The 2008 Bitcoin white paper, written by Satoshi Nakamoto, outlined a financial system that didn’t require a centralized authority or an identifiable founder. That was ensured by its anonymous author. A new documentary titled Finding Satoshi offers a potential answer to the query that the cryptocurrency community has been posing ever since.
Finding Satoshi, directed by Matthew Miele and Tucker Tooley and produced by Tucker Tooley, Jordan Fried of Fried Films, and Happy Walters, was the result of a four-year investigation headed by Wall Street Journal veteran and New York Times bestselling author William D. Cohan and private investigator Tyler Maroney of Quest Research & Investigations, leveraging original reporting, forensic analysis, previously undiscovered material, and interviews from more than twenty subjects.
Private Investigator, Tyler Maroney and investigative journalist, William D. Cohan / Courtesy of FINDING SATOSHI
The film, released exclusively at FindingSatoshi.com, follows the genealogy of Bitcoin’s origins as an intellectual and human story rather than a technology story. It traced the whole history of ideas that led to the white paper, from the cypherpunk movement through the creation of PGP encryption, Hashcash, and Bit Gold, to the specific cultural moment in 2008 when the network began in the wake of a worldwide financial crisis. Speakers include Michael Saylor, Fred Ehrsam, Joseph Lubin, Bill Gates, Gary Gensler, Kara Swisher, Phil Zimmermann, the developer of PGP, and Bram Cohen, the creator of BitTorrent.
Former FBI behavioral analyst Kathleen Puckett’s work helped identify the Unabomber and she brought a methodology to the table that none of the other Satoshi investigations had previously used. Her investigation was not only based on forensic and journalistic work, but also on behavioral analysis.
The author of Principles of Bitcoin, Vijay Selvam, called the film the best Bitcoin documentary out there. Most of the previous studies regarding Satoshi’s identity had been clownish, Nic Carter stated.
