Spoiler Alert: If you haven't seen the Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery on HBO and do not want to see spoilers, please stop reading here. This post will contain spoilers.
A few days ago I was excited to see HBO created the documentary about bitcoin's founder Satoshi Nakomoto. There was a good amount of hype around the documentary's claim that it was going to reveal the true identity of the creator of the bitcoin. I had to watch it, and I did. After watching the documentary I have mixed feeling about it. Let's start with good, bad, and ugly.
The good about the documentary is that overall it is pro-bitcoin, does well explaining the technology, history and benefits. It starts out with comments by various people at different times how bitcoin would end up going to zero and a lot of people would lose a lot of money. At the same time as time progress bitcoin's price appreciates and this chronological presentations show how many were wrong all the time when they declared bitcoin was dead. The movie takes us to a journey through time and places. It is actually very interesting, kinda. I almost fell asleep after watching for about an hour. Not because it was boring, but because it didn't really get to the part where it "reveals" the identity of Satoshi. The trailer and hype claimed the documentary did "reveal" a Satoshi, but not necessarily the Satoshi. The person that was "revealed" as Satoshi I have never heard about. Thanks to documentary I discovered another brilliant mind that have contributed to this beautiful network.
The documentary concludes that Peter Todd is the Satoshi Nakomoto. I have seen may different theories who Satoshi could be in the past, and one of the most convincing one was Adam Back. While not 100% convinced, I could see how Adam could be Satoshi. The journalist demonstrate another creative angle and introduces a new theory that actually Satoshi is Peter Todd by connecting some imaginary dots. It is done really well that I almost was believed, not completely, but the theory how it is possible. I can see how people with near zero knowledge about bitcoin and Satoshi may fall to this narrative and be convinced that Peter Todd is Satoshi Nakomoto.
This takes us to the bad. The evidence presented is circumstantial at best. Probably not even that. It is definitely creative. Taking another close look it becomes obvious how this can only be a fiction. Is it possible that Peter Todd is Satoshi Naokomoto. Yes, but that is also the case for dozens of people we could name. Perhaps, there is more convincing theories for others. Taking the approach taken in the documentary we can do the same for anybody and present a similar theory. But there is not true evidence presented in the documentary. It also took very long for the documentary to get to the core question. It went on and on about other things, yes about bitcoin, but not necessary for the search of Satoshi's identity. Last 15-20 minutes of the documentary it actually starts focusing more on Satoshi, although relying on previously made statements by various people in the documentary.
The ugly part of the documentary is that it makes a bold claim with no reservations that Peter Todd is Satoshi as if it presented overwhelming evidence for this claim. It doesn't say this is just a possibility, or in my opinion, or I thought it would be cool if Peter Todd was Satoshi. It makes a great story, it makes an interesting fiction. But not a fact. Being careless with such revelations, which most likely is false, is dangerous. It is may create difficulty for Peter Todd, but also contribute to confusion and lies on the internet. I have nothing against investigative journalism, and presenting interesting theories. The problem is that this investigation didn't have sufficient evidence to make any conclusion regarding the identity of Satoshi. I hope people will take it as an entertainment content and don't go any further than that. It was entertaining. I did like the interviews and reactions by the various individuals.
It was really interesting to see Adam Back and his answers. Adam kept insisting his is not Satoshi. Even when there were jokes made, he would be super serious and say Nope. The was documentary was going, it seemed like it was trying to catch Adam and reveal him as the Satoshi. The was film was cut, the facial and body expression of Adam Back were suggesting he is trying his best to hide he is Satoshi. My reaction was "I knew it. It was him all this time." But it all was story telling trick to bring a twist and shift focus on Peter Todd. I did learn a little bit more about people who contributed to bitcoin's development. What I didn't learn is the true identity of Satoshi Nakomoto.
Satoshi's identity remains mystery and we will probably never know who Satoshi is. And it is probably better this way. At this point it may even by difficult for anybody to prove they would be Satoshi. I liked one statement by Peter Todd suggesting what would be really cool is if Satoshi intentionally lost the ability to prove they are Satoshi. Not because there would be no need for it, but because it wouldn't be tempting anymore. It is so true, if Satoshi is a person, at different times in bitcoin's journey this person would be tempted to be involved and sign transaction on blockchain to stir things up or make a point. We haven't see any of that. Most like Satoshi coins are lost forever for the benefit of the network, intentionally or not. But that too doesn't matter. I wouldn't care if Satoshi decided to cash out tomorrow. I doubt this would hurt the network. I would actually welcome Satoshi to use the coins whichever way they would prefer. They totally deserve every singe one of them. Hodling for this long. Impressive! What even more impressive and closer to the truth is that Satoshi gifted the coins and the network to the network participants.
If you have seen the documentary, let me know your thoughts in the comments.