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HBO’s documentary “Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery” suggested Bitcoin’s enigmatic founder, Satoshi Nakamoto, is developer Peter Todd. However, early Bitcoin dev Adam Back refutes this, saying the true creator isn’t likely someone currently suspected. Back emphasizes Bitcoin’s impersonal nature, and believes its lack of a central figure is a benefit. While dismissing speculations on Satoshi’s identity, Back stresses the need for knowledgeable persons to guide the documentary crew. He also points out that the documentary’s assertion of Todd as Satoshi, based on a 2010 forum post, is weak as Bitcoin was launched in 2008, but Todd only joined the development team in 2014.

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So, HBO’s show “Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery” made waves when it suggested that developer Peter Todd is the elusive creator of Bitcoin — a person (or persons) known as Satoshi Nakamoto. But Adam Back, one of the early devs in Bitcoin, says that’s probably not true.

In a chat with Cointelegraph’s Gareth Jenkinson, Back argued that the real creator of Bitcoin is probably someone who isn’t even on our list of suspects, let alone someone who was featured in the HBO doc. He said, “I’m fairly confident that it’s nobody that has been talked about because there are lots of clever people in the world who can program and understand cryptography.”

Back also went on to say that the beauty of Bitcoin is that it doesn’t have a central figure in charge. He thinks this is a big plus for the digital currency. Back compared Bitcoin’s uncontrolled structure to companies ruled by a public figure or a famous founder, who could possibly create problems and risks for the project. Commenting further he said, “Its mission is more about being adopted as a kind of global fabric and electronic money. And with no founder type of figure involved, it helps it feel more like a discovery than a startup or an invention. Right. So, I think that’s good for the concept of Bitcoin as a commodity.”

Although he doesn’t agree with the speculation around Satoshi’s true identity, Back underlined the need for folks who truly understand the mission of Bitcoin and its early developers to have a chat with the crew making the doc. He thinks that having these knowledgeable folks in the mix will keep the team from talking to unreliable sources, who might spread wrong ideas about Bitcoin or push their personal projects to the public and make bad impressions at a time when Bitcoin’s going mainstream.

People were a bit miffed when HBO pinpointed Peter Todd as Satoshi Nakamoto. Todd himself said this wasn’t true before the documentary was aired and after the film was released. The show’s argument that Todd is the brains behind Bitcoin hinges on a 2010 BitcoinTalk forum post. According to HBO, Todd accidentally responded to a Satoshi post from his own account, hinting that he was controlling both accounts.

Critics find this argument flimsy and say that Todd was simply responding to Satoshi in his usual way to clarify what Satoshi meant. Another major downside to HBO’s claim is that Bitcoin was launched in 2008, but Todd didn’t join the Bitcoin dev team until 2014 — years after Satoshi vanished. Also, back in 2008, Todd was an arts student at a university, making him an unlikely choice for inventing the game-changing Bitcoin protocol.

Source: Cointelegraph