The mysterious creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, remains unknown to this day, and this mystery has attracted the attention of countless curious people around the world. With HBO's upcoming documentary (Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery) to be aired on October 8, 2024, claiming that the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto will be revealed, people have once again started a wide-ranging discussion on this mystery. One of the most controversial conjectures is that Satoshi Nakamoto may be the cryptographer Len Sassaman.

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The cryptography genius who died young

Born in 1980, Len Sassaman is a self-taught cryptography wizard and privacy technology advocate. He is widely respected for his contributions to peer-to-peer networks (P2P), privacy technology, and cryptography. He showed extraordinary talent at an early age, contributing to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) as a teenager, and later became an important figure in the Cypherpunk movement.

Sassaman moved to the San Francisco Bay Area at the age of 18 and became active in the region's cypherpunk community. He lived with Bram Cohen, the famous creator of BitTorrent, and participated in several groundbreaking projects. Although he was plagued by health problems, especially long-term depression, his work in cryptography, privacy protection, and digital currency continued to influence subsequent technological advances.

Important contributions to cryptography

One of Sassaman’s most significant achievements was his contribution to the development of the PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) encryption software. This is a core encryption technology for protecting information security and is still widely used in the security infrastructure of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. It is worth noting that Hal Finney, another important figure in the cypherpunk movement and an early developer of Bitcoin, also participated in the development of PGP. He has a close relationship with Sassaman, and the two are committed to promoting the development of digital privacy technology.

Sassaman and Finney also co-developed the "anonymous mail forwarding system" (remailer), an encrypted communication technology based on decentralized nodes. Remailer is considered one of the predecessors of Bitcoin's P2P network architecture, paving the way for future digital currencies. This decentralized concept and technology was later further developed in the design of Bitcoin.

The disappearance of Satoshi Nakamoto and the death of Sassaman

On July 3, 2011, Len Sassaman, who was only 31 years old, committed suicide in Belgium due to depression. His death was a huge loss to the cryptography and hacker communities. However, this incident also triggered many speculations about his connection with the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the founder of Bitcoin.

Two months before Sassaman's death, Nakamoto suddenly "disappeared" from the public eye. He left a brief email saying that he would "turn to other matters and may not appear in the future." Since then, the discussion about the true identity of Nakamoto has never stopped.

Curiously, the 138,725th block of the Bitcoin blockchain encoded a tribute to Sassaman, suggesting that he may have played an important role in the development of Bitcoin. The fact that Satoshi Nakamoto disappeared and Sassaman died at almost the same time has led to more speculation.

The overlap of technology and background

Sassaman’s technical background shows that he has everything he needs to develop Bitcoin. He is an expert in cryptography, P2P networks, decentralized systems, and privacy protection, and he has also participated in several projects closely related to the concept of digital currency.

Sassaman's mentor is David Chaum, a man known as the "father of digital currency." Although Chaum's early digital currency project Digicash failed, its core concept - anonymity and untraceable payments - is exactly what Bitcoin pursues. As Chaum's student, Sassaman not only understands these ideas, but is also committed to putting them into practice.

In addition, the Bitcoin white paper released by Satoshi Nakamoto was typeset in LaTeX, a typesetting style commonly used in academia. As a researcher at the COSIC research institute, Sassaman is familiar with this tool, and he also focuses on applying the theory of cryptography to practical problems.

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Geographical evidence and clues to Europe

Another notable clue is the geographic location. Sassaman spent the last few years of his life in Belgium, while the language and some behavioral habits used by Satoshi Nakamoto also suggest that he may live in Europe. The Bitcoin Genesis Block has a headline from the UK (The Times) embedded in it, and Satoshi Nakamoto's word choice also tends to be more British English.

In addition, as an American-born European resident, Sassaman’s connection with Europe during the development of Bitcoin perfectly fits in with the background of the American cypherpunk community. This cross-regional identity is consistent with Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity.

Tragedy and unsolved mysteries

Despite his remarkable achievements in the technology world, Sassaman spent the last few years of his life isolated by depression, but he remained active in the cryptography community in the months before his death, continuing to contribute to privacy-preserving technologies.

Sassaman’s death remains a tragedy, but his legacy is far-reaching. While it cannot be confirmed that he is Satoshi Nakamoto, his overlap with Satoshi’s identity makes the mystery more complicated.

Perhaps, HBO's documentary (The Mystery of Bitcoin) will reveal this mystery to us. However, no matter what the result is, Len Sassaman's name will always be associated with the history of Bitcoin, and as part of the cypherpunk movement, his spirit and ideals will continue to inspire future technology innovators.

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