The week before the premiere of the documentary, online betting markets He had Len Sassaman, a cryptographer who moved in online circles similar to Satoshi, as the most likely candidate to be revealed as the creator of Bitcoin. Sassaman took his own life in 2011 at the age of 31, shortly after Satoshi disappeared.
The Sassaman case was first described in 2021 by Evan Hatch, founder of crypto gaming platform Worlds. Whenever speculation about Sassaman periodically surfaces, attention focuses on his widow, software developer Meredith Patterson, who believes the theory is unfounded.
“People used to be fucking nosy and entitled. I would get people to write to me with a two-page list of dates and places, asking me where I was at this or that time or place,” says Patterson. “Where do you get off? A complete stranger approaches a widow and tries to question her. It’s like, fuck Sergeant Joe Friday.”
When Patterson learned that the documentary might name her ex-husband, her first thought was of her parents, who she feared might be attacked as a way to threaten her into handing over Satoshi’s bitcoin stash. “I called my dad and told him: Something strange has happened and it’s not our fault,” he says. A friend who works in law enforcement in Belgium, where Patterson now lives, advised her to take shelter at the local police station if she felt unsafe.
In the end, the problem was not his. “I was relieved for myself and my family that Peter Todd was appointed,” Patterson says. “But I feel sorry for Peter Todd. Frankly, no one deserves to have a target painted on their back.”
The stance of many Bitcoin advocates, including Todd, is that there is nothing to be gained from chasing Satoshi. In the absence of its creator, Bitcoin has evolved under a meritocracy of ideas, in which changes are proposed and decided by a community vote, they say. In the meantime, there’s a lot to lose for anyone accused of being Satoshi, whether accurately or not.
After the documentary aired, emails started arriving in Todd’s inbox. “So far, it’s a bunch of people asking for money,” Todd says. In one exchange seen by WIRED, an individual sent twenty-five emails over the span of two days asking Todd to help him pay off a loan.