Bitcoin Community Continues Search for Satoshi Nakamoto

• A new Bitcoin founder documentary confirms Hal Finney and Len Sassaman as the creators.
• Strategy President says it is the most thoughtful piece he has seen on the topic.
• Many analysts disagree with the documentary, citing weak, circumstantial evidence.

A new documentary on the real identity of Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto has triggered another round of discussion. Among those who have seen the video is Strategy President, Phong Le, who describes it as the most thoughtful piece he has seen on the topic.

According to Le, the documentary stands in contrast to prior self-indulgent exposés, approaching the topic with humility and kindness.

Details of the documentary suggest that cryptographers Hal Finney and Len Sassaman, both now deceased, created Bitcoin. Part of the evidence for the claim is that 1.1 million Bitcoins, now worth over $80 billion, have never been moved since being mined in Bitcoin’s early days.

Experts Find Fault in the Documentary

Despite this evidence and a few others in the documentary, the Bitcoin creator debate continues, with experts analyzing broader issues and revealing details that suggest the documentary’s claims may not be correct. 

A prominent Bitcoin figure, identified as Cam on X, questioned the documentary’s claims, stating that Sassaman’s wife said her husband did not know C++ programming and never owned a Windows machine. Can believe that, and the fact that Sassaman was a vocal Bitcoin critic, was enough reason not to consider him the cryptocurrency’s creator.

Blockstream CEO Adam Back also provided reasons why the individuals mentioned as Bitcoin creators in the documentary may not be correct. According to Back, EU residents wouldn’t work with time zones connected to the forum posts in Bitcoin’s early days. He also noted that Sassaman was running a PhD program from 2004 until his death in July 2011, making it almost impossible for him to be Bitcoin’s coder at the same time.

Back acknowledged that Finney helped Satoshi Nakamoto, having been an early user and having submitted bug reports. However, he thinks that is far from being the product’s co-author. Additionally, he found it surprising that both of the acclaimed founders would leave their families with no Bitcoin, particularly Finney, who ran up medical bills before passing.

The Basis of the Latest Satoshi Theory

In the meantime, the documentary authors based their Bitcoin creator theory on information from one of Finney’s former colleagues, who confirmed that he knew how to write computer programs in C++. They said Sassaman was fascinated by nymms and stylometry, was Finney’s friend, and they worked together at PGP. 

They also interviewed both Finney’s and Sassaman’s widows, both of whom had no evidence that their husbands were Satoshi but believed that they were capable of working secretly and hiding it from their families.

Related: The Mystery of Bitcoin’s Creator Satoshi Nakamoto Continues