Who is Peter Todd? Meet mystery man named as Bitcoin creator by new HBO documentary

A new documentary released by HBO has claimed to have unearthed the identity of the creator of Bitcoin as being Peter Todd. 

While the founder of the cryptocurrency firm has used the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto to keep their real identity secret since the publication of Bitcoin's white paper in 2008, the documentary allegedly uncovered his true identity. 

So, who exactly is Peter Todd and how is he associated with Bitcoin? 

Read on below for everything you need about the man who is alleged to have founded the cryptocurrency giant. 

Who is Peter Todd? 

Prior to Bitcoin's existence, Peter Todd, who is Canadian, worked as a Linux system support and service Starnix developer for three months in 2001 and held various other short-term roles between 2007 and 2008. 

Believed to be one of the few people who communicated with Nakamoto prior to his disappearance from online discourse in 2011, Todd was reportedly aged 23 when Nakamoto first published Bitcoin's white paper.

What is Peter Todd’s involvement with Bitcoin? 

Speaking on a podcast episode entitled The Essence of Bitcoin, which was released in 2019, Mr Todd revealed that he was just 15 years old when he began communicating with Hal Finney - an early contributor to Bitcoin - and Hashcash inventor Adam Back. 

Alongside his work at Bitcoin, Todd has held important roles elsewhere in the world of cryptocurrency, working as chief scientist at Mastercoin - a digital currency and communications protocol built on the Bitcoin blockchain - since 2014.

That same year, he also assumed the role of chief scientist at Dark Wallet, an open-source Bitcoin wallet.

In 2016, he set up cryptographic keys to secure wallets and blockchain protocol for Zcash - a cryptocurrency based on Bitcoin's codebase. 

He later called his involvement 'pointless' due to his belief that 'the Zcash trusted setup should be called a multiparty computation.'

In 2019, cryptographer Isis Lovecruft accused Todd of sexually assaulting her, which he denied and responded by filing a defamation suit against Lovecruft. 

This saw the case settled in 2020, with the suit dropped without finaicial compensation in exchange for Lovecruft issuing a statement clarifying that Todd never sexually assaulted her.

What do we know about Peter Todd’s family?

While Todd's career in the cryptocurrency industry has been well-documented, little is known about any of his relatives or incidents relating to his personal life. 

It is also unknown as to whether he is in a relationship or has any children. 

Why does the documentary think Peter Todd is Satoshi Nakamoto?  

Speculation that Peter Todd is Satoshi Nakamoto appears to stem from comments made by Todd in the documentary. 

In the closing scenes of the documentary, he says, 'Well yeah, I'm Satoshi Nakamoto' - apparently an expression of solidarity with the anonymous founder's privacy bid. 

To add to that, a filmmaker also says that his credentials and early involvement in Bitcoin 'lines up' with what we know about the elusive Satoshi.

Filmmaker Cullen Hoback told the New York Times he was convinced that Todd was behind the incredibly successfully cryptocurrency.

'I'm very convinced,' he told Kevin Roose.

'Based on the evidence, I believe Peter Todd was Satoshi. He may have let others in on the secret, but everything lines up with him.'

How has Peter Todd reacted to the claims? 

Prior to the airing and in the aftermath of the documentary's release, Todd denied using the alias. 

He posted a brief statement to X, formerly Twitter, which read: 'I'm not Satoshi'.