The crypto industry has seen its fair share of forecasts and theories that have crashed harder than a poorly coded smart contract.
From the never-ending quest to dox Satoshi Nakamoto to the laughably wrong idea that Gary Gensler would be good for crypto, here are some crypto theories and beliefs that turned out to be misguided at best.
1. Peter Todd is Satoshi
Every few months, someone comes forward claiming to have definitive proof of Nakamoto’s identity — or worse, claiming to be the creator of Bitcoin themselves. Yet time and again, these “discoveries” unravel under scrutiny, revealing more about the allure of the mystery than any solid evidence.
We’ve seen faked documents, misinterpreted cryptographic signatures and linguistic analyses attempting to trace Satoshi’s origins — all leading to red herrings and inevitable public retractions. Some think the NSA is Satoshi and invented Bitcoin as a honey trap for criminals, while others tip Elon Musk or Snow Crash author Neal Stephenson.
In other words, pretty much anyone who was older than 15 in 2008 and had an internet connection has been suggested as a possible Satoshi.
The latest round of rumors came thanks to this week’s HBO documentary, which named Bitcoin developer Peter Todd as the creator of Bitcoin. The doco made a lot of hay from some interesting circumstantial evidence, but few people think it’s cleared up the mystery of who Satoshi is.
Conclusively proving Todd isn’t Satoshi isn’t easy, but the evidence for believing he is Satoshi is not particularly compelling.
Not conclusive proof, nor particularly compelling (X)
In the lead-up to HBO’s reveal, Polymarket bettors speculated on who HBO might name, with guesses ranging from the late cryptographer Len Sassaman to computer scientist Nick Szabo.
In the end, HBO named Todd, who denied the claim … but admitted to being Craig Wright.
Related: Everything HBO’s Bitcoin…
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