HBO documentary ignites controversy with ‘disgusting’ Satoshi Nakamoto claim

HBO’s “Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery” documentary has made the bold claim that Canadian Bitcoin developer Peter Todd is Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin.

The documentary, produced by Cullen Hobak, presents several pieces of circumstantial evidence in its 100-minute runtime to support this conclusion.

Why HBO believes Todd is Satoshi

Todd, an early participant in the BTC community, is suggested to have used the Satoshi identity to enhance Bitcoin’s credibility.

According to Hobak, this pseudonym gave the impression that Bitcoin was created by an established cryptographer rather than “a student.” Todd was finishing his art degree around the time Bitcoin’s whitepaper was released in 2008.

Further, the documentary builds its case around circumstantial evidence, including Todd’s cryptic online posts.

One such post, where Todd described himself as “the world’s leading expert on how to sacrifice your Bitcoins,” was interpreted as a possible admission that he destroyed access to the estimated 1.1 million BTC attributed to Nakamoto.

Further speculation arose from claims that Todd once accidentally posted from Satoshi’s account on the BitcoinTalk forum in 2010.

Additionally, Todd’s advocacy for the controversial Replace-by-Fee (RBF) proposal is highlighted. The documentary suggests that only someone with intimate knowledge of Bitcoin’s original code—like Nakamoto—could have introduced such a technical feature.

Polymarket bettors were mostly wrong.

HBO’s theory caused considerable losses on the decentralized prediction platform Polymarket, which had seen users bet heavily on Len Sassaman, a cypherpunk who passed away in 2021, being Satoshi. As of Oct. 5, Sassaman held a 67% probability but saw his odds slip under 10% by Oct. 8.

In the leadup to the documentary, Nick Szabo, a well-known cryptographer, and Adam Back, CEO of Blockstream, emerged as frontrunners. However, the market ultimately concluded that Satoshi’s identity was either unknown or a combination of multiple individuals.

The Polymarket’s pool saw over $44 million in trading volume before the film’s release.

Community backlash

The documentary has been met with strong criticism from key figures in the crypto space. Todd himself denied Hoback’s claim in the documentary, calling it “ludicrous.” He also expressly stated on X:

“I’m not Satoshi.”

Pledditor, a well-known Bitcoin community member, criticized the documentary, arguing that all Nakamoto theories suffer from confirmation bias.

Pledditor explained that theorists often focus on a few notable figures, retroactively finding “coincidences” to support their claims. According to them, this methodology is flawed and results in stalking and unethical doxxing. He added:

They added:

“The likelihood that Satoshi was any one of these semi-public figures that regularly get accused of being Satoshi is pretty slim. That’s why if you don’t have concrete proof, you should probably keep your Satoshi Nakamoto identity theories to yourself. All it does is put a $60 billion dollar bounty on the back of what is (most likely) the wrong person.”

Ki Young Ju, the founder of CryptoQuant, went as far as to label the documentary “disgusting” for drawing its conclusion despite disagreement from Bitcoin experts. He likened it to promoting a flat-earth theory without scientific review.

BitMEX Research also dismissed the theory that Todd is Satoshi based on the 2010 BitcoinTalk post, calling the suggestion “ridiculous.” The firm stated that Todd’s post was simply a sarcastic reply to Satoshi, adding:

“There is zero reason to believe this was Satoshi.”

Meanwhile, Muneeb Ali, the CEO of Trust Machines and co-creator of the Stacks blockchain, stated:

“Just so we are all clear: peter todd is not satoshi. anyone who has seriously worked in the bitcoin industry knows this.”

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