Back

10/8/2024

Nick Szabo becomes a favorite to unmask Satoshi Nakamoto in HBO documentary

Posted by

Coingarage Exchange

Nick Szabo becomes a favorite to unmask Satoshi Nakamoto in HBO documentary

Significant changes have occurred in the betting odds at Polymarket regarding the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, in connection with the upcoming HBO documentary. American computer scientist Nick Szabo has now outbid cryptographer Len Sassaman, whose odds have dropped after the documentary's producer, Cullen Hoback, announced that he believes he has confronted a person who could be the real Satoshi Nakamoto. However, this discovery rules out Sassaman, who died in 2011.

At Polymarket, Szabo's odds of being identified as Satoshi were 27.9%, while Sassaman's odds dropped to 14%. Bettors also listed Blockstream's CEO, Adam Back, at 4.3%. Interestingly, Sassaman was still the favorite on October 4 with odds as high as 68% once the market opened on Polymarket.

Cullen Hoback, producer of the documentary, commented to CNN on 7 October, "We present a strong case [...] and I think their reaction is in some ways more telling than the evidence itself." He also added that it is important for the public to have an idea of who Satoshi might be, especially if he is still active.

Meredith Patterson, Sassaman's widow, confirmed that HBO has not contacted her about the documentary. Hoback's aforementioned confrontation could also rule out Hal Finney, the American software developer who received the first bitcoin transaction from Nakamoto and died in 2014. Finney has a 2.7% exchange rate on Polymarket.

There are also other celebrities on Polymarket, such as imprisoned programmer Paul Le Roux with a 2.8% rate, billionaire Elon Musk, and other individuals formerly regarded as Satoshi, including Dorian Nakamoto and David Kleiman, who have lower rates. Currently, the "Other/More" option boasts the highest odds at 37%, suggesting that bettors are not ruling out other names.

Nick Szabo is known as the inventor of Bit Gold, a cryptographic network that has never been launched. Yet it is widely considered a precursor to Bitcoin due to its peer-to-peer network, proof-of-work mining concept, and other cryptographic principles that influenced the creation of the Bitcoin network. While many have speculated that Szabo could be Nakamoto, he himself has denied the claims.

Cullen Hoback confirmed in an October 5 post on Platform X that the document "reveals a specific name," suggesting that he believes Bitcoin was started by one person. These expectations and speculations around Satoshi Nakamoto's identity are now generating a huge amount of public and betting interest.



Share shis article: