The New York Times published an investigative article stating that, through analysis of the Satoshi Nakamoto texts, the cypherpunk mailing list, and historical records, it proposes that Adam Back may be Satoshi Nakamoto. The conclusion is based on an indirect chain of evidence, including his invention of Hashcash and the fact that it is cited in the Bitcoin white paper; his early proposals as early as 1997–1999 outlining electronic cash concepts covering privacy, decentralization, scarcity, and trustless principles; and a high degree of consistency with Satoshi Nakamoto in language habits, spelling, use of terminology, and technical expression. The analysis also shows that during Satoshi Nakamoto’s active period (2008–2011), he appeared to have a “silence period” in public discussions, and became active again after 2011. In addition, based on filtering and text matching of data from approximately 34,000 users from the cypherpunk mailing list, he ranked highly across multiple matched language features. However, the stylometric results are generally considered “not conclusive,” and there is currently no direct evidence that can prove his identity. Adam Back has repeatedly denied the related allegations, saying that the overlaps are “a coincidence,” and he has refused to provide key email metadata.