Money Electric, an HBO documentary directed by Cullen Hoback has been making headlines recently in the wake of a shocking revelation. For years the name of the original founder of Bitcoin has been shrouded in mystery. Money Electric has made the astounding claim of finally putting a face to the elusive Satoshi Nakamoto, the fabled founder of Bitcoin.
Money Electric claims that thirty-nine-year-old Canadian software designer Peter Todd and Satoshi Nakamoto are one and the same. The mystery and legend of Bitcoin's obscure founder has been making the rounds ever since the discovery of the transaction medium back in 2009. It has long been held by Bitcoin enthusiasts that Satsoshi Nakamoto is the erratic founder.
Peter Todd himself took to social media to publicly denounce the claims and stated that he is not Satoshi Nakamoto, hours before Money Electric premiered. On the other hand, the truth of the claims made by director Cullen Hoback has been contested by several members of the Bitcoin community, who instead believe that the reasons in support of Todd being Nakamoto are dubious and slim at best.
Here's everything we know about Peter Todd, the man claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto.
Money Electric: Peter Todd's details revealed
Peter Todd is a thirty-nine-year-old software developer who originally hails from Canada. Although he might have categorically stated that he is not Satoshi Nakamoto, Todd has been involved in the genesis and development of Bitcoin.
According to his X (formerly known as Twitter) profile, he describes himself as a cryptochronomancer. He is also one of the earliest developers of Bitcoin and other related software deployed in blockchain transactions. He has made several additions to the Bitcoin network that have had a lasting impact and are still in use today.
One such example is the feature he introduced back in 2014, known as replace-by-fee or RBF which enables Bitcoin users to replace old transactions and supplement them with new ones which in turn offer a higher fee. It is further established that Todd is one of the handful of people who had the privilege of chatting online with Satoshi Nakamoto before the latter's disappearance in 2011.
Todd's interest in cryptocurrency was first sparked when he was a teenager. He had met with Hashcash inventor Adam Back and notable Bitcoin contributor Hal Finney and this proved to be of significant influence in his later life. A report by UK Finance stated that Todd bought his first Bitcoin when its price was as low as twenty cents.
Todd completed his graduation from the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto. He had a brief working stint as a Starnix and Linux system support developer before joining Gedex Inc. as an Electronics Designer. Todd currently devotes his time as the chief scientist at digital currency and communications protocol Mastercoin and the open-source Bitcoin wallet known as Dark Wallet.
Nevertheless, despite Todd's denunciation of the claims made by the HBO documentary, Hoback still remains convinced that he is indeed Satoshi Nakamoto.
Money Electric: The Bitcoin community disagrees with director Cullen Hoback
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Director Hoback's confidence doesn't seem to have made much difference to the Bitcoin community who believe that the HBO documentary doesn't conclusively establish Satoshi Nakamoto's true identity.
The community has asserted that the documentary's crux of evidence lies in an obscure 2010 Bitcointalk post and a few chats exchanged between Todd and Satoshi Nakamoto and stated that the method of elimination employed by Todd to reveal the true identity is indeed faulty.
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