New ‘Faketoshi’ doesn’t solve Satoshi mystery

Just as the crypto world (and most worldwide stock markets) holds its breath to see who wins the United States presidential election, new people are claiming that they are Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious inventor of Bitcoin.

A British businessman was the last to think he could outsmart some journalists. In the end, the mystery remains.

Faketoshi

Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious inventor of Bitcoin, is normally in possession of the first million Bitcoins mined, the so-called ‘origin block’. At a price of $60,000 to $70,000 per Bitcoin, he would immediately become one of the richest people in the world if he’s ever identified.

Partly because of this, several people have claimed to be Satoshi over the past ten years, but until this day, we still haven’t found the real one.

There are two types of Satoshi contenders. The people who are referred to by crypto fans as possible ‘Satoshi’ candidates, and the people who claim themselves to be Satoshi, but cannot provide any proof. Anyone from the latter group is normally referred to as a ‘Faketoshi’.

Prentice

It all started with an article from Newsweek back in 2014. The magazine’s journalists claimed they had found who Sathoshi Nakamoto was. They said it was a 64-year-old Japanese man living in California named Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto. His image has since often been used in articles about Satoshi, but the man quickly made it clear that it was just an unfortunate coincidence that he had the same name as the inventor of Bitcoin, and that he knew almost nothing about digital currencies.

From 2018 onwards, the whole ‘Faketoshi’ saga revolving around Craig Wright, an Australian businessman, started. He first claimed not to be Satoshi Nakamoto, only to change his mind afterwards. A judge in London ruled on the case earlier this year as several celebrities had lawsuits pending against him. Craig Wright is also not Satoshi.

When Bitcoin was hailed repeatedly by Elon Musk, many thought that the Tesla and SpaceX CEO himself might be Satoshi. Musk, of course, has always denied that. He’s already the richest man in the world anyway, so a few extra billion dollars wouldn’t really be noticeable.

In 2024 we got a new candidate, Peter Todd. At the end of a recent HBO documentary by Cullen Hoback, it was suggested that he is the inventor of Bitcoin. Todd denies it, and many crypto fans were actually unimpressed with Hoback’s latest project. They also don’t really think that Peter Todd is the inventor of digital currencies. Once again, no Satoshi.

Mollah

This weekend, a British businessman named Stephen Mollah also declared himself to be Satoshi. He invited the press over to hear his evidence.

The cost for a seat was around 120 euros, an interview with Satoshi himself could be bought for some 600 euros. A dozen journalists showed up but many left the room before the end of Stephen’s idiotic display. He was clearly not Satoshi.

And thus the mystery remains.