Adam Back, a British figure in the world of cryptocurrencies, denounced “confirmation bias” and “coincidences” on X.
Has the identity of the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto, father of Bitcoin, finally been revealed? After 18 years of popular investigation, theNew York Times has published a lengthy investigation in which he assures that behind this Japanese-sounding nickname hides, in reality, a Briton: Adam Back. This cryptographer, aged 55, is already a figure in the world of cryptocurrencies, since he is the founder and boss of Blockstream, a blockchain company.
L’enquête duÂNew York Timeswritten by Pulitzer Prize winner John Carreyrou, spanned a long year. The journalist says he began investigating after the broadcast in 2024 of an HBO documentary, entitled Money Electric : The Bitcoin Mystery, et ddéjí consecrated the search for the individual derrière Satoshi Nakamoto.
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At the time, the documentary’s director, Cullen Hoback, met with various suspects, including Adam Back, in Riga, Latvia. His attitude, filmed, then challenged the journalist from New York Times. “At the mention of his own name, Mr. Back tensed, vigorously denied being Satoshi, and asked that the conversation remain discreet. Having met my share of liars and developed a certain mastery of their cues, Mr. Back’s demeanor – his canny eyes, his awkward laugh, the jerky movement of his left hand – struck me as fishy.”
A particular vocabulary
The Pulitzer Prize then embarked on vast investigations, searching extensively and extensively through emails made public, archive databases and numerous publications. In particular, he analyzed correspondence from «Nakamoto», including one with a Finnish programmer, Martti Malmi, also involved in the creation of bitcoin, before discovering that Satoshi was mixing “British spelling with American expressions”.
Among the words that Satoshi used particularly often, the terms «other», “backup”, «human friendly», «on principle», «burning the money», «hand tuned», «a menace to the network»… “Using the search function on X, I checked to see if any of the people often cited as Satoshi used these terms. Only one person employed almost all of them: Mr. Back”écrit le New York Times.
Interest in anarchism
John Carreyrou also discovers that Satoshi was part of the Cypherphunk, a group of anarchists from the 1990s and specialized in data encryption… just like the cryptographer. “More importantly, Mr. Back had invented Hashcash, a statistical puzzle-solving system that Satoshi had borrowed for bitcoin mining. Satoshi cited Mr. Back and Hashcash in his white paper.continues John Carreyrou.
After interviewing six former colleagues of Adam Back, the journalist met him for the first time in Las Vegas as part of a “investigation into bitcoin”and gets to know him, particularly discussing his past and his interest in the defense of human rights and “protecting files from government surveillance”. “Mr. Back’s master’s hobby involves the same cryptographic technique that Satoshi reused.”notes John Carreyrou.
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“I don’t know who Satoshi is either.”
The investigation, particularly detailed, strings together clues and so-called pieces of evidence, and also cites a disturbing element: while the journalist from New York Times confronts him in El Salvador and questions him about a quote from Satoshi (“I’m better with code than words”), Adam Back commits a slip, and answers: “However, I chatted a lot about these lists”. “For a few seconds, Mr. Back dropped the mask and transformed into Satoshi.”according to Carreyrou.
After the publication of the investigation, Adam Back reacted on X on April 8, insisting that he “It wasn’t Satoshi”evoking “confirmation bias” and a series of “coincidences”. “I also don’t know who Satoshi is, and I think it’s a good thing for Bitcoin that no one knows, because it allows Bitcoin to be seen as a mathematically rare digital commodity.”
