HBO Is Joining Search for Bitcoin’s Satoshi. Past Attempts Haven’t Turned Out Great.

On Tuesday, the TV channel plans to air a documentary titled “Money Electric: Unraveling the Bitcoin Enigma,” which they assert will reveal the real-life persona behind the enigmatic inventor of Bitcoin, known as Satoshi Nakamoto.

The documentary is created by investigative filmmaker Cullen Hoback, who gained recognition for exposing the head of the QAnon conspiracy theory, Ron Watkins, as the administrator of the 8kun website in a 2021 HBO documentary series (Watkins has refuted being Q, but two independent linguistic analyses confirmed this, following Paul Furber’s departure from the role). If Hoback indeed possesses the skills to uncover Satoshi Nakamoto’s true identity, it would solve a mystery that dates back to the inception of Bitcoin itself.

But past efforts by investigative journalists to find the true identity of Satoshi have failed.

2014 saw a Newsweek article penned by Leah McGrath Goodman titled “The Person Behind Bitcoin,” which pointed to Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, a California-residing Japanese-American man, as the inventor of Bitcoin. However, Mr. Nakamoto refuted any knowledge about Bitcoin and vehemently denied being its creator. Subsequently, Goodman’s claims were discredited by other journalists.

The subsequent year, tech magazine WIRED released an article (subsequently revised extensively) proposing that Australian computer scientist Craig Wright might be the creator of Bitcoin. Following the publication, Wright conducted a series of media interviews with outlets like the BBC, The Economist, and GQ, asserting he was Satoshi Nakamoto. However, it wasn’t long before Wright’s narrative started to fall apart – revealing that Wright, with a past marked by dubious business transactions and conduct, appeared to have fabricated the entire story. This deception seems to have been aimed at concealing ongoing problems with the Australian Tax Office, as well as to earn both financial gains and recognition by copyrighting the Bitcoin white paper.

In addition, Wright took legal action against various parties, filing lawsuits against bitcoin developers as well as the relatives of a past associate. His aim was to obtain judicial authorization to access approximately 1.1 million bitcoins that he claimed to have lost control over by damaging a hard drive containing his private keys. He also initiated legal action – and even threatened to do so – against anyone who cast doubt on his authenticity, such as podcaster Peter McCormack and former educator Magnus Granath (better known as Hodlnaut).

However, it’s been confirmed by a U.K. court this year that Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin. The court ordered him to publicly admit this on both his website and social media platforms. Despite losing support from many, Wright has promised to challenge this ruling.

Concerned about another possible public embarrassment, the media has remained cautious about publicly identifying another potential Satoshi figure. Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency sector generally agrees that keeping Satoshi’s identity hidden is preferable. In fact, American crypto exchange Coinbase mentioned the revelation of Satoshi’s identity as a potential business risk in its S-1 filing before going public.

But that doesn’t mean that the public’s curiosity over the true identity of Satoshi has abated. There have been convincing arguments made that any one of a number of early cypherpunks could be the creator of Bitcoin.

Among the frequently proposed candidates for Satoshi Nakamoto are computer programmers such as Hal Finney, Nick Szabo, Adam Back, and Wei Dai; however, they have all denied being him. Less conventional theories suggest that Satoshi might be Paul Le Roux, a former programmer and criminal cartel boss currently in prison, or even the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Some also believe that Satoshi was not an individual but a collective of coders working together.

Similar to Finney, Szabo, Back and others, there have been compelling theories suggesting that Sassaman might be Satoshi Nakamoto. However, a compelling theory is not the same as definitive proof. Although the new HBO documentary hints at “unseen evidence,” the ultimate confirmation would come from moving Satoshi’s coins – something no claimant has managed to achieve yet.

In case Satoshi Nakamoto is deceased or prefers to remain anonymous, it’s possible we might never be able to verify if he/she possesses the secret key to unlock the vast Bitcoin fortune estimated to be around $68 billion in today’s value.