Discussion

• @lopp Jameson Lopp on x

  Satoshi Nakamoto can't be caught with stylometric analysis. Shame on you for painting a huge target on Adam's back with such weak evidence. https://x.com/...

• @robertgraham Robert Graham on x

  Apparently, the NYTimes is publishing conspiracy-theories.

• @tomwrightasia Tom Wright on x

  Has John found the inventor of Bitcoin? Probably worth over $100B. For me, the main suspect's failure to turn over email meta data swung it.

• @rupertmyers Rupert Myers on x

  This is an astoundingly good piece of journalism

• @gbrl_dick Gabriel on x

  >we have discovered the identity of satoshi nakamoto >he's in the epstein files

• @pitdesi Sheel Mohnot on x

  A good read on going for a hunt to find Satoshi Nakamoto He thinks it's Blockstream & $CEPO founder @adam3us and has a lot of circumstantial evidence that is compelling, but leaves me with many more questions. A long but entertaining read!

• @orinkerr Orin Kerr on x

  First Banksy, now this.

• @bymikebaker Mike Baker on x

  🚨 !!! 🚨 The great @JohnCarreyrou has been on the trail of “Satoshi Nakamoto,” the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin. After compiling a wealth of evidence pointing to one man, he flew to El Salvador to confront him. No paywall link: https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @erikgroset Erik Groset on x

  Interesting crypto news tonight as New York Times suggests @adam3us is Satoshi. His bitcoin treasury company is set to go public via SPAC w/Cantor Fitzgerald (Lutnick) $CEPO very soon.

• @johncarreyrou John Carreyrou on x

  @vt__snowflake Thanks. The only true smoking gun is cryptographic proof and only Adam can provide that. But this is pretty close.

• @johncarreyrou John Carreyrou on x

  The mystery of Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous inventor of Bitcoin, has remained unsolved for 17 years. Not anymore. Read my 18-month investigation to find out who Satoshi really is. https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @tonytassell Tony Tassell on bluesky

  The Satoshi/Adam Back is also fascinating because it highlights how important instinct can be in investigative journalism - the seed for the investigation was a scene in a documentary www.nytimes.com/2026/04/08/b...  [image]

• @tonytassell Tony Tassell on bluesky

  So @johncarreyrou.bsky.social is one of the best investigative reporters going (see Theranos etc).  Here he makes a strong, persuasive case that Bitcoin's inventor Satoshi is Adam Back, a 55-year-old British cryptographer. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/08/b...

• @adam3us Adam Back on x

  @JohnCarreyrou @AaronvanW the rest is a combination of coincidence and similar phrases from people with similar experience and interests - inference satoshi needed specific skills and experience to discover bitcoin, where myself and others got “so close yet so far” in design disc…

• @adam3us Adam Back on x

  @JohnCarreyrou @AaronvanW comments frequently on ecash topics, due to my volume I'd more likely have commented than others with similar interests but posting 20x less. i offered this to John as an explanation of why this can be seen as a form confirmation bias, that should be sta…

• @adam3us Adam Back on x

  @JohnCarreyrou @AaronvanW for his quote “I'm not saying I'm good with words but I sure did a lot of yakking on these lists actually” the broader context was my observation that because I was talkative on the list, and known to have an active interest in ecash, there's some confir…

• @adam3us Adam Back on x

  @JohnCarreyrou in his NYT research finds like @AaronvanW in his “genesis block” book, many interesting bitcoin analogs in early attempts to create a decentralized ecash, in effect prototype ideas trying to figure out a bitcoin-like thing, including p2p, BGP, proof of work.

• @adam3us Adam Back on x

  i'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.

• @adam3us Adam Back on x

  @joetidy @Excellion i'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 hashca…

• @adam3us Adam Back on x

  @Excellion 🤣 love that film. “Look at him, that's my quant” -Jared Vennett, The Big Short except this is bitcoin, the big long, the $200 trillion #bitcoin arbitrage, not the $10 trillion 2008 securitized mortgage arb.

• @excellion Samson Mow on x

  Look at him, that's my quant. My quantitative. My math specialist. Look at him, you notice anything different about him? Look at his face. Look at his shifty eyes! [image]

• @btcjvs James Van Straten on x

  For anyone that has been in bitcoin for at least five years maybe 10, knows this drivel written by John has very little tangible evidence, with the same hit job that continues to get re-surfaced every few years. The fact that John is being applauded and congratulated by no one [i…

• @dylfreed Dylan Freedman on x

  #3: Writing tics John spent months compiling all the unusual traits he noticed in Satoshi's writing. We screened for posters who followed them: discussing digital money, using British spellings, confusing “its” and “it's,” and so on. Eventually, just one remained: Adam Back [imag…

• @dylfreed Dylan Freedman on x

  #2: Advanced grammar analysis Satoshi seemed pathologically incapable of hyphenating correctly. We used the help of A.I. to assess 325 distinct errors of this nature (beyond old-school grammar checkers' capabilities). Adam Back shared this trait and had by far the most matches. […

• @dylfreed Dylan Freedman on x

  #1: Synonym-less words Our prime suspect, Adam Back, had mused about staying anonymous online by using dropdown menus to select synonyms when sending out a message. We analyzed who matched the most words not found in a thesaurus with Satoshi (often tech jargon). It was Back. [ima…

• @dylfreed Dylan Freedman on x

  I spent months helping @JohnCarreyrou crack the identity of Satoshi. We went far beyond circumstantial evidence, collecting hundreds of thousands of internet mailing list posts from 1992-2008. Here are three analyses we performed to find someone who didn't want to be found:

• @pledditor @pledditor on x

  @JohnCarreyrou I read this from start to finish. I kept waiting for the big bombshell tying Adam to Satoshi to drop, but it never did. The @NYTimes just recycled the same old slop that had been repeated ad nauseum by others before them, without adding much new insights. Waste of …

• @adam3us Adam Back on x

  @JohnCarreyrou @AaronvanW I also don't 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.

• @elnathan_john Elnathan John on x

  The more I read the piece the less convinced I was. It feels like the journalist wanted it to be Adam and kept changing methods until it fit the profile he was looking for. I'd be curious to know how much resources went into this reporting that turns out has no real smoking gun.

• @faisalislam Faisal Islam on x

  Bitcoin: Made in Britain? There always was a curious link to the headline on Darling's 2009 UK bank bailout, copious use of “bloody” and other UK English phrases lead the NYT (in a cracking investigation) to conclude it is a British cryptographer, who in turn denies he is

• @coincornerdanny Danny Scott on x

  Its that time in the cycle again when media is guessing who Satoshi is 😂 @adam3us has publicly denied it multiple times in the past. Not sure whats worse “I've found satoshi” or “quantum will destroy bitcoin next week” 😂

• @j_g_allen Joseph Allen on x

  From the reporter who broke the Elizabeth Holmes / Theranos scandal (his book Bad Blood is a must-read, btw)

• @c_kavanagh Chris Kavanagh on x

  Fun piece but doesn't feel as definitive as the author suggests.

• @nikitabier Nikita Bier on x

  @JohnCarreyrou Holy shit - I was on the edge my seat

• @marcvanderchijs Marc van der Chijs on x

  I feel bad for @adam3us, being harassed by a NY Times reporter and then being outed as Satoshi partly because he didn't want to give him more info. The article was fun to read (I have to admit that), but I'm not convinced, and I hope we'll never find out who Satoshi really was.

• @ssaasquatch @ssaasquatch on x

  I agree. This has always been my pick as well

• @ssaasquatch @ssaasquatch on x

  John McAfee said this since 2018. I think the reporter is right. Satoshi is Adam Beck [video]

• @gavinpurcell Gavin Purcell on x

  this is one hell of a read the obsession oozes in the most fascinating way

• @sudoraohacker Arun Rao on x

  Who is Satoshi? Fantastic reporting suggesting it's Adam Back, not Hal Finney, Nick Szabo, or others.

• @alexmasmej Alex Masmej on x

  Satoshi is the greatest anonymity operator of all time. The stylometry linking @adam3us is striking but it's still extraordinary that low-probability guesses remain the best proof we have It's like being an adult still not knowing if Santa is real

• @amitranjan Amit Ranjan on x

  Another #whodunit expose of Satoshi Nakamoto! Relying extensively on semantic, linguistic and stylometric bread crumbs gathered from numerous #Bitcoin message boards, blogs, forums... makes for a brilliant investigative piece by @JohnCarreyrou Points to British cryptographer,

• @bramk Bram Kanstein on x

  Not Adam Back. There is actually a documentary coming out this month called “Finding Satoshi” which has a really compelling case.

• @erikgroset Erik Groset on x

  @JohnCarreyrou Fascinating read. His bitcoin treasury company public via SPAC with $CEPO potentially very soon. Why would you still be chasing riches and building a company if you were Satoshi though is my question?

• @fulligin Vincent Woo on x

  fuckin john carreyrou out of left field

• @chrismartz @chrismartz on x

  these come out every year but this one is entertaining

• @johannesboie Johannes Boie on x

  Brillant Job. Such a great investigation and a fun read, too. And likely the end of Satoshi Nakamoto's secret.

• @johncarreyrou John Carreyrou on x

  I'll give you a few hints. He's British, he's 55 and he sports thinning gray hair, a goatee and wire-rimmed glasses.

• @lopp Jameson Lopp on x

  @JohnCarreyrou Stylometric analysis is a joke, as evidenced by how many different ways you had to try it until you got the answer you wanted. You should have performed timestamp and code analysis to dig up better clues.

• @lessin @lessin on x

  The new york times found a smoking gun on the identity of satoshi! (oy vey...) i can't believe they polished this seriously / sunk cost fallacy? [image]

• @katebevan.com Kate Bevan on bluesky

  I have a huge amount of respect for John Carreyrou, but I do not think this long piece makes a case for identifying Satoshi.  It's documenting a lot of coincidences and cherrypicking laced together with large doses of copium and overreach. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/08/b...

• r/Bitcoin r on reddit

  Who Is Satoshi Nakamoto?  My Quest to Unmask Bitcoin's Creator (Gift Article)

• @louisanslow Louis Anslow on x

  The reason it is irresponsible is because there is a non-0 chance someone tries to kidnap and torture a supposed ‘Satoshi’ to get private key for multi-billion fortune - if they're not Satoshi and don't have a private key they will die a horrible painful death.

• @thestalwart Joe Weisenthal on x

  My read on Back has always been that of the people in the Cypherpunk orbit he was the closest to inventing Bitcoin. And that he became one of Bitcoin's loudest/earliest evangelists, in part, to compensate for not having put it all together himself.

• @thestalwart Joe Weisenthal on x

  Prior to Bitcoin's development, Back was probably closest (among the cypherpunks) to assembling the ingredients to make it work. That is well known, and would explain why he became such an enthusiastic proponent once it got on his radar.

• @thestalwart Joe Weisenthal on x

  Also, like, none of us are that consistent with hyphenization, or some of the other linguistic quirks shared by Back/Satoshi.

• @thestalwart Joe Weisenthal on x

  A big question to my mind is why would Adam Back be totally comfortable talking about hashcash et. al. under his real name, but then also go into max OpSec mode when talking about Bitcoin since (if we're being honest) he would've had no idea how big of a project it would become.

• @thestalwart Joe Weisenthal on x

  I love that people are still trying to crack this. I wasn't, however, 100% convinced by the evidence or the conclusion. The stylometry is interesting, but on content, ofc all the cypherpunks had similar thoughts on politics and privacy and the architecture of the internet.

• @waldoj@mastodon.social Waldo Jaquith on mastodon

  Boy, this bit does not bode well for the rest of this article. https://www.nytimes.com/...  [image]

• r/Bitcoin r on reddit

  NYT says Adam Back is Satoshi

• @florianederer Florian Ederer on x

  This is an engaging read about the real identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, but I'm surprised that given existing methods @JohnCarreyrou did not jump directly to LLM analysis to establish the Nakamoto-Back link. For example, this paper suggests that deanonymization is now possible. [im…

• @dylfreed Dylan Freedman on x

  I spent months helping @JohnCarreyrou crack the identity of Satoshi. We went far beyond surface-level evidence, collecting hundreds of thousands of internet mailing list posts from 1992-2008. Here are three analyses we performed to find someone who didn't want to be found:

• @kevincollier Kevin Collier on bluesky

  I wrote, literally more than a decade ago (2014 or 15), a cheeky “history of people misidentifying Satoshi” article for the Daily Dot.  I think in response to Newsweek doing that when it staged a print comeback.  This is a decently done one...but it's still not a slam dunk?  What…

• @rusty.todayintabs.com Rusty Foster on bluesky

  This is a real clinic in how not to do an investigation. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/08/b...

• amuse on 𝕏 Alexander Muse on x

  The New York Times Claims It Found Satoshi. It Didn't.

• @harrymccracken.com Harry McCracken on bluesky

  Not overwhelming proof, but the most convincing such article I've read.  (Though many previous ones were bizarrely unconvincing, like Newsweek's scoop.)