Blockstream founder Adam Back has once again denied being Bitcoin’s creator Satoshi Nakamoto. His denial follows a new investigation proposing him as the leading candidate. Back stated that Satoshi’s unknown identity is beneficial for Bitcoin, reinforcing its status as a mathematical commodity rather than a personal project.
Adam Back has publicly rejected the conclusion of an investigation by New York Times reporter John Carreyrou, which identified him as the most likely person behind the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. “I’m not Satoshi,” Back wrote in a post on X.
The investigation noted Back’s British nationality and his 1990s activity on the Cypherpunks mailing list, where he focused on electronic cash and privacy. It also highlighted his invention of Hashcash, the proof-of-work system cited in the Bitcoin white paper. Carreyrou claimed to have matched over a hundred words and phrases between Satoshi’s writings and Back’s archived posts.
Further connections included a shared interest in the 1933 U.S. gold seizure and Back’s background in distributed computing and C++ programming. The reporter acknowledged on X, however, that “The only true smoking gun is cryptographic proof and only Adam can provide that.” Back argued his frequent public posting on relevant topics naturally created a large paper trail for investigators.
Emails made public during a 2024 fraud trial show Satoshi contacted Back in August 2008 to verify a citation before publishing. Back has stated he does not know Satoshi’s true identity and believes that ambiguity is positive for Bitcoin. “I think it is good for bitcoin that this is the case,” he wrote, “as it helps bitcoin be viewed a new asset class, the mathematically scarce digital commodity.”
