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Who is Peter Todd?

What is his involvement with Bitcoin, and why did he decline the role of Satoshi Nakamoto?

 

Over the last 15 years, Bitcoin, created by an anonymous person or group hiding under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, has grown into an asset worth over $1.2 trillion. However, Satoshi’s identity remains one of the biggest mysteries not only within the cryptocurrency community but also far beyond it.


The intrigue surrounding Satoshi’s identity persists, partly due to speculation that the anonymous figure still has access to roughly 1.1 million bitcoins, mined by Satoshi in the early days of Bitcoin's development. At today’s prices, those coins are worth nearly $70 billion.

The creators of the documentary Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery, which aired on the U.S. network HBO, have named Peter Todd as a potential figure behind the launch of the world’s largest cryptocurrency.



Who is Peter Todd?

Peter Todd, born on March 14, 1985, is known as one of the early developers of the Bitcoin protocol and a consultant in applied cryptography. He has been considered a potential candidate for Satoshi almost from the very beginning of Bitcoin's inception.

Despite the hype surrounding the HBO documentary, no new arguments were presented. Most of the insights had already been published and debated on forums as early as 2016.


Todd didn’t just work on Bitcoin—he was also involved in “Bitcoin 2.0” projects, including Counterparty (the first NFT-like system on Bitcoin), Mastercoin (one of the first applications built on the Bitcoin blockchain), and Colored Coins (a precursor to tokenization). He also participated in the launch of the privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash in 2016.


What’s wrong with the film?


Prominent figures in the crypto community have condemned the speculative nature of the HBO documentary, calling it "irresponsible journalism." One such critic is Cobra, the administrator of the oldest Bitcoin forum, BitcoinTalk.

The documentary authors cite a post from this forum as one of their key arguments, claiming that Todd allegedly logged into the forum under the wrong account when he thought he was posting as Satoshi.

Other evidence presented in the film includes Todd’s use of British-Canadian spelling, similar to that used by Satoshi, as well as the timing of their activity on BitcoinTalk. Additionally, the authors highlighted Todd's involvement in implementing the "replace by fee" feature, which had been discussed with Satoshi in the same forum thread.


Todd himself was displeased with the filmmakers’ conclusions, telling CNN that the journalists' “irresponsibility” was putting his life in danger.

Jesse Powell, former CEO of Kraken, one of the world’s oldest crypto exchanges, mocked the HBO documentary’s conclusions, comparing them to the dubious claims of self-proclaimed Bitcoin creator Craig Wright, whose involvement was officially dismissed by the UK High Court in July.


Though Todd was one of Bitcoin’s early developers, he has never been a prime suspect in the media’s search for Satoshi. Figures like Hal Finney, Nick Szabo, and Adam Back are more frequently proposed as the possible creator of the world’s leading cryptocurrency, according to The New York Times. Like Todd, all of them have denied being Satoshi.


For instance, Reddit users have pointed to Todd’s 2001 correspondence with Hal Finney, who received the first Bitcoin transaction from Satoshi. A 2016 series of articles on Network23 delved deeper into the references to Todd, offering much more analysis than the HBO documentary. These articles suggested that Todd may have been part of a group of people working on Bitcoin.

“Based on the evidence, one could conclude that Peter Todd is likely Satoshi or worked with another person acting under the Satoshi pseudonym,” the Network23 authors claimed.


A Million Bitcoins


While Satoshi's identity doesn’t directly impact the functionality of the Bitcoin blockchain, some analysts see it as a potential risk to its price.

For example, in its quarterly reports, the American cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase mentions that unmasking Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity could be a risk to Bitcoin’s price, something investors should consider alongside inflation, monetary policy, and geopolitical events.


Analysts have long feared that if Satoshi were identified, there would be a risk of selling the vast amount of bitcoins they hold, potentially driving prices down. It is believed that the creator of the first cryptocurrency owns 1.1 million BTC, or nearly $70 billion at the price as of October 9th.

“If Bitcoin is backed by a faceless entity, it’s hard to imagine they’ll sell their coins. But if it’s a real person behind it, that drastically changes the perception of those untouched wallets,” Adam Morgan McCarthy, an analyst at Kaiko, told DL News.

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