Replace Oct. 5, 1 pm UTC: This text has been as much as this level to add extra info about Len Sassaman.
American cypherpunk and cryptographer Leonard Harris “Len” Sassaman has attracted the consideration of the crypto location, with Polymarket punters favoring the deceased computer scientist because the identify who will doubtless be printed to be the inventor of Bitcoin in a approaching HBO documentary.
On Oct. 3, filmmaker Cullen Hoback introduced an upcoming HBO documentary titled “Cash Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery.” Hoback promoted the film on X, asserting that he was monitoring down any individual who had disappeared, implying that he had been attempting for the creator of Bitcoin, “Satoshi Nakamoto.”
Hoback is identified for his HBO miniseries titled “Q: Into the Storm,” where he claimed to comprise identified some authors of the QAnon conspiracy theory — an unproven hypothesis pitting feeble President Donald Trump against satanic pedophiles within Hollywood.
Whereas the documentary’s creators didn’t list who they thought can be Nakamoto within the trailer, Polymarket gamblers fleet positioned bets on who can be outed because the Bitcoin creator. As of Oct. 5, 44.5% of bettors favor Sassaman, with other prominent Bitcoin figures delight in Hal Finney, Adam Lend a hand, Slice Szabo and Paul Le Roux following within the list.
A majority of Polymarket bettors suspect that Sassaman can be HBO’s Nakamoto. Source: Polymarket
Who was Len Sassaman?
Sassaman attended a non-public college in his native roar of Pennsylvania and was a prodigy in cryptography.
Whereas aloof in his dreary children, Sassaman moved to San Francisco and become a novel within the cypherpunks neighborhood — a computer privateness circulate that started within the dreary 1980s. He within the destroy went on to gaze below David Chaums broadly dubbed the godfather of crypto.
Sassaman labored on projects such because the Pretty Ultimate Privateness (PGP) machine and its change, GNU Privateness Guard. He and his wife, computer scientist Meredith Patterson, basically based the SaaS startup Osogato.
Tribute to Len Sassaman on the Bitcoin blockchain. Source: Block 138725
Whereas Sassaman had different achievements, the cryptography knowledgeable was identified with depression in his children. On July 3, 2011, Sassaman died of suicide at the age of 31. Following his demise, a tribute to Sassaman was encoded into Block 138725 of the Bitcoin blockchain.
The memorial described Sassaman as “a friend, a sort soul and a devious schemer.”
Related: Bitcoin miner wallets awaken after over 15 years — Is that this Satoshi?
Can also Len Sassaman be Satoshi Nakamoto?
One ingredient that fuels hypothesis of Sassaman being Nakamoto is the timing of the Bitcoin inventor’s departure and Sassaman’s demise.
On April 23, 2011, about two months before Sassaman’s demise, Nakamoto sent his final email to the Bitcoin neighborhood. The pseudonymous Bitcoin inventor acknowledged that he had a few things on his tips and had moved on to other things. After the email, Nakamoto disappeared with none additional clarification.
Excerpt of ultimate piece of email with Satoshi Nakamoto. Source: Mike Hearn
Aside from timing, Sassaman’s working relationship with Finney, one more candidate to be Nakamoto, furthermore fuels the hypothesis that the deceased cryptographer can be the Bitcoin inventor. In step with a blog submit by Worlds founder Evan Hatch, Sassaman labored on PGP alongside Finney at the IT provider provider Community Associates.
Nakamoto labored closely with Finney within the early days of Bitcoin. Aside from Nakamoto, Finney was the predominant to make a contribution code to the protocol and journey a node. The machine developer corresponded broadly with Nakamoto and was furthermore the predominant recipient of Bitcoin (BTC).
Finney and Sassaman were furthermore consultants in remailer technology, a precursor to BTC. Blockstream CEO Adam Lend a hand beforehand instructed that Nakamoto will comprise been a remailer developer.
Hatch’s blog submit furthermore acknowledged that Sassaman’s predominant venture was an evolution of remailer technology known as Pynchon Gate, which allowed pseudonymous info retrieval by strategy of nodes. Because the work stepped forward, Hatch notorious that Sassaman become all in favour of fixing the Byzantine Fault, a most well-known obstacle for look-to-look (P2P) networks.
Fixing the Byzantine Fault distress was crucial to introduce salvage and decentralized crypto with out desiring depended on third parties and double-spending. Nakamoto’s triple-entry accounting system solved the distress using the blockchain.
Aside from these, Sassaman’s space throughout Bitcoin’s construction furthermore contributes to the hypothesis that he would possibly doubtless well’ve been Nakamoto. The cryptographer was basically basically basically based in Belgium when Bitcoin was developed.
Nakamoto’s writing contains observe choices habitual to British English, at the side of phrases delight in “bloody troublesome,” “flat,” “maths,” or “grey.” Bitcoin’s genesis block furthermore contains a headline from The Times newspaper, which circulated within the United Kingdom and Europe.
Sassaman’s wife says “Len was no longer Satoshi”
Whereas many Polymarket gamblers will comprise their money on HBO day outing Sassaman as Satoshi, the dreary developer’s widow would not factor in that her husband would possibly doubtless well’ve been Bitcoin’s inventor.
Source: Meredith L. Patterson
On Feb. 23, 2021, Meredith Patterson, who married Sassaman in 2006, acknowledged in an X submit that, to the suitable of her info, her dreary husband was no longer Nakamoto.
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Extra reporting by Derek Andersen.