Who Is Satoshi Nakamoto? The New York Times Investigation Pointing to Adam Back

One of the great mysteries of our time is who actually invented Bitcoin. We have the name: Satoshi Nakamoto. The problem is, we don't know who Nakamoto is. Until now. Possibly. Maybe.

If you google "Who is Satoshi Nakamoto", you'll fall down a rabbit hole of theories and possibilities. Nakamoto is, after all, a master of staying hidden and anonymous.

There are no clear indications of who's behind the alias, and the hints that do exist seem to raise more questions than answers. To many people's frustration, Nakamoto disappeared without at trace in April 2011.

It's mystery shrouding Nakamoto has gone so far that there are even claims circulating that Jeffrey Epstein(!) is the man behind Bitcoin. That particular rumour gained so much attention that the news agency Reuters ran a fact-check on the claims. In an alleged email from the deceased sex offender to Ghislaine Maxwell, his partner, Epstein admits that he is Nakamoto.

That email turned out to be fake.

Mystery solved?

So it was with great curiosity that I read the investigation from the New York Times. In it, journalist John Carreyrou claims to have figured out, once and for all, who's behind the legendary Satoshi Nakamoto – who is also believed to hold a fortune of a whopping $118 billion.

Carreyrou spent a year digging through emails, forums, and other sources in an attempt to link Nakamoto to a specific name: the cryptographer Adam Back.

Cryptography is the field of information security – how to make sure unauthorised parties can't access communications. What's interesting is that Back has been a leading figure in the development of cryptocurrency. In 1997, he developed Hashcash, a system not entirely unlike the one used in Bitcoin.

Adam Back also has close ties to Satoshi Nakamoto. He was one of the two first people to ever receive an email from Nakamoto – and the suspicion that Back might be the creator of Bitcoin has been circulated since 2016.

The hunt for Mr. Back

I'm impressed by John Carreyrou's persistence and sheer determination in the hunt for the man behind Bitcoin. In an attempt to untangle the mystery, Carreyrou read through vast amounts of text written by Nakamoto. He then used the search function on the platform X to cross-reference word choices and grammar. That process left him with one name: Adam Back.

And the clues are plentiful, if we're to believe Carreyrou. Among them is Satoshi Nakamoto's date of birth. Adam Back is known for his opposition to regulations on the export of cryptographic technology. In 1997, he printed T-shirts with a picture of an encryption algorithm on them.

So when Nakamoto listed 5 April 1975 as his date of birth, Carreyrou takes it as a sign that they both share a fondness for symbolic protest. Let me explain the birthday:

In 1933, on the fifth of April, President Franklin D. Roosevelt banned private ownership of gold. This allowed the president to devalue the dollar during the Great Depression in the wake of the 1929 stock market crash.

And when was the ban lifted? 1975!

Clues or wishful thinking?

Carreyrou's article continues like this, with one far-fetched clue after another. Another example he brings up is that both Back and Nakamoto point to the fact that traditional financial institutions and banks are more energy-intensive to run than Bitcoin. The claim is correct, but the idea that two people, ten years apart, using the same argument can be taken seriously – it can't.

It's like claiming that the leader of the Norwegian Centre Party, Trygve Slagsvold Vedum, and the "no queen" of the 1994 EU referendum, Anne Enger, are the same person. They've both used the argument of protecting the fisherman as a reason for Norway to stay out of the European Union – 32 years apart.

But even if the clues can get a bit thin, it's entertaining reading. Carreyrou manages to convince you at times. Then the doubt creeps back in, especially when he pulls out yet another example:

Both Nakamoto and Back have written that they are "better with code than with words" in emails. I'm inclined to think that quote isn't all that unusual in a circle full of cryptography enthusiasts.

But Carreyrou has managed to breathe new life into the great, mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto. In the wake of the article – which firmly lands on Adam Back being the Bitcoin man himself – Back has had to come out and deny the claims. On X, he writes:

I am not Satoshi, but I was early with a laser focus on the positive societal implications of cryptography, online privacy, and electronic money.

As always, I ask you to make up your own mind. Is John Carreyrou right? Is the mystery solved?

One thing's for certain: I'm still not entirely sold on Bitcoin.