Discussions concerning Bitcoin's pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, have resurfaced on social media. Recent hours saw the reactivation of a Satoshi-era Bitcoin wallet with 1,432 BTC worth $37,854,468 after over 10 years. This added to the existing conversations on Twitter concerning Satoshi.
Gene Hoffman, CEO of the Chia network, commented on one of the Twitter discussions regarding Satoshi. Looking through the tweets in the discussion thread suggests a belief by some that Satoshi is probably a group of people, not a single individual. Hal Finney and Len Sassaman were pointed to as the two most likely candidates for "Satoshi," or active members of the Satoshi "team."
Yes but no - not in this context. There is someone else who could equally have been brought in unawares or could have been active in team Satoshi - and knows how to keep that ambiguous.
— Gene Hoffman hoffmang.xch 🌱 (@hoffmang) June 8, 2023
Hoffman joined the conversation and said that, in addition to Hal Finney and Len Sassaman, there was one wildcard person left. Phil Zimmermann, the inventor of Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), an email encryption tool made available to the general public via FTP download, may not be this person, according to him.
A Twitter user suggested Bram Cohen, a contributor to the legendary Cypherpunk mailing list where Satoshi first announced Bitcoin and a close associate of Len Sassaman.
Hoffman answered uncertainly, highlighting the possibility of someone else who could equally have been brought in unawares or could have been active in team Satoshi and knows how to keep that ambiguous.
However, all these remain speculations, and to this day, the exact identity of Satoshi Nakamoto remains a mystery.
Hal finney, Len Sassaman
Len Sassaman, referred to as Len, was a cyberpunk who worked as a developer on PGP encryption and open-source privacy technology. He was also an academic cryptographer working with blockchain inventor David Chaum on P2P network research.
On the Bitcoin network node, a tribute to Len Sassaman was hacked into the transaction data.
Hal Finney received the first version when the Bitcoin code was finished and the software was prepared for testing. He downloaded the code and connected to the Bitcoin network on Jan. 10, 2009. The first device to connect to Satoshi's network was his computer.
He received 10 BTC from Satoshi Nakamoto two days later in the first computer-to-computer Bitcoin transaction. Finney, though, refuted claims that he was Satoshi before he passed.