Recently, investigative journalist Dave Troy decided to dig into crypto’s biggest mystery by filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the FBI, asking if they had any records on Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin.
The FBI’s response just came back and it is classic spook stuff. They neither confirmed nor denied having any records on Nakamoto, who they referred to as a “third party individual.”
Dave, who’s been on the hunt for this kind of info for a while, wasn’t too thrilled with the vague answer. He said:
“This just in from the FBI, which asserts that Satoshi Nakamoto, the apocryphal creator of Bitcoin, is a ‘third party individual,’ and [they] can neither confirm nor deny the existence of any records on this person.”
So, what did the FBI actually say? Well, in their letter to Dave, they basically gave him the runaround. They acknowledged receiving his FOIA request and then hit him with the good old “we can neither confirm nor deny the existence of such records.”
According to the FBI, confirming or denying if they have records on Nakamoto could be “an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”
They added that this response is standard for requests about third parties and shouldn’t be taken as proof that records do or don’t exist.
In other words, the FBI is playing it cool. They’re not saying they’ve got files on Nakamoto, but they’re also not saying they don’t.
This kind of response is typically what you get when dealing with non-U.S. persons, which makes sense since Nakamoto is widely believed to be a pseudonym.
Whether that pseudonym belongs to one person, a group, or even a government agency is still up in the air. Dave is planning to appeal their decision in the hopes of getting more information out of them.
He pointed out that he didn’t file his request using the “Deceased Individuals” form, which would’ve been the route if he thought Nakamoto was dead.
Instead, he used the “All other subjects” pathway, submitting a broad request with full context. According to Dave, “It is the bureau and not me that is asserting that this is an individual.”
Dave made it clear that he wasn’t necessarily trying to unmask Nakamoto. He just wanted to see if the FBI had any info on the Bitcoin creator. In his own words:
“For the record, my intent is not to establish the identity behind the pseudonym, but rather to get what info the bureau may have on the subject. If that helps establish identity somehow, fine, but that’s not my primary question.”
The FBI, for their part, stuck to their guns. They advised Dave to visit their website for more information on requesting records about third-party individuals, whether they’re living or deceased.
