An upcoming HBO documentary hints at revealing the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the unknown creator of Bitcoin, the first-ever cryptocurrency.
“If he is an individual rather than a collective, he could be one of the richest people on earth,” the trailer for the HBO documentary teases.
The true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto remains one of the biggest mysteries in the tech world, and despite numerous investigations and claims, no conclusive evidence has emerged to identify Bitcoin’s creator.
“Anyone competent enough to go do Bitcoin probably would be competent enough to not leave any traces,” says one of the interviewees in the HBO trailer.
In 2008, a person or group using this name published a whitepaper titled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System,” which outlined the concept of the digital currency. Nakamoto released the first Bitcoin software in 2009 and collaborated with other developers on the project until 2010.
In 2011, Nakamoto ceased communication with the Bitcoin community and essentially vanished.
Many individuals have been proposed or have claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto. These include Nick Szabo, an American computer scientist and cryptographer, Hal Finney, an early Bitcoin contributor who passed away in 2014, Craig Wright, an Australian computer scientist who publicly claimed to be Nakamoto (though this claim is widely disputed), and Dorian Nakamoto, a Japanese-American man who was mistakenly identified as the Bitcoin creator in 2014.
A significant number of bitcoins (estimated to be around 1 million) believed to belong to Nakamoto remain unspent, adding to the mystery. “Satoshi’s done nothing to speak for his stash,” says one of the documentary interviewees.
Stock image of green candlestick forex chart and bitcoin on blurry background. HBO’s new Bitcoin documentary may finally reveal the identity of its mysterious creator.
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The documentary, titled Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery, is directed by Emmy-nominated Cullen Hoback, who also directed and produced the HBO documentary series Q: Into the Storm, which investigated the origins and impact of the QAnon conspiracy theory movement. The Bitcoin documentary airs on October 8.
Not everyone is convinced the film will put the Bitcoin mystery to rest. “SPOILER ALERT. HBO has no idea who is Satoshi Nakamoto. You’re welcome,” said one individual on X (formerly Twitter).
Crypto trading platform Coinbase posted in response to the trailer: “We are all Satoshi. Roll credits.”
Others feel more hopeful. “A new HBO documentary claims to have cracked the true identity of the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto,” posted crypto resources platform Unusual Whales.
“It says that ‘its findings will shock the world, even the US election’,” it added.
Some key Bitcoin statistics:
- Bitcoin’s market cap is around $1.3 trillion as of September 2024, according to Statista;
- Bitcoin’s price hovers between $60,000 and $65,000;
- The total circulating supply is approximately 19.76 million Bitcoins, as per Blockchain.com. This is based on Bitcoin’s fixed maximum supply of 21 million;
- Bitcoin processes about 300,000 to 350,000 transactions per day;
- Bitcoin’s annual energy consumption is estimated at 176 TWh, which is higher than the consumption of several countries including Egypt and Malaysia, as noted by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance.
