A Canadian software developer has denied claims that he’s the creator of Bitcoin, following the release of a documentary that claims to have solved the mystery surrounding the creator of the world’s most popular cryptocurrency.
‘Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery’, which premiered on HBO last Tuesday, alleges that Peter Todd, a renowned programmer from Toronto, is actually Satoshi Nakamoto, the founder of Bitcoin who launched the cryptocurrency in 2009.
Satoshi stopped in posting online communications and largely vanished from public view in 2011.
The 39-year-old Canadian, who was involved in Bitcoin’s development in its early stages, has denied the allegation many times.
“I’m not Satoshi,” Todd stated in an email to Time magazine. “I discovered Bitcoin first from reading the white paper, as I’ve said publicly many times,” he added.
Filmmaker Cullen Hoback told Time magazine he is “very, very confident” that Todd is Satoshi, stating, “When I created a list of reasons for and against him being Satoshi, the ‘against’ list was very short.”
In 2021, Tesla and Space X CEO Elon Musk claimed that the hyper-secretive cryptocurrency expert Nick Szabo could be the mind behind the world’s most popular cryptocurrency.
Another individual suspected to be the creator of Bitcoin is a 75-year-old Japanese-American computer engineer named Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto.
In 2014, he was the main focus of a detailed Newsweek magazine report, which claimed that it had identified the creator of Bitcoin.
The man, however, has denied any involvement in cryptocurrency.
If Satoshi were identified, he could face the risk of arrest for tax evasion and breaches of various financial regulations, especially considering the legal troubles faced by notable figures in the crypto industry, such as Changpeng Zhao.
The founder of Binance, the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange, received a four-month prison sentence in April after pleading guilty to breaking money-laundering regulations.