Is Peter Todd Really Satoshi Nakamoto? Former Bitcoin Developer Speaks

Following the airing of HBO’s documentary Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery on Tuesday night, former Bitcoin Core developer Gregory Maxwell said the filmmaker Bitcoin’in (BTC) He criticized the claim that the elusive founder Satoshi Nakamoto was actually Peter Todd, one of the first Bitcoin developers.

The two-hour documentary, directed by Cullen Hoback, presents itself as a comprehensive investigation into the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto. The documentary, which includes interviews with leading figures in the Bitcoin community, focuses on Todd as the mysterious founder after analyzing various clues, a claim that Todd quickly denied.

Hoback’s claim centers on a 2010 post on the BitcoinTalk forum that claimed Todd had mistakenly continued Satoshi’s message from his own account. He also highlights that Todd implemented the Bitcoin fee-based swap feature, which was later discussed in the same thread. Fee replacement is a mechanism that allows users to replace unconfirmed transactions with ones that have a higher fee to speed up transactions.

Hoback points to several pieces of evidence to support his theory, including Todd’s use of the pseudonym “John Dillon” when promoting the fee-based swap feature, his use of British and Canadian spellings similar to Satoshi’s, and a posting pattern that aligned with Todd’s student schedule. Additionally, Hoback references a conversation in which Todd talked about “sacrificing” Bitcoins, suggesting that this was an allusion to destroying Satoshi’s 1.1 million BTC, worth approximately $68 billion.

However, Maxwell disputed these claims in a discussion thread shortly after the documentary aired. He noted that Todd’s account name at the time was “retep” and had no direct connection to his real identity. “If it had been a mistake, he could have easily abandoned his account later rather than renaming it to his legal name,” Maxwell wrote.

Maxwell also warned against accusing people of being Satoshi, as such claims have previously led to threats and blackmail targeting people and their families.

Responding to Maxwell’s statement on X (formerly Twitter), Todd said: “An excellent observation from Gregory Maxwell. If Cullen Hoback really wanted to find Satoshi, he would have checked for such flaws by presenting his theories to Adam Back and me.” he said.

*This is not investment advice.