NYT revives Adam Back theory in latest bid to identify Bitcoin creator

A New York Times investigation points to Adam Back as Satoshi Nakamoto, but the Blockstream CEO denies it, and critics say proof is still missing.

The New York Times published an investigation on Wednesday arguing that Adam Back, the British cryptographer who invented Hashcash, is the most likely person behind the Satoshi Nakamoto pseudonym used by Bitcoin’s creator.

Back denied the claim, telling Cointelegraph he was referring reporters to his post on X after previously rejecting similar attempts to identify him as Satoshi. Back reiterated in the post that he is not Satoshi, adding that he “was early in laser focus on the positive societal implications of cryptography, online privacy and electronic cash, hence my ~1992 onwards active interest in applied research on ecash, privacy tech on cypherpunks list which led to hashcash and other ideas.”

The investigation was conducted by John Carreyrou, a French-American investigative journalist best known for exposing the Theranos fraud. In the report, he claims that Back, who was cited in Nakamoto’s Bitcoin white paper, actively discussed electronic cash for years, then vanished just as Bitcoin (BTC) emerged, only to reappear after Satoshi disappeared.

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