A report in the New York Times said Blockstream CEO Adam Back is most likely the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin. 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 for the founder of the revolutionary digital currency system, introduced in 2008. Back himself has denied various claims over the years that he is Nakamoto, and did so again Wednesday in a string of posts on X. The crypto community has always maintained that the mystery isn’t a financially material one and that even if proven, their identity would have little impact on bitcoin fundamentals.
“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 year-long 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. Most recently, the 2024 HBO documentary “Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery” identified developer Peter Todd as the bitcoin creator.
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