The New York Times published an investigation on Wednesday naming Adam Back, the British cryptographer who invented Hashcash, as the most likely person behind the Satoshi Nakamoto pseudonym used by Bitcoin‘s creator. The report was authored by John Carreyrou, a French-American investigative journalist widely recognized for exposing the Theranos fraud. Back promptly rejected the claim, directing reporters to a post on X in which he stated clearly that he is not Satoshi.
In his post, Back explained that his long-standing interest in cryptography and digital cash dates to around 1992, when he became actively engaged in applied research on electronic cash and online privacy through the Cypherpunks mailing list. He described that work as the foundation for Hashcash and related ideas, framing his early involvement as a natural outgrowth of his focus on the societal benefits of cryptography. He has made similar denials on previous occasions when comparable attempts were made to link him to the Nakamoto identity.
Carreyrou’s investigation draws on several lines of circumstantial evidence. It notes that Back was cited in Nakamoto’s Bitcoin white paper and had spent years discussing electronic cash before going quiet around the time Bitcoin emerged, only to resurface after Satoshi disappeared from public view. The report also applies stylometric analysis, pointing to shared formatting habits, hyphenation patterns, and overlapping technical language between Back’s writing and Satoshi’s communications, though the report stops short of presenting this as conclusive proof.
Among participants on the Cypherpunks, Cryptography, and Hashcash mailing lists, the investigation claims that Back was the only person to hyphenate “proof-of-work” and reference the obscure Russian digital currency WebMoney, both of which appear in Satoshi’s emails. Back was also one of only two individuals to use the phrase “partial pre-image,” mirroring Satoshi’s usage, and the sole participant to discuss “burning the money” as a mechanism for digital coins. The report presents these linguistic overlaps as notable but not definitive.
The investigation further points to Back’s professional trajectory as consistent with the behavior of someone who might be Satoshi. Carreyrou notes that Back initially kept his distance from Bitcoin before rapidly engaging in 2013, co-founding Blockstream, recruiting prominent developers, and helping raise over one billion dollars. The report suggests this pattern aligns with what Satoshi might do upon deciding to re-enter the space under his real identity, though Back has offered no indication that this interpretation is accurate.
Reaction within the cryptocurrency community has been largely skeptical. Jameson Lopp, co-founder and chief security officer at self-custody firm Casa, argued that Nakamoto cannot be identified through stylometric analysis alone. Carreyrou himself acknowledged on X that the evidence does not constitute definitive proof, stating that only cryptographic evidence would serve as a genuine smoking gun. The investigation therefore leaves the question of Satoshi’s identity unresolved.
This is not the first time a prominent figure has been publicly named as Bitcoin’s creator. An HBO documentary in 2024 pointed to Peter Todd as the pseudonymous founder, a claim Todd also denied at the time. Back referenced that episode in his own denial, noting that no one actually knows who Satoshi is and suggesting the current documentary would similarly fall short of the truth. The mystery surrounding Bitcoin’s origins remains one of the most enduring unsolved questions in the history of digital finance.
Originally reported by CoinTelegraph.
