Has an HBO Documentary Discovered the Identity of Satoshi Nakomoto?

A soon-to-be-released documentary from filmmaker Cullen Hoback and HBO titled “Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery,” hints that it will reveal the true identity of Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto. Hoback is best known for his HBO documentary miniseries “Q: Into the Storm” which claimed to have identified several of the authors of the QAnon conspiracy theory.

The focus of Hoback’s new documentary is an investigation into the origination and conception of the Bitcoin network. It also explores the mystery of Satoshi Nakomoto, Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator, whose true identity has never been revealed. Hoback successfully unmasked Ron Watkins as one of the leaders of QAnon in 2021, a revelation that has since been verified. There are hopes that he will successfully drop a bombshell again.

Rumors suggest that the upcoming documentary identifies Len Sassaman as Satoshi. Sassaman was a renowned cypherpunk and computer programmer who committed suicide in 2011. Shortly after his passing, ‘Satoshi’ stopped posting to BTCTalk, a popular forum in the early days of Bitcoin where cryptography was discussed.

This will not be the first time Sassaman has been suggested as a candidate to be Satoshi. In 2021, a blog written by Evan Hatch presented an argument with strong circumstantial evidence that Sassaman, a prodigal hacktivist, deeply entrenched in the cypherpunk community, may be the Satoshi we’ve all been looking for. Sassaman’s widow Meredith L. Patterson acknowledged the blog as well-researched at the time but also said “to the best of my knowledge, Len was not Satoshi.”

The community has been scarred by Australian Mathematician Craig Wright’s ongoing fraudulent claims that he was the real Satoshi. Following a long drawn out legal battle, Wright rescinded his claims in sworn statements but the declarations he made created clear divides across the network.