The filmmaker behind an upcoming HBO documentary has promised a “rollercoaster” probe into the identity of Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto.
On Thursday, Cullen Hoback dropped a teaser for his new BTC documentary, “Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery.” He also teased the possibility of exposing the identity of the long-mysterious Nakamoto.
“A few of you might have wondered why I disappeared. Well, I was tracking down someone else who disappeared. Curious who’s behind Bitcoin?”
The promotion sparked a flurry of headlines claiming Hoback pledged to unearth Nakamoto’s identity, though it remains unclear whether the filmmaker’s ambiguous language is an actual promise or a marketing stunt.
Hoback, best known for his QAnon-focused documentary miniseries “Q: Into the Storm,” did acknowledge that Craig Wright’s longstanding claims to be Satoshi “were a ‘compelling’ and ornate work of fiction.”
Earlier this year, a UK judge ruled that “overwhelming evidence” indicates Wright, an Australian computer scientist, is not Nakamoto and did not create Bitcoin.
Blockchain analysts estimate Nakamoto mined one million BTC, starting with the first 50 BTC reward for the genesis block on January 3rd, 2009. Nakamoto’s public involvement with the Bitcoin project ended in mid-2011.
The last known publicly verifiable digital sighting of Satoshi was in December 2010 on the BitcoinTalk online forum, when the pseudonymous creator talked about a Bitcoin software update designed to prevent denial-of-service attacks.
Hoback’s documentary premieres on Max next Tuesday, October 8th.
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