 Sleuth says new evidence links Jack Dorsey to Bitcoin like never before 
2025-02-17
Category: None

American entrepreneur Jack Dorsey has again been theorized as secretly being Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto — with a post on X sparking debate again over one of crypto’s biggest mysteries to date. 
In a Feb. 15 post on X, Seán Murray, president and chief editor of the financial news website deBanked, compiled a large list of facts, numbers and dates related to Bitcoin that he says is also connected to Dorsey, who has been one of Bitcoin’s strongest advocates for over a decade.
Others, however, argue the evidence is not definitive. 
Jack Dorsey, Satoshi Nakamoto theory 
Jack Dorsey, who co-founded Twitter (now X) and digital payments firm Square, denied being Satoshi Nakamoto in an April 2020 interview with computer scientist and podcaster Lex Fridman, stating: “No, and if I were, would I tell you?”
However, Murray says he believes Dorsey is “probably” Satoshi Nakamoto, noting that Dorsey had shown cypherpunk tendencies since at least 1996 while studying computer science at college — such as wearing Hashcash inventor Adam Back’s RSA shirt while later writing a manifesto in 2001 about making a mark in the world without leaving a trace.
Birthdays, timestamps and brute force addresses
One of Murray’s most notable observations was that the Bitcoin BTCUSD first transaction took place on Dorsey’s mother’s birthday, Jan. 11, while the last Bitcoin block mined by Satoshi supposedly happened on his father’s birthday, March 5, 2010.
In reply to the thread, however, BitMEX Research scrutinized the theory, noting that it became increasingly difficult to know when Satoshi mined blocks as the “patoshi pattern” gradually degraded over time.
Murray also said that Satoshi supposedly signed up to the Bitcoin forum on Dorsey’s birthday, Nov. 19.
Meanwhile, Murray claimed the original Bitcoin source code documents are all timestamped at exactly 4 am — though it isn’t clear which timezone — a time Dorsey once had in his Twitter profile, Murray claimed.
Satoshi is said to have used “brute force” to create Bitcoin addresses, including one beginning with “jD2m,” which Murray claims stands for “Jack Dorsey 2 Mint,” which he says is in reference to Dorsey’s former residence at 2 Mint Plaza in San Francisco. 
Dorsey hasn’t confirmed this.
Email hacked, possibly leaking Satoshi’s location
Satoshi’s “GMX” email was also hacked on Sept. 8, 2014, and Murray claims the hacker tried to extort Satoshi by sharing that he knows about his connection to St. Louis, Missouri.
Dorsey was born and raised here, Murray noted.
Murray claims Satoshi also “accidentally” logged into Internet Relay Chat on Jan. 10, 2009, which showed a real IP address based in California — where Twitter was based and where Dorsey spent much of his time.
WikiLeaks debacle
Satoshi told people on the Bitcoin forum not to donate Bitcoin to WikiLeaks on Dec. 5, 2010, said Murray, while noting Twitter was hit with a “secret court order” to turn over all the information it had on WikiLeaks nine days later, on Dec. 14. Dorsey wasn’t the CEO of Twitter at the time but remained on the company’s board.
Murray claims that Satoshi last logged into the Bitcoin forum the day before, on Dec. 13.
Murray has supposedly linked supporting evidence to back his claims in 10 of the 15 “chapters” he has written on Dorsey’s ties to Satoshi. He’s been working on the evidence since at least Dec. 23, 2024.
Dorsey has not addressed these posts nor denied any of them, Murray noted.
Critics rampant, as with any Satoshi theory
Several X users argued that it’s hard to believe Satoshi, a creator of uncensored money, would then censor information, as Dorsey’s Twitter did following US government intervention.
Others raised doubt over whether Satoshi would wear a “Satoshi” shirt in public, let alone at the Super Bowl, as Dorsey did in 2024.
Whether Dorsey created Bitcoin or not, Bitcoin cypherpunk Jameson Lopp criticized Murray for being “that guy” who accuses someone of being Satoshi without smoking gun evidence.
“[It] makes you a massive asshole, because you’re painting a target on them,” Lopp said in a February 2024 X post. “Even if that person is dead, you’re endangering their family.
Murray’s Dorsey theory comes more than four months after HBO’s Cullen Hoback claimed Canadian computer scientist Peter Todd created Bitcoin — a theory that most industry pundits believe missed the mark.
Others have previously speculated that early Bitcoin contributor Hal Finney, Adam Back and American cryptographer Nick Szabo may have been Satoshi Nakamoto. 