The New York Times Claims It Finally Unmasked Satoshi Nakamoto (This Time for Real)

The real identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, has remained one of the internet’s biggest mysteries ever since the cryptocurrency launched in 2009. Over the years, various names have been floated, but none have really stuck. Now, The New York Times says it may have finally cracked the case. In a new investigative report, John Carreyrou, the author of “Bad Blood,” the bestselling exposé on Theranos, argues that Satoshi Nakamoto is actually Adam Back, a 55-year-old British cryptographer and prominent Bitcoin figure. Carreyrou writes that his suspicions were first sparked while watching the 2024 HBO documentary Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery. The film suggests that Canadian software developer Peter Todd could be Nakamoto, but Carreyrou wasn’t convinced. Instead, he zeroed in on Back during a moment in the documentary when he appeared to tense up after being asked whether he was Satoshi. Carreyrou then spent the following years searching for ties between Back and Satoshi. Among his findings was that Satoshi cited Back and Hashcash, a statistical puzzle-solving system Back invented, in Bitcoin’s original white paper. The system is used in the mining of bitcoins. Thi