NYT journalist suggests cryptographer Adam Back may be Bitcoin creator

New York Times journalist John Carreyrou said he may have identified the creator of Bitcoin, suggesting that British cryptographer Adam Back could be behind the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.

Carreyrou based his conclusion on linguistic analysis of Nakamoto’s writings and circumstantial evidence, including correspondence with Finnish programmer Martti Malmi cited in legal proceedings.

He noted that Back developed Hashcash, a system referenced in Bitcoin’s design, and pointed to his absence from public discussions between 2008 and 2011, which coincided with Nakamoto’s activity.

However, stylometric analysis did not produce conclusive results. Carreyrou said the texts may have been deliberately stylised to obscure the author’s identity.

The identity of Bitcoin’s creator remains unknown despite years of investigation.