“Who is Satoshi Nakamoto”, a question that has striked the mind of every Bitcoin enthusiast is going to receive an answer, according to speculations among the community. HBO put out a trailer of its documentary called “Money Electric” which is going to air on October 8, 2024. People not just from the crypto community but from the news media have been looking out for this answer for many years. The creator of Bitcoin is always known by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. Is he a single person or a group of people, is he alive or dead, there are a lot of questions around this subject.
HBO documentary claims it may have uncovered the true identity of the Bitcoin creator. A decentralized prediction market has started betting on this topic and has given sixteen options to the people to bet on. Currently, Len Sassaman is leading the bidding with a 53% chance of being Satoshi according to bidders.
Len Sassaman was an American technologist who spent his life working in cryptography. He worked as the security architect and senior systems engineer for Anonymizer, an internet privacy company. He used to advocate about the use of cryptography and privacy-enhancing technologies. He took his life in 2011, according to his wife. This time coincides with the disappearance of Satoshi from the internet.
For a very long period, crypto researchers believed Hal Finney was the creator of Bitcoin. He was an initial contributor to the Bitcoin project. He was the person to have received the first Bitcoin transaction from the anonymous Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto. Just like Sassaman, Finney also used to talk about the problems associated with online privacy and centralization.
It is said that for 10 years, Finney lived in the same town as Satoshi Nakamoto and this was one of the reasons researchers believed him to be the Bitcoin creator. He denied these claims though. Hal Finney died a decade ago in August 2014 due to Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis also known as motor neuron disease. His body was cryopreserved in the hope that resurrection may be possible in the future.
Just four days left before HBO airs the documentary and it would be very interesting to see who they have declared to be the Bitcoin creator. Or just like crypto people, is the documentary going to say “We all are Satoshi”.
