Probe into bitcoin founder ties identity to Blockstream CEO Adam Back

A report in The New York Times says it has discovered the identity of the pseudonymous creator of bitcoin known as Satoshi Nakamoto.

The article identifies 55-year-old Adam Back — the CEO of Blockstream, a prominent cryptographer and early figure in the bitcoin community — as the strongest candidate to be the founder of the revolutionary digital currency system, introduced in 2008. Back has denied various claims over the years that he is Satoshi Nakamoto and did so again Wednesday in a string of posts on X.

The cryptocurrency community has always maintained that the mystery isn’t a financially material one and that, even if proven, the founder’s identity would have little impact on bitcoin fundamentals. Bitcoin, they say, has been independently operated for more than 10 years and it’s perhaps better for investors that it remain that way.

“Today’s New York Times story is built on circumstantial interpretation of select details and speculation, not definitive cryptographic proof,” Blockstream said in a statement. “Dr. Adam Back has consistently stated that he is not Satoshi Nakamoto.”

“Ultimately, it doesn’t prove anything,” Back said in the Times article. “And I will reassure you, it’s really not me.”

John Carreyrou — the author of the investigation, who rose to fame after breaking open the Theranos story in 2015 — points to similar phrasing, spelling and grammar between Back’s and Satoshi’s posts in early online forums, overlapping timelines of online activity and Back’s early work on Hashcash, a proof-of-work system crucial for bitcoin mining.

The yearlong investigation is far from the first attempt to unveil Nakamoto’s identity. Back is considered one of the more plausible candidates along with computer scientists Hal Finney and Nick Szabo.

The 2024 HBO documentary “Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery” identified developer Peter Todd as the bitcoin creator.

The price of bitcoin was recently up 4.4% to $71,732.79 on Wednesday as part of a broad market relief rally tied to the U.S.-Iran ceasefire.