Nakamoto (the proof)

From 2014 to 2018, Émilie Brout and Maxime Marion made an attempt to provide proof of the existence of Satoshi Nakamoto, the alleged and mysterious inventor of Bitcoin.

To do so, they contacted a group of forgers on the darknet and ordered a passport in his name that was paid for in Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency commonly used for illicit online transactions. The passport was never delivered, and a scan received by the artists before payment is the only record of its existence. This work presents the document and the full process carried out by the artists.