Masks off: crypto community names 5 most likely candidates for Bitcoin founder

On October 9, HBO will release a documentary called Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery. The creators of the film promised to solve one of the greatest mysteries of our time: who is Satoshi Nakamoto and where did he disappear to? The film was directed and produced by «Emmy» nominated Cullen Hoback, creator of Q: Into the Storm (a documentary series about one of the wildest conspiracy theories called QAnon) and Terms and Conditions May Apply (a documentary that explains how corporations and governments use the information that users provide when they browse websites, install apps, or buy goods online).

A person (or group of people) under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamato developed the Bitcoin protocol and its first version. Over time, this blockchain and the cryptocurrency of the same name gained enormous popularity, some of which Satoshi did not claim for some reason. He came up with the concept published in 2008, the first bitcoin client was released in 2009, and in 2010 Satoshi simply disappeared. Before that, he deleted his contacts from the forum and passed the passwords to other developers.

And for almost 14 years, the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto and his disappearance have been a source of concern for the crypto community. Some believe that the father of Bitcoin has died, others that he is avoiding possible legal problems. Still others are inclined to believe that Nakamoto is just a marketing ploy, an image to draw attention to Bitcoin.

Interestingly, the wallets attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto still contain hundreds of bitcoins that are still untouched, although their value is currently worth tens of millions of dollars.

And now, on the eve of the premiere, the decentralized blockchain-based prediction platform Polygon — Polymarket — users have identified their candidates for the role of Satoshi Nakamoto.

The majority (20.4%) believes that it is Nick Szabo — a scientist in the field of computer science, cryptography, and law, known for his research in the field of smart contracts and cryptocurrency.

Adam Beck (10.3%) — British businessman, cryptography expert, and «CypherPunk» . It is known that Beck corresponded with Satoshi Nakamoto, and a link to his publication is contained in the description of the Bitcoin system. Although Beck had already published his paper on October 7 wroteHe is not Nakamoto.

The third most popular name was Len Sassaman (8%). He is a well-known American technologist and information privacy advocate. Most of his career was associated with cryptography and protocol development. Sassaman died in 2011.

The fourth place (4.4%) is occupied by Dave Klayman, who passed away in 2013. He was an American expert in computer forensics, author or co-author of several books and a frequent speaker at security-related events.

With 2.3% of the vote, the top five nominees are rounded out by Harold (Hal) — an American programmer who died in 2014. He was one of the first users of Bitcoin and received the first transaction of 10 coins from the project creator Satoshi Nakamoto. The fractional part of 1/1000 (finney) of the Ether cryptocurrency in the Ethereum network is named in his honor.

Paradoxically, the list even includes the name Craig Wright, who was recognized by the court as a liar because of attempts to impersonate Satoshi Nakamoto.