On April 8, 2026, The New York Times published a sensational report in which after over a year of journalistic investigation, it points to 55-year-old British cryptographer Adam Back as the most likely author of Bitcoin – the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto.
Journalist John Carreyrou, known for exposing fraud in the technology industry, has analyzed thousands of archival email pages, Cypherpunks mailing lists posts and stylistic texts comparisons. According to his findings Back – the 1997 creator of Hashcash, the proof-of-work system quoted in the white book of Bitcoin – left too many traces to consider it a coincidence.
The key evidence cited by NYT is:
Style and language: Satoshi and Back used identical punctuation errors (e.g. "proof-of-work"), alternately wrote "e-mail" and "email", "cheque" and "check" and finished with "also". Analysis of AI 620 people on the Cypherpunks list indicated Back as the only one with 67 same errors.
'90s ideas.: Already in 1997–1999 Back described on the Cypherpunks lists exactly the same concepts that later appeared in Bitcoin: private electronic currency, lack of confidence in third parties, Scarcity, problem of Byzantine generals and hash trees to time signatures.
A Timely Mystery: Back remained silent publicly about Bitcoin until 2011 – exactly when Satoshi disappeared from the forums. Then suddenly he started actively participating in debates about block size, opposing "big blocks" – just like Satoshi in his last emails.
Confrontation: In January 2026 Carreyrou recorded a conversation with Back in El Salvador. The British denied, but his reactions and lapsus (repeating almost literally the phrase Satoshi "I’m better with code than with words") raised additional doubts.
Bitcoin’s founder, Satoshi Nakamoto, has remained hidden for 17 years. A trail of clouds — and a year of diggling by our reporter, John Carreyrou — led us to a 55-year-old computer scientist in El Salvador named Adam Back. https://t.co/s6Jy00IDdk
Adam Back consistently denies it. "Clearly I’m not Satoshi, that’s my position," he stated in an interview. However, he did not release metadata of old emails that could eventually settle the case.
NYT emphasizes that there is no final proof and never will be – only Satoshi could deliver it, transferring at least one satoshi from his wallet. Nevertheless, the article creates a storm in the world of cryptocurrency. Back is a co-founder and CEO of Blockstream – a billion-dollar company that strongly influenced Bitcoin's development (including sidechains, Lightning).
If the theory checks out, it would mean that the creator of the greatest Crypto For 17 years, the world hid under a pseudonym, protecting itself from government repression.
NYT's investigation does not end Satoshi's search, but carries them to a whole new level. The cryptocurrency community is now waiting for Back's own reaction and possible further material. Bitcoin reacts calmly for now – the course remains stable above $70,000.
Adam Back commented on the whole case on his X profile. He denied reports of Satoshi Nakamoto and published an explanation:
I am not Satoshi, but from the very beginning I focused on the positive social effects of cryptography, privacy on the Internet and electronic money, hence my active interest, dating back to about 1992, the research applied on e-money and the privacy technologies on the list of cypherpunks, which led to the emergence of hashcash and other ideas.
@JohnCarreyrou in his research published in the New York Times discovers, like @AaronvanW. in his book "Genesis Block", many interesting parallels to bitcoin in early attempts to create decentralised e-money – in fact, these are prototype concepts designed to develop a bitcoin-like solution, including peer-to-peer technologies, BGP and proof of work.
for his statement: "I do not claim to have the gift of a word, but I have actually said a lot on these letters" – the broader context concerned my attention that since I was talkative on the list and known for my active interest in e-cash, in my opinion
I often talk about e-money issues; given the number of my statements, I would probably comment on the topic more often than other people with similar interests, which publish 20 times fewer posts. I presented this to John as an explanation of why it could be seen as a form of confirmation error, which should be corrected statistically.
The rest is a combination of coincidences and similar statements of people with similar experiences and interests – one can conclude that Satoshi needed specific skills and experience to discover bitcoin, while me and others were "so close and yet so far away" in project discussions conducted in the previous decade.
I don't know who Satoshi is either, and I think it's good for bitcoin, because that's how it is seen as a new asset class – a mathematically limited digital commodity.
The stone with the inscription "We Are All Satoshi" comes from this high-budget short film with special effects entitled "Block 170, the first transaction" by @ThibaultZeller @jonathanplesel
i'm not satoshi, but I was early in laser focus on the positive social 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.
