The real identity of Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto could be revealed in HBO’s new documentary “Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery.”
It’s been assumed since Bitcoin launched in 2009 that Nakamoto is a pseudonym for the creator of the world’s first decentralized cryptocurrency. Speculation has run rampant ever since on who the founder might really be.
A frontrunner has long been pioneering cryptographer Len Sassaman, who died by suicide in 2011. Further adding to the mystery, and perhaps the difficulty of solving it, is a crypto wallet holding a million Bitcoin belonging to Nakamoto that has reportedly been inactive for over a decade.
But HBO’s documentary and filmmaker Cullen Hoback claim to have uncovered the truth, though there’s skepticism on whether definitive proof will be delivered when the film debuts on Tuesday at 9 p.m.
“The documentary film offers a thrilling, globe-spanning investigation, with Hoback immersing himself with key players, uncovering never-before-seen clues, and humorously unraveling Bitcoin’s meteoric rise,” HBO says in a promo for its latest offering.
Should Hoback — who’s credited with shedding light on the QAnon conspiracy theory movement in 2021’s “Q: Into the Storm” — be successful in his latest doc, such a revelation could impact Bitcoin’s value, according to The Street.
HBO sleuths have previously been credited with cracking a big case in the 2015 docuseries “The Jinx,” in which real estate heir Robert Durst confessed to murder in a now-famous hot mic moment. Durst was sentenced to prison, where he died in 2022.