New York Times investigative report claims Adam Back is the pseudonymous Bitcoin founder

The New York Times published an investigative report by John Carreyrou that claims a 55-year-old British Cryptographer, Adam Back, is the mysterious founder of Bitcoin who goes by the Pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.

The article was the product of a whole year of investigation, building its case on Back’s technical contributions and participation in the movement that went on to become the bedrock of cryptography as we know it today. The NYT article claimed that Back invented Hashcash in 1997, a proof-of-work system that Satoshi cited in his historic Bitcoin white paper of 2008, and that it was the inspiration for Bitcoin’s mining mechanism.

In addition, the article claims that Back influenced many core Bitcoin ideas much earlier than anyone else. Examples of such ideas included combining proof of work with concepts like b-money.

Other evidence cited in the NYT article includes the involvement of both Satoshi and Back in the cypherpunk movement, which promoted cryptography as the new code for privacy, electronic cash, and decentralisation from government-centric systems.

A deeper dive into the investigative process that led to the article reveals claims that a computer-assisted comparison of Back’s early writings, emails, and posts with Satoshi’s forum posts and emails showed striking similarities.

Back Denies Being Satoshi Despite Early Involvement

Minutes after the NYT article dropped, Adam Back took to X to deny claims that he is Satoshi Nakamoto, blaming the evidence raised as coincidences and overlap of ideas, which were quite common in the early days of cryptography.

“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,” says Back

The NYT article includes many interviews in which Back was explicitly quizzed about the possibility of being Satoshi Nakamoto, all of which he denied. The article has resurrected wild speculation about the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious founder of Bitcoin, who changed the way the world sees money with his 2008 whitepaper.

Key Opinion Leaders (KOL’s) in the crypto community discredited the NYT report, accusing it of being a stretch and riddled with confirmation bias. The Bitcoin founder’s concealed identity has helped keep the project decentralised. Decentralisation is a core feature of cryptocurrency, and Bitcoin’s pseudonymous founder has helped keep attention on the project’s technical brilliance rather than on its founder.

Adam Back joins the ranks of Hal Finney, Nick Szabo and others, high-profile cryptographers suspected of being Satoshi Nakamoto. None of these claims has stuck so far as the 17-year search for the founder of Bitcoin and father of cryptography continues.

Last updated: April 9, 2026