{"id":8248,"date":"2026-04-09T11:33:39","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T11:33:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cryptonews.uk.com\/?p=8248"},"modified":"2026-04-09T11:33:39","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T11:33:39","slug":"new-york-times-investigation-spurs-adam-back-to-deny-being-bitcoins-creator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cryptonews.uk.com\/?p=8248","title":{"rendered":"New York Times Investigation Spurs Adam Back to Deny Being Bitcoin\u2019s Creator"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<div id=\"blockquote-block_64706bbd48bd9bc98fdc529dc4f70b55\" class=\"blockquote-container\" style=\"border-color: #5100fc\">\n<div class=\"blockquote-text\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">British computer scientist Adam Back has denied claims that he is Satoshi Nakamoto, despite a The New York Times investigation highlighting striking similarities between his past work and Bitcoin\u2019s design.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Back dismissed the findings as coincidence, maintaining that while he came close to creating something like Bitcoin, he is not its elusive inventor.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>British cryptographer Adam Back has denied claims that he is Bitcoin\u2019s inventor \u2014 man (or woman) of mystery, Satoshi Nakamoto. Back\u2019s denial came in reaction to an investigative piece published by <em>The New York Times<\/em> (NYT) on April 8 that pointed the finger at him.<\/p>\n<p>Back posted on X the same day to say \u201cI am not satoshi\u201d \u2014 a claim he\u2019s denied multiple times in the past. Back acknowledged he took an early, active interest in e-cash through online forum discussions that helped inform his efforts to develop Hashcash \u2014 a proof-of-work system that influenced the functionality of Bitcoin.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">i&#8217;m not satoshi, but I 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.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Adam Back (@adam3us) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/adam3us\/status\/2041811857732768148?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 8, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>NYT journalist John Carreyrou said he had no doubt Satoshi and Back are one and the same after spending a year digging into old emails, papers and internet postings \u2014 in addition to interviewing Back in person.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He wrote that his quest began after seeing Back in a documentary that also explored Nakamoto\u2019s possible identity called <em>Hard Fork<\/em>, in which he believed Back\u2019s demeanour was \u201cshifty\u201d and \u201cfishy\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related: Bitcoin ETFs See $471M Inflow Surge as BlackRock\u2019s IBIT Leads<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The main method used to try and uncover Satoshi\u2019s identity was an analysis of writing style and language. Carreyrou created a list of suspects from a group of people involved in several cryptography mailing lists between 1992-2008, based on who had posted about digital money in ways that matched Satoshi\u2019s writings, including tics like putting two spaces between sentences, hyphenating certain words, and ending sentences with \u2018also\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Over 500 \u2018people of interest\u2019 including Len Sassaman, Ian Grigg, Wei Dai, and Nick Szabo, were narrowed down to Adam Back.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-back-says-it-s-mostly-coincidental-nbsp\">Back Says It\u2019s Mostly Coincidental\u00a0<\/h2>\n<p>In his X posts in response to the story, Back said that his high volume of activity on the forums on the topic of ecash \u2014 compared to others who were less talkative \u2014 represented a form of confirmation bias that the journalist\u2019s analysis should have been corrected for.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe rest is a combination of coincidence and similar phrases from people with similar experience and interests,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<div id=\"blockquote-block_e899a93a4dd266ca1ae9afe5298b9f57\" class=\"blockquote-container variant-personal\">\n<div class=\"blockquote-text\">\n<p><em>I also don\u2019t know who satoshi is, and i think it is good for bitcoin that this is the case, as it helps bitcoin be viewed a new asset class, the mathematically scarce digital commodity.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"blockquote-attribution\">\n        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"author-image lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.cryptonews.com.au\/2024\/09\/03132028\/Adam-Back.jpg\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.cryptonews.com.au\/2024\/09\/03132028\/Adam-Back.jpg\" class=\"author-image\" data-eio=\"l\"\/>        Adam Back    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>People have long speculated about the identity of the creator of the world\u2019s biggest and most well-known crypto. Some argue the pseudonym represents a team of people who worked on the Bitcoin network rather than a single individual.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>While Back continues to back away from a connection to Satoshi Nakamoto, Australian man Craig Wright infamously sought to prove himself as the pseudonymous Bitcoin founder in 2024. After a lengthy court case, a London judge was emphatic in his judgement that Wright was not the creator of Bitcoin.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related: Michael Saylor\u2019s Strategy Resumes Bitcoin Buying Despite Billions in Paper Losses<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Michael Saylor, of Bitcoin investment company Strategy, weighed in to point out that there\u2019s evidence of email exchanges between Satoshi and Black, which suggest they are not the same human.\u00a0<\/p>\n<div id=\"blockquote-block_668a5c4d57f784fc4bf453148aef66e6\" class=\"blockquote-container variant-personal\">\n<div class=\"blockquote-text\">\n<p><em>Until someone signs with Satoshi\u2019s keys, every theory is just narrative.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"blockquote-attribution\">\n        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"author-image lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.cryptonews.com.au\/2024\/03\/14124748\/Michael-Saylor.jpg\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.cryptonews.com.au\/2024\/03\/14124748\/Michael-Saylor.jpg\" class=\"author-image\" data-eio=\"l\"\/>        Michael Saylor, Strategy    <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>Bitcoin,Satoshi Nakamoto#York #Times #Investigation #Spurs #Adam #Deny #Bitcoins #Creator1775734419<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>British computer scientist Adam Back has denied claims that he is Satoshi Nakamoto, despite a The New York Times investigation highlighting striking similarities between his past work and Bitcoin\u2019s design.\u00a0 Back dismissed the findings as coincidence, maintaining that while he came close to creating something like Bitcoin, he is not its elusive inventor. British cryptographer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8249,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[3246,42,3910,3909,2867,3908,623,1199],"class_list":{"0":"post-8248","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bitcoin","8":"tag-adam","9":"tag-bitcoins","10":"tag-creator","11":"tag-deny","12":"tag-investigation","13":"tag-spurs","14":"tag-times","15":"tag-york"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v26.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>New York Times Investigation Spurs Adam Back to Deny Being Bitcoin\u2019s Creator - Crypto News: Latest Cryptocurrency News and Analysis<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cryptonews.uk.com\/?p=8248\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New York Times Investigation Spurs Adam Back to Deny Being Bitcoin\u2019s Creator\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"British computer scientist Adam Back has denied claims that he is Satoshi Nakamoto, despite a The New York Times investigation highlighting striking similarities between his past work and Bitcoin\u2019s design.\u00a0 Back dismissed the findings as coincidence, maintaining that while he came close to creating something like Bitcoin, he is not its elusive inventor. 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