I'm not the inventor of Bitcoin, said the man named in the HBO film

A new documentary claims to have solved one of cryptocurrency's biggest mysteries: the true identity of Bitcoin's inventor.

The question has captivated the internet since the digital currency was launched in 2009 by an unknown person or people calling themselves Satoshi Nakamoto.

Now the makers of an HBO movie say they finally have the answer: Canadian crypto expert Peter Todd.

The only problem with the theory – Mr Todd dismisses it as “ridiculous”.

Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery, Peter Todd meets filmmaker Cullen Hoback

Mr. Hoback shows him his evidence and asks him if he was behind the now-trillion-dollar invention – a suggestion Mr. Todd laughs off.

“I'm not Satoshi Nakamoto”, he has since posted on X.

Conspiracy surrounds Satoshi not only because of the mystery of their identities, but because of the vast wealth they have amassed.

If they still had control of their Bitcoin wallet, it would be worth around $69 billion today – meaning Satoshi would be the 20th richest person in the world.

Peter Todd is a prominent Bitcoin developer and is credited with many innovations in the world's first and largest cryptocurrency.

But in all the years people have spent trying to uncover Bitcoin's inventor, he's never before been named as a prime Satoshi candidate.

There is a lot of interest in this latest attempt to solve that puzzle. Before the documentary was released, more than $44 million was bet on crypto betting website Polymarket that the program would be titled Satoshi.

Cullen Hoback, who has previously tried to publish anonymous online statistics like Q to Q, said he reached his conclusions after years of research and interviews.

Mr. Todd is a piece of Satoshi's proof that he found a forum post from Peter Todd that appears to be a continuation of Satoshi's.

Another is that he once said online that he had deliberately destroyed a large number of digital currencies.

A leading theory is that Satoshi deliberately lost access to his huge stash of original bitcoins created to start Bitcoin.

1.1m coins now worth a fortune but never spent or transferred.

Satoshi's steady coin stash represents 5% of all bitcoins because the inventor decided that only 21 million coins would be created.

Although Mr Todd said his posting history indicated he wasn't involved – he claimed he was “very busy with school and work.”

Several figures from the computing world have previously been cited as creators of cryptocurrencies.

In 2014, a high-profile Newsweek article identified Dorian Nakamoto, a Japanese-American man living in California, as Satoshi. But he denied it and the claim was basically denied.

In 2015, Wired and Gizmodo published an investigation that pointed to Australian computer scientist Craig Wright.

Soon after, Wright announced in interviews with outlets, including the BBCThat he was indeed Satoshi and showed apparent evidence.

But his claims were ignored by the community and after years of claiming to be the discoverer, a UK High Court judge ruled that there was “overwhelming” evidence that he was not Satoshi.

Tech billionaire and crypto enthusiast Elon Musk has also denied that he was behind the cryptocurrency After a former employee of one of SpaceX's firms suggested it.

For some prominent voices in Bitcoin, Satoshi's anonymity is part of the decentralized currency's appeal and power.

Adam Black, one of the original developers (and another potential Satoshi candidate) posted on X before the documentary: “No one knows who Satoshi is. And that's a good thing.