Len Sassaman Enters Spotlight as Top Satoshi Candidate Ahead of HBO Documentary
2024-10-06

The Bitcoin community is currently busy debating whether or not the late cryptographer Len Sassaman is Satoshi Nakamoto ahead of HBO's big reveal.
As reported by U.Today, HBO is to release a documentary that is on track to unmask the identity of the fabled Bitcoin creator, potentially solving one of crypto's biggest mysteries.
The potentially groundbreaking documentary, which was created by prominent investigative filmmaker Cullen Hoback, is to be premiered on Wednesday.
The late American information privacy advocate Len Sassaman has emerged as the leading Satoshi candidate, according to PolyMarket bettors. At press time, he has a 39.5% chance of being identified as the Bitcoin creator by Hoback. The late cryptographer Hal Finney, who received the very first Bitcoin transaction, and Blockstream CEO Adam Back, who was cited in the Bitcoin white paper, come in second and third places with 8.6% and 8.7%, respectively.
Given that Sassaman has emerged as the clear frontrunner, his name has attracted a lot of attention on social media.
He was working on the PGP encryption software alongside Bitcoin developer Hal Finney. Sassaman had also collaborated with Back, who is known as the first person to communicate with Satoshi as part of the remailer community. It is also worth noting that David Chaum, who is known as the "godfather of cryptocurrency," was Sassaman's PhD advisor. Sassaman had accumulated a whopping 45 publications prior to his death. Bitcoin developer Gavin Andersen previously suggested that Satoshi was working in academia.
The prominent cypherpunk, who had suffered from depression from his teenage years, took his own life at the age of 31 back in July 2011. An obituary devoted to Sassaman has been embedded on every node of the Bitcoin network.
Notably, Sassaman's suicide coincided with the disappearance of Satoshi from the internet.
Recently, the r/Bitcoin subreddit has been busy speculating about the upcoming HBO documentaries. One of the commentators noted that Sassaman was actually posting derogatory opinions about Bitcoin back in 2011, but some view this as an attempt to preserve his anonymity and distance himself from the Satoshi persona.
Sassaman has been rumored to be a Satoshi candidate for quite a while, and it remains to be seen whether HBO will manage to come up with some compelling evidence to prove that Sassaman is actually the creator of Bitcoin.
At the same time, some commentators claim that they do not want Satoshi's identity to be discovered since they clearly had no interest in being known.