were confident that Satoshi was someone who had not been considered before.

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