Why the Hunt for Satoshi Nakamoto Isn’t Helpful for Bitcoin

Key takeaways:

• A man called Stephen Mollah shocked reporters when he declared, “I am Satoshi Nakamoto.”
• It comes a few weeks after another failed attempt by an HBO documentary to unmask the mysterious Bitcoin creator.
• The continued search raises questions about whether it’s not a good thing if Satoshi remains in the shadows.

At a recent press conference in London, a man called Stephen Mollah stunned and “irritated” reporters when he declared, “I am Satoshi Nakamoto, and I created Bitcoin on blockchain technology.”

Bitcoiners gave short shrift to the Briton’s claims after he failed to move the first-ever Bitcoin (BTC) created to prove he is the real Satoshi. Only Satoshi can transfer the Bitcoin mined in the so-called ‘genesis block.’

Mollah’s claims come just weeks after another failed attempt by an HBO documentary to unmask the mysterious Bitcoin creator, raising questions about whether it matters at all if his true identity remains unknown.

“Bitcoin is agnostic,” Courage Kimber, digital nomad and crypto pundit, told Cryptonews. “I don’t think the identity of the founder matters.”

Kimber spoke about Bitcoin being “time-tested and reliable” as a currency and network. In its 15 years of operation, Bitcoin has only suffered two outages, which cannot be said of other rival blockchains.

“I think [Bitcoin] is better when you don’t know the identity of the founder,” Kimber stated, adding:

“When a project is too closely tied to a founder it usually fails because it cannot exist on its own without the personality or having a big persona attached to the project.”

Satoshi Nakamoto disappeared in 2010 when he suddenly stopped posting on an online forum for cypherpunks. The Bitcoin inventor’s last known email to the forum was sent in April 2011, saying, “I’m moving on to other things.”‘

Satoshi’s Anonymity Makes Bitcoin Truly Decentralized

Since then, numerous names have been put forward as potential Satoshi candidates, including Nick Szabo, Hal Finney, and Dorian Nakamoto, but to no avail.

HBO filmmaker Cullen Hoback’s latest hunt for the elusive crypto founding father identified Bitcoin Core developer Peter Todd as Satoshi.

However, Todd himself was shocked by Hoback’s conclusions. In the documentary titled “Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery,” the Canadian denied he was Nakamoto, describing the claim as “ludicrous.”

He said that people trying to reveal Satoshi’s identity are “distracted by nonsense.”

Similarly, self-proclaimed BTC creator Mollah has been widely criticized. Researchers at crypto exchange BitMEX called the claims “nonsensical.”

Speaking to Cryptonews, Yuriy Brisov, partner at UK-based crypto law firm Digital & Analogue Partners, said one of the major reasons Satoshi chose to remain anonymous was to protect the decentralized nature of Bitcoin.

Brisov said that by separating himself from Bitcoin, Nakamoto made sure that “no central figure would lie at the core” of the blockchain, preventing any single person from having “too much power” over Bitcoin’s development.

“This very lack of a definite owner or leader let Bitcoin grow organically, being sculpted by the hands of its community rather than under someone’s influence or vision,” Brisov said, adding:

“Also, it [Satoshi’s anonymity] protects the author or whoever created it from any potential legal, financial, or personal liabilities. It allows the community to focus on the technology and not on the person or people behind the technology.”

Decentralization is a key foundational principle for Bitcoin. Brisov added that anonymity helps Nakamoto evade governmental scrutiny as well as the risk of harassment by people targeting him for his BTC.

Satoshi owns 1.1 million Bitcoins, currently valued at $84 billion, making him one of the richest people in the world. Todd said the unwanted attention he got from the HBO film caused him to fear for his life.

Institutional Adoption Eases Fear About Satoshi’s Identity

According to some analysts, Bitcoin adoption by mainstream financial institutions like BlackRock and Franklin Templeton suggests that worries about Satoshi’s identity may not be as important today as before.

Some concerns have been imagined in the past: revealing Satoshi’s identity and him moving funds from his wallet could trigger a panic sell-off that may spell the end for Bitcoin.

But as legacy institutions accumulate large positions in Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), those fears are starting to fade.

Data from Farside Investors shows that spot Bitcoin ETFs raked in more than $1.37 billion in net inflows on Nov. 7 alone, pushing the funds’ collective Bitcoin holdings to more than one million BTC, just shy of Satoshi’s stake.

According to Sosovalue data, investors have pumped $24.12 billion into the ETFs since they were launched in January. Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas estimated that at the current rate, the eleven products “will pass Satoshi’s [holdings] in less than two weeks.”

Experts say the growing institutional involvement could see Wall Street’s influence on Bitcoin markets overshadow any fears about the potential actions from a doxxed Nakamoto.

“Bitcoin wouldn’t have crossed $76,000 if people cared about Satoshi’s identity,” Kimber, the digital nomad, told Cryptonews.

Her comments were shared by Haichao Zhu, co-founder and CEO of the native Bitcoin application Layer Rooch Network, who told this publication:

“My belief in Bitcoin is based on the fact that no central point of entity can influence the adoption or the fundamental design of Bitcoin. I do not think any speculations around the true identity of Nakamoto will impact any investors of Bitcoin, as most of them would have known the motto ‘don’t trust, verify’ before they invest.”

‘Good Thing Satoshi Remains Unknown’

As for people like Mollah, the obscure British businessman who claimed to be Satoshi without evidence, he’s playing a “dangerous” game, according to Brisov, the Digital & Analogue Partners crypto lawyer.

“Firstly, those who provide false information can be charged with fraud, especially if they try to reap benefits from such details,” he said. “Second, this could be viewed as contempt of court or perjury.”

Australian computer scientist Craig Wright has claimed to be the Bitcoin founder for many years. But after failing to back up his claims with proof, the High Court in London ruled in March that Wright was not Satoshi.

Brisov noted that practice shows that attempts to reveal Nakamoto’s real identity “are no more than efforts to monetize on the mystery.”

For example, Mollah charged journalists 500 British pounds [~$649] to attend his press conference, according to the BBC. Reporters refused to pay but were still admitted to the meeting.

It is ironic that someone who calls himself Satoshi, with $84 billion worth of Bitcoin, would want to extract a few dollars from about a dozen journalists.

The HBO documentary also reportedly made lots of money as people subscribed en masse to watch the much-hyped film.

Bitcoin’s appeal isn’t derived from knowing who Satoshi is but rather from the decentralization, security, and transparency it offers. For crypto die-hards like Blockstream CEO Adam Back, himself a Satoshi suspect, Nakamoto must remain in the shadows for Bitcoin’s good.

“No one knows who Satoshi is, and that’s a good thing,” Back wrote on X (Twitter) as Hoback’s documentary dominated social media discussions.

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