HBO will soon air a movie about Satoshi Nakamoto and we take a look at the most suitable people to play the role
HBO TV channel announced the documentary Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery dedicated to the history of bitcoin. The creators of the picture stated that they were able to determine the identity of the creator of bitcoin under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.
The premiere of the film will be held on October 9, the director was Cullen Hoback, known for his work on the mini-series “Q: Let the storm come!” about the exposure of the authors of the conspiracy theory called QAnon.
The announcement stated that “the disclosure could send shockwaves through global financial markets and even the U.S. presidential election.”
Despite the fact that the question of Satoshi Nakamoto's identity has been studied for more than 10 years, there is still no definite opinion in the crypto community. The consensus around the bitcoin creator before the movie was released is that Satoshi represents a person or group of people, where determining identity is not particularly relevant to the performance of the bitcoin blockchain network.
However, all these years later, the topic of determining the real identity behind the creation of bitcoin continues to be speculated upon.
Who is Satoshi Nakamoto
The movie's announcement almost instantly led to the creation of a betting market on the Polymarket platform with the prediction “Who does HBO identify as Satoshi Nakamoto?”. The market quickly garnered over $1 million in liquidity. The candidates included more than 15 people, mostly close to crypto or the crypto market in general.
Polymarket allows you to bet in cryptocurrency on real-world events. Such platforms use smart contracts to eliminate the need for a centralized party or a single operator acting as an arbitrator for the two sides of the dispute. The bets themselves are represented as an asset that can be traded within the platform with other users.
Traders on Polymarket gave the highest probability on who HBO identified as the creator of the main cryptocurrency to Len Sassaman, Hal Finney, Adam Back, Nick Szabo, Paul Le Roux.
The option that Satoshi is still a group of individuals traders assigned a probability of just above 20%.
Len Sassaman
Len Sassaman's candidacy is the most likely scenario for Polymarket traders, at 41%.
Sassaman was an early advocate of digital privacy and an accomplished cryptographer, becoming an active figure in the cypherpunks movement promoting privacy, decentralization and resistance to government surveillance.
Sassaman's identity is a fairly new figure for a Satoshi candidate, having become heavily discussed in 2021 following an analysis by researcher Evan Leung Hatch.
Hatch's report emphasizes Sassaman's cryptographic expertise, as well as his connection to Hal Finney and other early bitcoin users. His bio also cites work on privacy technologies that are very similar to bitcoin's architecture. Despite the parallels, however, Leung's study found no conclusive evidence.
Hal Finney
The next candidate, with a probability of about 12% on Polymarket is Hal Finney, a renowned cryptographer and one of the early adopters of bitcoin. He was the recipient of the first-ever bitcoin transfer from Satoshi Nakamoto himself and helped test early versions of the software that now powers the cryptocurrency infrastructure.
Finney is also known for developing the “Reusable Proof-of-Work” algorithm, which inspired the consensus mechanism in bitcoin. In 2014, Finney denied that he was Satoshi. However, Finney's confirmed involvement in the creation of bitcoin, as well as his declining health since 2009, led some to believe that he was the one behind the pseudonym. Hal Finney died in 2014.
Adam Back
The CEO of cryptocurrency company Blockstream, Adam Back, is also featured in the bitcoin origin story. He, with a probability of about 10% on Polymarket, could be named Satoshi in a movie from HBO.
The early designs of Hashcash, like Finney's ideas, formed the basis of bitcoin's consensus mechanism. Satoshi Nakamoto mentioned Hashcash in bitcoin's so-called white paper, the document that originally described its concept. Back was one of the first people Satoshi contacted during the development of the main cryptocurrency's protocol.
Nick Szabo
Another potential Satoshi is Nick Szabo, a computer scientist and cryptographer who developed Bit Gold, the precursor to bitcoin's payment system.
His work on time-stamped databases and his extensive writings on decentralized currency echo many of the principles of the first cryptocurrency.
The name Szabo often comes up in discussions because of these similarities, as well as analyzing his writing style in correspondence among early participants in bitcoin's development. Szabo has repeatedly denied that he is Satoshi.
Paul Le Roux
Another candidate, with a probability of about 7%, according to traders on Polymarket, could be Satoshi in the movie from HBO - Paul Le Roux.
Paul Le Roux is also a programmer and cipherpunk. He is known for developing open source data encryption software called E4M in the 1990s. He was also noted for releasing a manifesto where he pointed out the growing activity of states collecting data about citizens on the internet. In 2007, the programmer became involved in arms trafficking, drug trafficking and gold smuggling. In 2008, he obtained a passport under the name Paul Solotshi Calder Le Roux. In mid-2010, Paul Le Roux was arrested and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
CIA
Separate from the other candidates stands the version with the participation of the American Central Intelligence Agency in the creation of bitcoin.
“Obviously it's the CIA, we all understand that. It's like [messenger] Signal, they got there first. It's a trap!”, popular journalist Tucker Carson told a closed panel discussion at the Bitcoin 2024 conference.
Despite this, Carson called cryptocurrency “the world's best tool for financial sovereignty.” Adding that this will be possible provided bitcoin becomes widespread as a medium of exchange rather than a means of saving.