Throughout the last week, the crypto market has been filled with anticipation, which intensified a day before the release of the “Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery” film.
The film, scheduled for release on October 8th, explores the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto. From netizens to tech billionaires like Elon Musk have joined the speculation on who the film might reveal Nakamoto to be.
At press time, Polymarket voters are battling between two cryptographers, Adam Black and Nick Szabo, keeping Len Sassaman behind after a heavy battle on October 7th. Sassaman’s obituary was coded in the Bitcoin network after he tragically passed away by suicide in 2011. Surprisingly, Satoshi Nakamoto left a message just two months before Sassaman’s passing, stating, “I have moved on to other matters and may not appear again in the future.”
After Sassaman’s surviving wife revealed that Sassaman might not be Satoshi Nakamoto, people started speculating whether either of the other remaining candidates might be the creator of Bitcoin despite Len Sassaman coming out as the clear favorite.
Many have taken to social media to support Adam Back, a famous cryptographer, cypherpunk, and the creator of the Proof-Of-Work process called the ‘Hashcash,’ which is quite similar to the consensus used by Bitcoin. Further, he has been in the field of cryptography and digital currency since the early 1990s, making it a strong choice for many crypto enthusiasts to believe he is Nakamoto.
However, Back took to X to clarify he was not Nakamoto and quoted, “But also the documentary will presumably be wrong, as no one knows who Satoshi is,” brooding further speculations, hinting Nick Szabo would be revealed as Nakamoto in the documentary.
Elon Musk has also considered Szabo to be the most prominent of the Satoshi candidates for a while now, mainly due to the latter’s development of the “Bit Gold” digital currency.
Is Nick Szabo Bitcoin’s Creator Satoshi Nakamoto?
Nick Szabo was the first to coin the term smart contracts, which he previously called “smart property.” In 2013, researcher Skye Grey revealed to TechCrunch that Szabo could be the creator of Bitcoin, citing text analysis and other facts, such as Satoshi’s failure to cite the cryptographer’s work.
Furthering the speculations, the internet completely went off when Nick Szabo mindlessly admitted to Bitcoin’s creation in an interview with Tim Ferris, where he is heard saying, “I designed Bitcoin *pauses* Gold.” Youtuber Bitboy points out how Bit Gold was a concept only in paper and theory, quite identical to Satoshi’s protocol.
Szabo, appearing to use a pseudonym under which he could legally build a business, quickly became one of the most famous entities speculated to be Satoshi — while there is no clear indication that Szabo had any contact with whoever created Bitcoin, leaving people to hint at him being Nakamoto himself. Further, Szabo’s peers included other famous cryptographers, such as Hal Finney and Wei Dai, solidifying the theory.
In addition, linguistic studies have discovered a resemblance between what Szabo wrote and the Bitcoin whitepaper, reinforcing the link. Furthermore, N.S. could be the abbreviation of Satoshi Nakamoto if written in Hungarian (family name — last). These subtle pointers and several indicators have caused many people to believe Szabo was behind the legendary pseudonym.