HBO Names Bitcoin Developer Peter Todd as Its Creator: Who Is He and What's Wrong with the Film
Over the past 15 years, Bitcoin, created by an anonymous person or group hiding under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, has grown into an asset worth over $1.2 trillion.
However, the identity of Satoshi remains one of the biggest mysteries, not only in the cryptocurrency community but beyond.
Interest in Satoshi Nakamoto's identity is fueled by the assumption that the anonymous creator still has access to around 1.1 million bitcoins, mined during the early stages of Bitcoin's development. At current rates, these coins are worth almost $70 billion.
The creators of the HBO documentary *Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery* have identified a potential figure behind the creation of the world’s largest cryptocurrency — Peter Todd.
Since Bitcoin’s code is open-source, anyone can contribute to its development. Todd was one of the most active and well-known contributors in the early years of Bitcoin's existence.
We’ve reviewed HBO’s arguments and other known facts about Peter Todd to get a clearer picture of Bitcoin’s potential creator.
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Who Is Peter Todd?
Peter Todd, born March 14, 1985, is one of the early developers of Bitcoin’s protocol and an applied cryptography consultant. Since the early days of the cryptocurrency, Todd has been considered a potential candidate for Satoshi Nakamoto.
Despite the hype surrounding HBO's documentary, no new arguments were presented in the film. Most of the insights had already been published and discussed on forums since at least 2016.
Todd worked not only on Bitcoin but also on "Bitcoin 2.0" projects like Counterparty (the first version of NFTs on Bitcoin), Mastercoin (one of the first applications built on the Bitcoin blockchain), and Colored Coins (an extension of Bitcoin that laid the groundwork for tokenization). He was also involved in launching the privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash in 2016.
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What’s Wrong with the Film?
Prominent members of the crypto community criticized HBO’s documentary for its speculative nature and "irresponsible" journalism. One such critic was Cobra, the administrator of BitcoinTalk, the oldest Bitcoin forum.
A forum post was one of the key pieces of evidence used by the film’s creators. They claimed that Todd logged into the forum under the wrong account, believing he was posting as Satoshi.
Other points raised by the film include Todd's use of British-Canadian spelling, which is similar to Satoshi’s writing style, and the timing of Todd’s activity on BitcoinTalk, which coincided with the introduction of the "replace by fee" feature—a concept Todd discussed with Satoshi on the forum.
Todd himself was displeased with the film's conclusions, telling CNN that the journalists’ "irresponsibility" puts his life in danger.
BitcoinTalk, founded in 2009, is the oldest and largest internet forum dedicated to blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. It became one of the most popular platforms for Bitcoin developers to communicate.
Jesse Powell, former CEO of Kraken, one of the world's oldest crypto exchanges, mocked HBO’s conclusions, comparing them to claims made by Craig Wright, a self-proclaimed Bitcoin creator whose involvement was officially debunked by London’s High Court in July.
On Reddit, users pointed to Todd’s correspondence with another potential Satoshi candidate, Hal Finney, who received the first-ever Bitcoin transaction from the creator. A series of 2016 articles on Network23 analyzed nearly all references to Todd, offering a much deeper examination of his role than HBO’s film, even suggesting Todd could be part of a group that worked on Bitcoin.
"Based on the presented evidence, it’s likely that Peter Todd is either Satoshi or worked with someone using the Satoshi pseudonym," the authors of Network23 concluded.
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HBO to Air a Film About Satoshi Nakamoto: Who Could Be Bitcoin’s Creator?
While Todd was one of Bitcoin's early developers, he has never been the main suspect in the media’s hunt for Satoshi. Figures like Hal Finney, Nick Szabo, and Adam Back have more often been suggested as possible creators of the cryptocurrency, according to *The New York Times*. Like Todd, they all deny being Satoshi.
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A Million Bitcoins
Although the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto doesn’t affect Bitcoin’s technical functionality, some analysts see it as a potential financial risk.
For example, the U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has flagged the de-anonymization of Satoshi’s identity as a risk to Bitcoin’s price in its quarterly reports, alongside inflation, monetary policy, and geopolitical events.
Analysts have long feared that if Satoshi is identified, there could be a risk of those bitcoins being sold, which could drive down the price. It’s assumed the creator of Bitcoin controls 1.1 million BTC, or nearly $70 billion as of October 9.
"If Bitcoin’s creator remains anonymous, it’s hard to imagine they’ll sell their coins. But if they’re revealed to be a real person, that changes how we view their untouched wallets," said Adam Morgan McCarthy, an analyst at Kaiko, in an interview with *DL News*.
