These Are the Top Contenders for Satoshi Nakamoto in HBO’s New Documentary, According to Polymarket

Speculation surrounding the mysterious identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the founder of Bitcoin, has grown with the release of information about a new HBO documentary.

The film, called “Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery” aims to reveal the identity of the anonymous creator of BTC.

According to the Polymarket community, it is Len Sassaman who received 52% of the pledges. His ties to key figures in information security and cryptocurrency have led to increased speculation about his potential connection to Bitcoin.

Hal Phinney is in second place with a 33% probability and Adam Beck is in third place with 13%. Other names mentioned include Elon Musk and Dorian Nakamoto, though their chances are significantly lower.

More on Sasaman

Information about Leonard Harris Sasaman’s early years is scarce. According to various sources, he attended a prestigious private school in Pennsylvania and was recognized as a cryptographic prodigy.

In his late teens, Sasaman moved to San Francisco, California, where he became part of thecypherpunkmovement, a collective of computer privacy advocates that emerged in the late 1980s. He eventually studied under David Chaum, a pioneer in blockchain technology.

Sassaman contributed to initiatives such as the Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) software and its successor GNU Privacy Guard. Along with his wife, fellow computer science major Meredith Patterson, he co-founded the startup Osogato.

At the time of his tragic death by suicide on July 3, 2011, at the age of 31, Sassaman was in the process of obtaining a PhD in electrical engineering at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium. In addition, a memorial note is embedded in his honor in block 138725 of the Bitcoin blockchain.

Sasaman married Patterson in 2006 and they remained together until his untimely death. Patterson had openly expressed her belief that her husband was not Satoshi Nakamoto.

However, there is circumstantial evidence to support the theory that Sasaman may be Nakamoto. He has left behind a significant body of work, including publications and conference presentations, that prove his ability to have created Bitcoin. He was an active member of the International Association of Financial Cryptography and frequently participated in discussions focused on financial cryptography.

Additionally, linguistic analyses suggest that Sasaman may be the creator of Bitcoin. Also, Nakamoto stopped communicating two months before Sasaman’s death.