Polymarket traders have started betting on who the HBO documentary “Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery” will unmask as Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous creator of Bitcoin.
Polymarket Betting on Satoshi Nakamoto’s Identity
On Oct. 4, Polymarket traders opened a betting market for the reveal of Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin. The market is set to resolve on Oct. 8, coinciding with the premiere of the new HBO documentary titled “Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery,” which promises to uncover the true identity of Bitcoin’s anonymous creator. In 2011, Satoshi disappeared from public view, giving rise to numerous theories about who Satoshi truly is.
Leading Contenders in the Betting Market
At the time of writing, most Polymarket bettors believe Satoshi could be cryptographer Len Sassaman, who holds the highest rank on the betting board with 54% odds. Sassaman’s academic works focused on cryptography and reflected a strong commitment to privacy and decentralization. Conspirators also note that Sassaman died by suicide in 2011, shortly after Satoshi stopped posting on Bitcoin’s forum BTCTalk.
“The entry with the second highest votes is ‘Other/Multiple’ with 38% odds, suggesting that the Bitcoin creator could either be multiple people or someone completely unknown.”
Aside from Sassaman, many also believe Hal Finney could have been Satoshi. With 16% odds, the American software developer was an early Bitcoin contributor and the first person to receive a Bitcoin transaction from Satoshi. In third place is Blockstream CEO Adam Back, one of the first two individuals to receive an email from Satoshi Nakamoto and who also features in the trailer for the upcoming HBO documentary.
Claims of Being Satoshi Nakamoto
From 2016 until 2024, Australian computer scientist Craig Wright claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto. He made this claim after Wired magazine and Gizmodo suggested that he was Satoshi in a December 2015 article. Wright has long proclaimed that he wrote the 2008 Bitcoin whitepaper under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. Despite winning a libel case against crypto blogger Peter McCormack, the court awarded him only £1 in damages due to “deliberately false evidence.”
However, in March, Judge James Mellor ruled that the evidence proving Wright was not Satoshi was “overwhelming.” This ruling came after the Crypto Open Patent Alliance initiated a legal battle to prevent Wright from suing Bitcoin developers. Following a rigorous two-month trial, the U.K. High Court officially ruled that Craig Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto and that he is not the author of Bitcoin’s whitepaper.
Stay tuned for more updates on this intriguing topic and other cryptocurrency news on Global Crypto News.
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