A filmmaker's quest to unmask Bitcoin's creator

WHO IS BITCOIN’S FOUNDER, SATOSHI NAKAMOTO? THE question has perplexed and excited cryptocurrency fans ever since Bitcoin was created by someone with that username in 2009.

- ANDREW R. CHOW

Fans have endlessly theorized, debated, and hunted for clues across the web, while investigative journalists have tried to unwind the mystery with no success. The answer matters because Satoshi’s ideas are imbued with near religious significance—and because whoever it is owns about $60 billion worth of Bitcoin, which would make them roughly the 25th richest person alive.

In October, the filmmaker Cullen Hoback released the documentary Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery on Max, a film that claims that Satoshi is Peter Todd, a 39-year-old Canadian Bitcoin developer, whose ideas and hot temper have earned him notoriety in the Bitcoin community.

In an email to TIME, Todd denied that he is Satoshi. And other early Bitcoiners expressed skepticism based on their knowledge of Todd’s coding ability and temperament. But Hoback is confident he’s come to the right conclusion. “People have a vision of who they want it to be: they want someone perfect, who matches their ideals,” Hoback says. “But this is where the evidence lies.”