For over a decade, the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto (the pseudonymous author of the bitcoin white paper) has been one of tech's greatest unsolved mysteries. Now, a years-long New York Times investigation claims to have cracked it, pointing to Adam Back, a London-born computer scientist and veteran of the 1990s cypherpunk movement.
Reporter John Carreyrou built his case by combing through decades of internet postings, running AI analysis on writing styles, and tracking forum activity, noting that Back went mysteriously quiet on cryptography forums precisely when Satoshi became active. When Carreyrou confronted Back at a bitcoin conference in El Salvador, he described him reddening, shifting uncomfortably, and at one point apparently speaking as if he were Satoshi himself.
Back flatly denied it on social media, calling the evidence "a combination of coincidence and similar phrases from people with similar experience." Experts are divided. A UCL professor said there was "no smoking gun," while another researcher argued Satoshi was likely a small group of people, not a single individual. Polymarket gamblers were less cautious: one put the odds at 99% it was him (as reported by The Guardian).
The stakes are enormous. If Back is Nakamoto, he holds around 1.1 million bitcoins (worth tens of billions of pounds) a fortune he would be legally required to disclose to the SEC, as it could move markets on its own. Back, who runs a bitcoin treasury firm, signed off his denial with the line: "We are all Satoshi."
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