The Internet’s biggest secret still stands. The trailer for the HBO documentary Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery promised new revelations concerning Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym used by the creator of bitcoin, the queen of cryptocurrencies. Broadcast on Tuesday, October 8, in the evening, in the United States, the program has indeed given birth to a name: Peter Todd. The problem is that the latter immediately denied it, and that there is no irrefutable evidence to support this discovery. This thesis is based, among other things, on publications posted on the Bitcoin Talk forum, where the “crypto” community took shape. Peter Todd is not only very involved with Satoshi Nakamoto, but one day in December 2010, he responded directly to one of the elusive coder’s messages… as if he was filling in an oversight, by adding clarification. Enough, according to the author of the report, Cullen Hoback, to confront the Canadian developer about a possible blunder on its part. Did he simply forget to change his nickname? Similarities in writing styles between the two people also raised questions. A few days after this exchange, Nakamoto ceased his public participation on Bitcoin Talk. Before disappearing definitively, during the year 2011.
Peter Todd, 39, had fun with the situation Tuesday evening, on X (formerly Twitter) where he is followed by no less than 180,000 people. “I guess I should run for president now…”. However, should we believe his denials? Greater mysteries have been solved with less. The thesis of the “blunder” is all the more attractive since a host of investigators have already searched the planet to find the solution, going so far as to ring the doors of all the real Satoshi Nakamotos on the planet, without ever succeeding. . Sometimes the simplest idea turns out to be the right one. But the doubt remains too great to draw definitive conclusions.
The “strength of bitcoin”
Todd was only around twenty years old at the time of the publication of Satoshi Nakamoto’s “white paper”, presenting bitcoin and its protocol, at the end of 2008. Which many consider insane given the technical complexity of the protocol . His presence on the forum with Satoshi Nakamoto and his expertise are nothing exceptional either. The list of members, and more broadly of the “Cypherpunks”, a group of a few hundred cryptography specialists very active between the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 2000s, has often been presented as the key to the enigma. Among them, Nick Szabo, Adam Back, Hal Finney, Wei Dai and Len Sassaman, were presented as faithful builders of bitcoin. And potential Satoshis. Maybe even collectively. “We are all Satoshi,” said Peter Todd, mischievously, in front of the HBO camera.
A mantra that the crypto sphere often repeats. The anonymity of its creator “is one of the strengths of Bitcoin, and it must remain so”, commented on X, Alexandre Stachtchenko, director of strategy at Paymium, a French personality very involved in the promotion of cryptocurrency. This secrecy is consistent with the decentralized aspect of bitcoin, based on a public blockchain that can be consulted by everyone, not belonging to any public or private entity. It is also the case with the online confidentiality so dear to Cypherpunks – transactions are carried out under an address serving as a pseudonym.
This mystery also reinforces the comparison with gold: bitcoin is sometimes considered its digital version, a store of value. Like the precious metal, bitcoin belongs to whoever buys or mines it. A verb also used for those whose job is to validate transactions, and who are paid by the system… in bitcoin. A revelation of Nakamoto’s identity, others believe, could confront him with legal or political problems, given the sulfurous use that is sometimes made of it. Or deliver it to the appetite of thieves and hackers. The personal fortune of the father of bitcoin, given the units he owns in his digital wallets, would exceed 65 billion dollars. De facto placing him among the greatest riches in the world.
The slightest movement in one’s portfolio could also trigger an earthquake in the ecosystem. Coinbase, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has identified Nakamoto’s reappearance – intentional or otherwise – as a “risk” to its business.
Religion
But the mystery and the renunciation of this immense wealth have above all given rise to a mystique which unites the community today. “The creation of Bitcoin is what really matters, the technology has surpassed any individual,” a member of the Bitcoin Talk forum wrote with devotion this Wednesday. Works – No Crypto: How Bitcoin bewitched the planetOr Number Go Uprespectively signed by journalists Nastasia Hadjadji and Zeke Faux, explored the tenuous links between religion and the queen of cryptos. His “faithful” gather around interpretations of the rare messages left by Nakamoto, appearing on social networks with lasers in their eyes, or halos around their heads. “Over the past decade, cryptocurrency has become a broad movement with its own language and symbols, driven by a constellation of prophets with varied gospels, who treat both external and internal opposition as blasphemy and promise to the followers that they form the intellectual vanguard for a bright new future Does this sound familiar?” asked one article. Financial Times from September 2021. The mystery surrounding Satoshi Nakamoto gives him the image of a selfless visionary. A simple ferryman, a guide, from whom emanates a Christ-like aura. A fundamentally good person. Which in truth everyone ignores.
The intense dive into his past, his personal history, his psychecould in reality destabilize the structure based in part – like a currency – on trust. The thick veil around the creator also tends to minimize criticism of the most famous of cryptocurrencies, in competition with hundreds of others, sometimes more innovative, ethical, ecological, in their operation. Without a thinking head for almost 15 years, Bitcoin has the largest trading volume and the greatest valuation, currently at 57,000 euros per unit. Making it – by far – the most influential of cryptocurrencies. A characteristic that it owes to the scarcity organized by Satoshi Nakamoto, who established a limit of 21 million bitcoins in circulation. But also, probably, to its unshakable myth. Forever ? The more time passes, the more the chances of an “appearance” of Satoshi diminish. “Suspects”, or at least people who had contact with the Nakamoto such as Len Sassaman and Hal Finney, died. Making each upcoming quest more perilous than the last.
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