During the two months I covered the Wright trial, several Satoshis also appeared in my inbox. “The world is not ready to learn about Satoshi Nakamoto, and it never will unless certain conditions are met,” one wrote in a garbled message.
In fact, I even met a potential Satoshi in person in the waiting area outside the courtroom. The man, who introduced himself as Satoshi, sat in the public gallery to hear the closing arguments. It didn't take long for him to fall asleep, his chin pressed to his chest. One of the other spectators anointed him 'Sleeptoshi'.
Many Bitcoiners welcome this strange crypto version of “I Am Spartacus,” preferring that the identity of Bitcoin's creator remain a mystery forever. Free from the overbearing influence of a founder, Bitcoin has developed under a system of pristine anarchy, they say, in which no one's opinion is worth more than any other. Everyone is Satoshi and no one is Satoshi.
“Satoshi's greatest gift to the world was Bitcoin,” Jameson Lopp, an early bitcoiner and founder of crypto custody company Casa, told me earlier this year. “His second greatest gift was disappearing.”
The main evidence provided in the documentary to support the theory that Todd created Bitcoin is a forum thread from December 2010 in which Todd “appears to finish Satoshi's sentences,” as Hoback puts it. The topic of that thread – a way to prioritize transactions based on the fee paid – is something that Todd would later build into Bitcoin as a contributing developer.
As supporting evidence, Hoback points to similarities in the grammar and syntax used by Todd and Satoshi, as well as the timing of Satoshi's communications, many of which were written during the summer, when Todd would not have had classes. (Todd disputes the characterization of his availability during the relevant summers.)
Todd is known in crypto circles for his contributions to the Bitcoin code base and his vocal advocacy for the technology as an alternative to cash – a supposedly surveillance-proof tool for the digital world. At a conference in 2023, I watched Todd, participating on a panel, tell the audience “fuck you” unless they exercised their right to make cash purchases that cannot be controlled by the government or bank. Todd has admitted that he previously tried to develop a technology similar to Bitcoin before Satoshi beat him to it.
