Who Was Len Sassaman, and Why Do Some Believe He Could Be Satoshi Nakamoto?
The mystery of Bitcoin’s inventor, Satoshi Nakamoto, has long intrigued the crypto community. A new HBO documentary, Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery, by filmmaker Cullen Hoback, has revived speculation on the true identity of Nakamoto. One of the names gaining attention is Leonard Harris “Len” Sassaman, a cryptographer and privacy advocate who passed away in 2011.
Len Sassaman: Early Life and Contributions
Len Sassaman was an American cypherpunk and cryptography expert, born in Pennsylvania. A child prodigy in his field, he moved to San Francisco at a young age and became involved in the cypherpunk community—a group dedicated to advancing privacy and cryptography technologies in the 1980s. Sassaman made significant contributions to cryptography, working on Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) software and its update, GNU Privacy Guard, tools essential to secure communication in the digital age. Alongside his wife, Meredith Patterson, he also co-founded the SaaS startup Osogato.
Connection to Bitcoin
Despite his many achievements, Sassaman struggled with depression and tragically passed away in July 2011 at the age of 31. A tribute to Sassaman was encoded into Block 138725 of the Bitcoin blockchain, highlighting his deep connections with key figures in the cryptography world, such as Hal Finney—another prominent figure often linked to Nakamoto.
One of the factors fueling the speculation that Sassaman could be Nakamoto is the timing of their respective disappearances. Satoshi Nakamoto sent his final email to the Bitcoin community on April 23, 2011, stating he had moved on to other things, just two months before Sassaman’s death. This overlap has led some to theorize that Sassaman’s departure may have also marked the end of Nakamoto’s involvement in Bitcoin.
Links to Hal Finney and the Remailer Project
Sassaman’s professional collaboration with Hal Finney, the first person to run Bitcoin’s code and receive a Bitcoin transaction, is another clue often cited by those who believe he could be Satoshi. Both Sassaman and Finney were deeply involved in remailer technology, which allowed for secure, pseudonymous communication—a concept central to Bitcoin’s anonymous transactions. Sassaman's work on a project called Pynchon Gate, which tackled issues like the Byzantine Fault in peer-to-peer networks, shares similarities with Bitcoin’s solution to the double-spending problem via blockchain technology.
Sassaman’s European Connections and British English
Another point in favor of Sassaman being Satoshi is his location. Sassaman lived in Belgium during the time of Bitcoin’s development. Some have noted that Nakamoto’s writing used British English, such as terms like “maths” instead of “math,” “bloody,” and “grey,” and the Bitcoin genesis block referenced a headline from The Times—a UK-based newspaper.
Polymarket Betting on Sassaman
With the release of the HBO documentary trailer, bettors on Polymarket—a platform for betting on future events—have put their money on Sassaman being identified as Nakamoto. As of October 5, 44.5% of bettors favor Sassaman over other potential candidates like Hal Finney, Adam Back, Nick Szabo, and Paul Le Roux.
Skepticism and Sassaman’s Widow
Despite this growing belief, not everyone is convinced. Meredith Patterson, Sassaman’s widow, has publicly stated that she does not believe her late husband was Satoshi Nakamoto. On February 23, 2021, Patterson tweeted that, to the best of her knowledge, Sassaman was not the mysterious Bitcoin creator.
While the HBO documentary may reignite the debate over Nakamoto’s identity, the mystery remains unsolved. Whether Len Sassaman was indeed the mastermind behind Bitcoin or just another name in a long list of candidates, his contributions to cryptography and privacy remain significant in the history of the digital age.
