The New York Times released an investigative report on Wednesday, arguing that Adam Back is most likely the person who created Hashcash and used the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto to create Bitcoin.
Back told Cointelegraph, he was simply referring Cointelegraph reporters to Back post X has previously rejected similar attempts at identifying him as Satoshi. Back said in the blog post that he was not Satoshi and that he added that “was early in laser focus on the positive societal implications of cryptography, online privacy and electronic cash, hence my ~1992 onwards active interest in applied research on ecash, privacy tech on cypherpunks list which led to hashcash and other ideas.”
It was a thorough investigation. conducted John Carreyrou was a French American journalist and investigative reporter best known as the person who exposed Theranos’ fraud. He claims in the report that Back (who was cited by Nakamoto as a Bitcoin author) actively discussed electronic money for many years and then disappeared just when Bitcoin appeared.BTCSatoshi, the creator of Bitcoin ( ), appeared and then vanished.
This story revives an old mystery surrounding Bitcoin by placing one of its earliest, most influential cryptographers at the heart of a renewed attempt to find Satoshi. However, the case is circumstantial and lacks any cryptographic proof.
In addition, the investigation relied on stylometric analyses to argue that Back’s style shared many similarities with Satoshi, such as formatting quirks, hyphenation and similar technical terms. It was noted that the analysis in the report is not conclusive.
Only Back hyphenated messages were posted by mailing list participants on Cypherpunks mailing lists. “proof-of-work” Satoshi also mentioned the Russian WebMoney currency, according to the report. Back, likewise, was only one of two people to have written “partial pre-image,” Mirroring Satoshi’s usage and the sole one to discuss “burning the money” for digital coins.
Related: Bitcoin miner wallets awaken after over 15 years — Is this Satoshi?
Adam Back’s Career Mirrors Satoshi’s Path
Carreyrou says that Back’s professional history reinforces the suspicions of his identity as the Bitcoin inventor. Carreyrou noted that Back initially avoided Bitcoin, but in 2013, he became more involved, cofounding Blockstream and poaching developers, raising $1 billion.
“It all seemed consistent with what Satoshi might do if he decided to reappear under the cover of his real name and take back the reins of his creation,” The report claimed.
Back repeatedly and consistently denied being Satoshi. “I’m not. But also the documentary will presumably be wrong, as no one knows who Satoshi is,” He wrote In response to a HBO documentary, in 2024 identified Peter Todd Todd is the pseudonymous Bitcoin creator. Todd also denied it at the time.
Related: Disappearing Satoshi statue in Lugano took 21 months to create, says artist
Crypto Community remains Skeptical
Carreyrou’s new claims have been questioned by the crypto community. Jameson Lopp co-founder, chief security and privacy officer of self-custody firm Casa. said Nakamoto “can’t be caught with stylometric analysis.”
Carreyrou acknowledged the lack of definitive proof in the case, saying that cryptographic evidence was the real smoking gun. wrote On X.
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Source: cointelegraph.com
