HBO's documentary “Cash Electrical: The Bitcoin Thriller” boldly claims that Canadian Bitcoin developer Peter Todd is Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin.
The documentary, produced by Cullen Hobak, presents a number of items of circumstantial proof over its 100-minute operating time to assist this conclusion.
Why HBO thinks Todd is Satoshi
Todd, an early participant within the BTC neighborhood, reportedly used the Satoshi identification to spice up Bitcoin's credibility.
In line with Hobak, this pseudonym made it seem that Bitcoin was created by a longtime cryptographer relatively than “a scholar.” Todd was ending his artwork research on the time the Bitcoin white paper was revealed in 2008.
Moreover, the documentary builds its case round circumstantial proof, together with Todd's cryptic on-line messages.
One among these messages, by which Todd described himself as “the world's main knowledgeable on the right way to sacrifice your Bitcoins”, was interpreted as a attainable admission that he had destroyed entry to the 1.1 million BTC estimates attributed to Nakamoto.
Additional hypothesis arose from claims that Todd unintentionally posted from Satoshi's account on the BitcoinTalk discussion board in 2010.
Moreover, Todd's advocacy for the controversial Payment Substitution (RBF) proposal is highlighted. The documentary means that solely somebody with deep information of Bitcoin's unique code, like Nakamoto, might have launched such a technical characteristic.
Polymarket punters had been principally improper.
HBO's concept induced appreciable losses on decentralized prediction platform Polymarket, which had seen its customers betting closely on Len Sassaman, a cypherpunk who died in 2021, being Satoshi. As of October 5, Sassaman held a 67% likelihood, however noticed his odds drop beneath 10% on October 8.
Earlier than the documentary, Nick Szabo, a well known cryptographer, and Adam Again, CEO of Blockstream, emerged because the frontrunners. Nonetheless, the market in the end concluded that Satoshi's identification was both unknown or a mixture of a number of people.
The Polymarket pool recorded a buying and selling quantity of over $44 million earlier than the movie's launch.
Group response
The documentary acquired heavy criticism from key figures within the crypto area. Todd himself denied Hoback's claims within the documentary, calling them “ridiculous.” He additionally acknowledged expressly about X:
“I'm not Satoshi.”
Pledditor, a well known member of the Bitcoin neighborhood, criticized the documentary, saying that each one of Nakamoto's theories endure from affirmation bias.
Pledditor defined that theorists typically deal with just a few notable figures, retroactively discovering “coincidences” to assist their claims. They are saying this technique is flawed and ends in stalking and unethical doxxing. He added:
They added:
“The chance that Satoshi is one in all these semi-public figures who’re usually accused of being Satoshi is sort of slim. That is why, in the event you don't have concrete proof, it’s best to most likely hold your Satoshi Nakamoto identification theories to your self. All this does is put a $60 billion bounty on the again of what’s (more than likely) the improper individual. »
Ki Younger Ju, the founding father of CryptoQuant, went as far as to name the documentary “disgusting” for drawing its conclusions regardless of disagreement amongst Bitcoin consultants. He likened this to selling a flat Earth concept with out scientific scrutiny.
BitMEX Analysis additionally dismissed the speculation that Todd is Satoshi primarily based on the 2010 BitcoinTalk put up, calling the suggestion “ridiculous.” The corporate stated Todd's put up was merely a sarcastic response to Satoshi, including:
“There's no motive to consider it was Satoshi.”
In the meantime, Muneeb Ali, CEO of Belief Machines and co-creator of the Stacks blockchain, stated:
“Simply to be clear: Peter Todd isn’t Satoshi. anybody who has significantly labored within the bitcoin trade is aware of this.
