Everyone wants to be the person who finds Satoshi Nakamoto. It’s the ultimate "white whale" for journalists. If you find the creator of Bitcoin, you’ve essentially found the architect of a $3 trillion economy. In late 2024, HBO released Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery, and the hype was massive. Director Cullen Hoback, the guy who supposedly unmasked the person behind QAnon, turned his lens toward the biggest enigma in finance.
But when the credits rolled, the crypto world didn't erupt in cheers. Instead, they mostly laughed.
Honestly, the documentary is a wild ride. It’s got private jets, abandoned bunkers in the Czech Republic, and awkward confrontations that make you want to curl up and hide. But did it actually solve the mystery? Well, that depends on whether you believe a "slip of the tongue" is better than actual cryptographic proof.
The Man in the Crosshairs: Peter Todd
The "big reveal" of Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery 2024 wasn't a name most casual observers expected. It wasn't Elon Musk. It wasn't the ghost of Hal Finney. Hoback pointed the finger at Peter Todd, a Canadian developer who has been around the Bitcoin scene forever.
Todd was 23 when the Bitcoin white paper dropped.
The theory basically hinges on a 2010 forum post. On the old Bitcointalk forum, Satoshi Nakamoto posted a technical fix. About an hour and a half later, Peter Todd replied with a correction that "finished the thought." Hoback argues that Todd simply forgot to switch accounts—that he was Satoshi replying to himself to fix a mistake.
It sounds kinda plausible if you say it fast enough.
But Todd’s response in the film was classic. He called the theory "ludicrous" to Hoback's face. He even pulled the "I am Spartacus" move, a common meme in the community where everyone says "I am Satoshi" to protect the real creator’s privacy. Since the documentary aired, Todd has been pretty vocal about how this "evidence" is basically just a director grasping at straws.
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Why the Evidence Feels Flimsy
If you’re going to claim someone is the most influential anonymous person in history, you need more than a forum post. Here’s what Hoback brought to the table:
- The British/Canadian English: Satoshi used British spellings like "favour." Todd is Canadian. Canadians use those spellings. (So do millions of other people, but hey).
- The Academic Schedule: Satoshi's posting patterns aligned with a student's schedule. Todd was in school at the time.
- The "Replace-by-Fee" Connection: Todd later developed a feature called Replace-by-Fee (RBF). The documentary suggests this was a fix for a "design flaw" Satoshi had been thinking about years earlier.
The problem? The Bitcoin community isn't buying it. Most developers point out that the technical "correction" Todd made was actually quite basic. It didn't require the genius-level foresight of Satoshi. It just required being a guy who knew how to code.
The Other Suspects in Money Electric
While the ending focuses on Todd, the film spends a lot of time with Adam Back. If you haven't heard of him, he’s the CEO of Blockstream and the inventor of Hashcash. Satoshi actually cited him in the Bitcoin white paper.
Back is a heavy hitter. He’s got the pedigree. He’s got the cypherpunk history.
In Money Electric, Back comes across as the elder statesman who knows more than he’s letting on. There are moments where he looks genuinely uncomfortable, especially when the camera lingers on him for just a second too long. But he’s denied being Satoshi for over a decade. He even joked in early 2025 that the rumors are "not crazy" but still maintains he’s just an early adopter who got a lucky head start.
Then there’s the tragedy of Len Sassaman.
Before the documentary aired, the internet was convinced it would name Sassaman. He was a brilliant cryptographer who passed away in 2011—right around the time Satoshi went silent. He had the skills, the location (Belgium/US), and the motive. The fact that the movie went with Todd instead of Sassaman was a huge curveball for the "betting markets" like Polymarket, where people lost millions on the wrong prediction.
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Why the Mystery Still Matters in 2026
You might wonder why we’re still obsessing over this. It’s not just about the "who." It’s about the 1.1 million Bitcoin.
Satoshi is estimated to hold about 5% of the total supply. That’s billions of dollars sitting in wallets that haven't moved in fifteen years. If Satoshi—whoever they are—suddenly logged in and started selling, the market would go into a total meltdown.
Coinbase even listed "the reveal of Satoshi's identity" as a risk factor in their SEC filings.
The mystery is the only thing keeping the "decentralized" dream pure. If there’s no leader, there’s no one to arrest. There’s no one to subpoena. There’s no one to blame when things go wrong. Bitcoin becomes a force of nature rather than a corporate product.
What You Should Take Away From the Film
If you watch Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery 2024, don't go into it expecting a "smoking gun." There is no DNA test for Satoshi. There is no secret key reveal.
What the film actually gives us is a portrait of the cypherpunk culture. It shows how a small group of outsiders, obsessed with privacy and cryptography, managed to build something that now rivals the US Dollar in some parts of the world.
Peter Todd might not be Satoshi. In fact, he probably isn't. But the documentary highlights a very real tension: the world wants a face to hold accountable, and Bitcoin’s creator remains the only person in history powerful enough to stay invisible.
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Moving Forward
If you're looking to dive deeper into the rabbit hole, here’s what to actually look at:
Check the Stylometry: Researchers like Jack Grieve have used linguistic analysis to compare Satoshi’s writings to others. It’s more scientific than "he used a British spelling."
Understand the "Block Size Wars": The documentary touches on this, but it’s the real reason the Bitcoin community is so divided. It explains why people like Peter Todd and Adam Back are both heroes and villains depending on who you ask.
Ignore the Hype: Every few years, a new "Satoshi" is found. Dorian Nakamoto (2014), Craig Wright (who was legally ruled NOT to be Satoshi in 2024), and now Peter Todd. Treat these reveals with skepticism unless you see a signed message from the Genesis Block.
The mystery of Satoshi isn't a problem to be solved; it's a feature of the system. By remaining anonymous, the creator gave the world a gift that doesn't belong to anyone.
To dig deeper into the technical side of this debate, you should look up the original Bitcointalk archives from 2010—specifically the threads involving "John Dillon" and the "Replace-by-Fee" discussions. This is where the documentary finds its most compelling, yet controversial, evidence. Reading the raw posts gives you a much clearer picture of whether Todd was truly "finishing Satoshi's sentences" or just participating in a standard technical debate.