A British computer scientist has denied being the elusive creator of bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, after a New York Times report claimed to unmask him. The article details a years-long investigation by journalist John Carreyrou, who identified Adam Back, a London-born computer scientist and entrepreneur, as the mysterious figure behind the cryptocurrency's white paper.
Carreyrou compared decades of old internet postings, analyzing commonalities in writing styles and niche interests between Back and Nakamoto. He noted that Back went dormant on cryptography forums around the time Satoshi emerged, and used AI to compare their language use. When confronted at a bitcoin conference in El Salvador, Carreyrou described Back as reddening and shifting uncomfortably, and making a conversational slip as if speaking as Satoshi himself.
Back promptly denied the claim on X, writing: 'I also don’t know who satoshi is, and i think it is good for bitcoin that this is the case, as it helps bitcoin be viewed [as] a new asset class.' He attributed the similarities to 'a combination of coincidence and similar phrases from people with similar experience and interests.'
Previous attempts to identify Satoshi have pointed to Nick Szabo, Hal Finney, and an Australian fraudster. Experts remain divided: Steven Murdoch of University College London said there is 'no smoking gun,' while Dr Jacky Mallett of Reykjavík University suggested Satoshi was 'almost certainly more than one person.' Back owns a bitcoin treasury firm merging with a company formerly led by US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick.
