As promised, on 9 October, the American TV channel HBO aired a documentary titled Electronic Money: The Mystery of Bitcoin. The crypto community was eagerly anticipating this premiere, as HBO had vowed to unveil the biggest secret of all: the true identity of bitcoin's creator, known under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. According to the documentary's creators, the man behind the alias was revealed to be 39-year-old Canadian Peter Todd.
Although Todd was among the early developers of Bitcoin Core, he had never been a primary suspect in the years-long search by journalists for Satoshi. The names that frequently came up in this context were Hal Finney, Adam Back, Nick Szabo, and even Craig Wright. Todd's name, however, was never in the mix. When the bitcoin white paper was published in October 2008, the then 23-year-old Todd was completing his studies in fine arts. Experts point out that at that time, he had no known connection to cryptography.

Naturally, the filmmakers build up the intrigue, delving into various supposed links between Todd and Nakamoto. They refer to specific projects and ideas Todd had championed over the years. Among the "evidence" presented are details like both using British/Canadian spelling and the fact that Satoshi's message posts coincided with a student schedule: coincidentally, Todd was a student at that time. The primary "clue" is a claim that in 2010, Peter Todd, allegedly forgetting to switch accounts, left a message on the Bitcoin message board, which, according to the filmmakers, was written as Satoshi Nakamoto.

In the end, HBO’s production offered many theories but no truly compelling evidence. And while this outcome might have been expected, it still left the crypto community deeply disappointed.