Did “Finding Satoshi“ actually find Satoshi?

Did the new documentary that came out this week called Finding Satoshi actually find the real Satoshi Nakamoto? Well, first of all, they absolutely think they did. Uh, but you have to understand, so has everyone else that's ever attempted to find Satoshi Nakamoto. For example, in 2014, Newsweek was positive they had found Satoshi Nakamoto. Uh, and they pointed the finger at um, Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, who turned out to not be Satoshi Nakamoto. Um, and everyone agrees on that. Uh, in 2015, a book called Digital Gold by Nathaniel Paer was positive. Uh, he had discovered the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto and his conclusion was Nick Zabo that Nick Zabo was uh, Satoshi Nakamoto and he puts forward a compelling case that that is the case. Well, every year or two since 2014, 2015, there's been some new documentary, some new something that has tried to find Satoshi Nakamoto. Most recently, literally in the last two weeks, the New York Times did a massive expose. I mean, this is the New York Times massive expose coming to the conclusion that they are absolutely positive that Adam back is Satoshi Nakamoto. And if you watched either last year or the year before, I think it came out in 2024 maybe, maybe it was 2025, Money Electric, the documentary on HBO, they are absolutely certain that they have found the real Satoshi Nakamoto, which is yet a different person. So, you got to understand that there has now been multiple documentaries and multiple news articles and multiple very very very in-depth analysis that have all concluded that they are absolutely certain that a different person is Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of Bitcoin. And each one of those puts to get puts forward a very compelling case that their conclusion is accurate with regard to who Satoshi Nakamoto is. One second. Okay. So once you understand that there is somewhere between six and eight people for which an extremely compelling case can be made that they are Satoshi Nakamoto. But then you have to realize that an even more compelling case can be put forward that none of those people are Satoshi Nakamoto and that the actual identity of Satoshi Nakamoto is somebody that we don't know. It's a completely unknown person who is off the grid and you know has never their name has just never circulated in you know popular discussions as who the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto might be. Now here's the good news. It doesn't matter. The invention of Bitcoin does not matter. Every day we use fire. We don't know who rubbed sticks together for the very first time or who used flint to make fire the first time. We don't know who invented the wheel. We don't know. Some inventions we do know. We know Johannes Gutenberg invented the print printing press. Um you know we know who invented the cotton gin. I mean we know some of those things. But the vast majority of the inventions that humans use in the world um were invented by people so long ago that we just don't know. Uh we just don't know. So uh Bitcoin is the same way. The original software code was written by Satoshi Nakamoto um between sometime in 2007 or 2008 up through the middle of 2010. Uh the software was launched on January 3rd of 2009 and Satoshi Nakamoto handed basically handed the software to the world and disappeared in the middle of 2010. So he was only actively working on the project while it was public for about 18 months. He said he had worked for on the project for an additional 18 months prior to the release. So that would have been uh half of 20 2027, all of 2028, and then he launched it and worked on it all of 2009 uh and then half of 2010. But again, that's been more than 15 years ago. So for the last 15 years, Bitcoin has been running just fine without Satoshi Nakamoto. It is open source code. the best and brightest software developers in the world maintain that code to make sure there are no bugs to make sure that it works as planned. Uh the code is audited and reviewed by literally any computer programmer that can read C++ computer code which is like a gazillion of them. So tens of thousands of people are reviewing the Bitcoin code every single change before anybody runs it on their computers. So we don't Satoshi Satoshi Nakamoto we needed Satoshi Nakamoto to invent Bitcoin because somebody had to put all the pieces together and launch it and nobody had been able to figure out how to do that. The the final concepts of the difficulty adjustment and the concept of a blockchain those final components that nobody had figured out prior to Satoshi Nakamoto we needed someone to invent that otherwise Bitcoin would have never existed. But once that was done, Satoshi Nakamoto said, "The project is in good hands. There's very competent software developers that are uh working on it now. Basically, the world does not need me." And he gifted Bitcoin to the world, and walked away. And the original Bitcoin that Satoshi Nakamoto would have mined, which right now would be worth billions of dollars, um just because he was the one that sort of uh uh primed the pump by, you know, essentially jumparting the network. that original Bitcoin has never moved. It's never been spent. It's never been sent to an exchange. Literally, he just mined it and people like me suspect he mined it and then purposefully burned the keys so that nobody would ever have access to it because you don't need that Bitcoin. You know, Bitcoin, the Bitcoin networks works completely fine whether the total number of Bitcoin is 20 million or 21 million. It doesn't matter. So, um, people like me don't believe those Satoshi Nakamoto coins are, you know, those are not in play anymore and have not been for a very long time. Uh, so anyway, uh, Bitcoin runs fine. It doesn't need a leader. There is no CEO. There is no leader. There's no foundation that runs it. There's no company, you know, there's no country behind it, anything like that. Bitcoin works just fine with Satoshi Nakamoto anonymous and disappeared. So uh and thankfully again many of the very best software developers of the world actively work on Bitcoin right now. So it doesn't matter where Satoshi Nakamoto is or whether he's alive or dead or who it was. None of that matters. And again, the strongest case can be made, but we just don't know. We just don't know who Satoshi Nakamoto is. That being said, the documentary Finding Satoshi is very much worth watching. It is fantastically well done and it does a great job of telling the story of all the people that worked on the components that led to Bitcoin. Bitcoin did not just emerge out of nowhere. Little by little over 40 years, 40 years, people invented various components that ultimately Satoshi Nakamoto would put together and use. And so the the documentary does a really good job of telling the story of how all of those components came together and everything that was necessary for Satoshi Nakamoto to ultimately invent Bitcoin. And so it's a wonderful documentary. Parts of it are very moving. Um you know there's parts of the documentary where you know people tear up. It's just very well done. It's just very well done. So uh I highly recommend it whether or not you find their conclusion compelling. um the the documentary that just came out this week called Finding Satoshi. I think it's uh finding Satoshi.com is the website, but anyway, it just came out this week. It's uh I or it came out on the 22nd. Today's the 24th. So, it came out on whatever Wednesday, Tuesday or Wednesday. Um it's very much worth watching. Go watch it. It's great. It's a fantastic story of what went into the start of Bitcoin. Now, if you want something that's more of a thriller that talks a lot more about what Bitcoin is and how it works, uh you're then Money Electric on HBO is probably better. Money Electric on HBO, again, I disagree with their conclusion. Uh the person that they believe is Satoshi Nakamoto in Money Electric on HBO is just wrong. I mean, it's just wrong, but it's still a really compelling, really sort of thrill ride to watch. So, I absolutely recommend watching that one even though their conclusion is wrong. finding Satoshi. Again, it's fantastic. That doesn't mean I agree with their conclusion because an equally compelling case can be made for all of the other candidates for different reasons. Uh, but it is fantastically well done and I do highly recommend it. So, go watch Finding Satoshi. I think you have to pay like $15 to stream it online off their website or something like that. I don't know. But it's worth it. Or if you're on Coinbase, uh you can watch it for free on Coinbase because they uh Coinbase was one of the sponsors of it. But anyway, fantastically well done. Highly recommended. Did they find Satoshi Nakamoto? Maybe. Could be. But an equally strong case can be made that they didn't or that it's someone else. But it's still a documentary very much worth watching. Go enjoy it. Finding Satoshi.