Adam Back denies being Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto

A British Bitcoin entrepreneur has told the BBC he is not the digital currency's mysterious inventor after a New York Times article named him as its creator.

Adam Back, a prominent Bitcoin developer, said the high-profile investigation was a case of "confirmation bias" and that he is not the person known as Satoshi Nakamoto.

The true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto is one of the internet's most enduring mysteries and Back has been accused of being Satoshi many times before.

But Back told the BBC 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."

In John Carreyrou's lengthy New York Times article, Back's emails and online posts are compared to those of Satoshi with striking similarities.

An analysis of Back's online activity also matches up with that of Satoshi's disappearance shortly after Bitcoin's white paper - the manifesto outlining its philosophy - was published online.

On X, Back addressed the New York Times' assertion that he was absent on Bitcoin forums at the time when Satoshi was most active and then came back once Satoshi had vanished - saying he actually "did a lot of yakking" on the forums at the time.

He said the rest of the New York Times evidence is "a combination of coincidence and similar phrases from people with similar experience and interests".

The intrigue around Satoshi is not just due to the mystery of their identity, but because of the enormous wealth they have accumulated.

If they still have control of their Bitcoin wallet which mined the first ever Bitcoins, it would be worth around $70bn today - meaning Satoshi would be one of the richest people in the world.

Satoshi's stash of more than a million Bitcoins represents 5% of all the currency, as the inventor decided there would only ever be 21 million coins created.

On X, Back joked that, in fact, he didn't have enough Bitcoin.

"Kicking myself for not mining in anger in 2009," he posted.

This is not the first time someone has been "unveiled" as the inventor of Bitcoin.

In 2024, an HBO documentary named Canadian crypto expert Peter Todd as Satoshi. Todd said it was "ludicrous" and has since supplied evidence that reduces the likelihood. The same year, a press conference was held in London by British man Stephen Mollah where he claimed to be Satoshi, but his claim was largely ignored.

Other individuals from the computing and tech world have been previously tipped as the cryptocurrency's creator. In 2014, a high-profile article in Newsweek identified Dorian Nakamoto, a Japanese-American man living in California as Satoshi. But he denied it and the claim has largely been debunked.

In 2015, Wired and Gizmodo published an investigation that pointed to Australian computer scientist Craig Wright. Soon after, Wright declared in interviews with outlets, including the BBC, that he was indeed Satoshi and showed apparent proof. But his claims were disregarded by the community and after years of claiming to be the inventor, a UK High Court judge ruled he was not Satoshi. Back was one of the witnesses in the hearings that gave evidence against Wright's claims.

For some of the most prominent voices in Bitcoin, keeping Satoshi's identity secret is a part of the appeal and power of the decentralised cryptocurrency.