Bankless “Finding Satoshi”—How a Private Investigator Solved the Mystery of Bitcoin’s Creator | Bill Cohan & Tyler Maroney
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May 4, 2026 
Tyler Maroney, a private investigator who led the field for Finding Satoshi, and Bill Cohan, a bestselling financial journalist who shaped the narrative. They walk through a four-year probe into Bitcoin’s creator. Short scenes cover investigative methods, cypherpunk roots, why the identity still matters, the reveal pointing to Hal Finney and Len Sassaman, and the strange afterlives of privacy and money.
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Collaborative Reporting Beat Pure Forensics
- Bill Cohan and Tyler Maroney believe they found Satoshi by combining journalism with PI methods to get relatives and colleagues on-camera.
- Their unique method was interviewing widows, friends, and coworkers to corroborate authorship and coding roles rather than relying only on linguistic forensics.
How A PI Changed A Yearlong Journalistic Stall
- Bill describes starting the project with little Bitcoin knowledge and spending a year and a half interviewing OGs with limited progress.
- Bringing in Tyler the private investigator transformed the project and unlocked new leads and trust with technical witnesses.
Trust Is The Key To Cypherpunk Testimony
- Tyler explains the investigation required earning trust from cypherpunks who value privacy and pseudonymity, often meeting sources many times before they went on-camera.
- That slow trust-building let them access technical history and firsthand recollections that others hadn't obtained.