Len Sassaman was a American technologist and renowned cypherpunk specialized in cryptographic systems. He stood out for his activism in favor of civil rights and virtual privacy. In addition, he contributed significantly to the development of the PGP system and showed interest in cryptography applied in finance. His tragic and sudden death brought with it a series of speculations about whether Sassaman is actually Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin technology. In this Cryptopedia we tell you its story.
1 Who was Len Sassaman and what were his contributions to cryptography?
Len Sassaman was born on April 9, 1980 in Pennsylvania. In 1998 he graduated from The Hill School and at an early age was part of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), an organization that is responsible for technical standards that make up the network protocols. At the age of 18 he was diagnosed with depression, a disorder with which he would have to fight for the rest of his life.
Len Sassaman, important cryptographer and cypherpunk. Source: Wikimedia commons. In 1999 he moved to San Francisco, where he became a notable member of the cypherpunk community. His roommate was Bram Cohen, none other than the founder of BitTorrent and the programmer responsible for the creation of the peer-to-peer (p2p) protocol. Sassaman later worked as a security architect and systems engineer for Anonymizer, a company dedicated to privacy, computer and network security. He later participated in the PGP encryption software and frequently appeared at major technology conferences such as DEF CON, held annually in Las Vegas. With the help of Bram Cohen, the cryptographer founded CodeConan annual conference for software hackers and technology enthusiasts that ran from 2002 to 2009. Sassaman was also responsible for organizing protests against the arrest of Dmitry Sklyarov, a young Russian who spoke at DEF CON and was arrested for allegedly violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by writing ElcomSoft's Advanced eBook Processor software. In 2006, Sassaman proposed marriage to the renowned computer scientist and writer Meredith L. Patterson. This happened at the fifth CodeCon, during a question and answer session after one of his presentations. Together they did several investigations and collaborations, including a criticism of the security flaws of OLPC (One Laptop per Child) and Bitfrost, which were low-cost computers intended to promote children's education.
Sassaman proposes to Patterson during a CodeCon. Source: Wikimedia commons. Len Sassaman's research focused primarily on the development of technologies that will optimize privacyas well as in the design of protocols to meet specific user needs. Sassaman believed in the importance of systems taking into account the factors of human interaction; That is to say, their projects should not remain only in theory, but should be verified in practice, considering the human agent. For this reason, he closely followed fields such as Applied Programming and HCI (Human Computer Interaction or Human-Computer Interaction in Spanish).
Len Sassaman's death and obituary in Bitcoin
On July 3, 2011, Sassaman's wife notified her death due to suicide. As we know, the cryptologist had been battling depression since he was very young, which would explain the reasons for his death. In honor of Sassaman's work, and to remember his commitment to digital privacy, an obituary was embedded in the Bitcoin blockchain. In the tribute we can see the young man's immortalized face in an alphanumeric code. This tribute has also served to support the theory that Sassaman is Satoshi Nakamoto.
Tribute to Len Sassaman on the Bitcoin blockchain. Source: Wikimedia.org
2 Len Sassaman's contributions to OpenPGP and friendship with Phil Zimmermann
Len Sassaman was a contributor to the OpenPGP working group, a public key system created by cryptographer Phil Zimmermann. This project was very important and revolutionary, as it consists of an open standard that guarantees that PGP encryption technology is accessible and kept up to date. Both individuals and companies use OpenPGP to protect confidential information, trade secrets and personal data. In addition, these two technologists together created the Zimmermann-Sassaman Key Signing Protocol, which accelerates the verification of the public key fingerprint. As a curious fact, this protocol was invented during a key signing party where Werner Koch, the creator of GNU Privacy Guard, was also present.
3 Sassaman's relationship with the cypherpunk movement
Len Sassaman not only participated in the cypherpunk movement's mailing list, but was one of its most active members. The technologist shared values with other members such as privacy, security and freedomwhich constituted the pillars of this group. On the other hand, they were all united by the predilection to develop decentralized technologies and digital monetary systems. Likewise, the young cryptographer maintained correspondence and collaborations with important members of the group, such as Tim May, engineer and political writer, and Eric Hughes, mathematician and programmer. Their discussions laid the foundations to later develop technologies of the magnitude of Bitcoin.
The Cypherpunk Manifesto
In the Cypherpunk Manifesto written by Eric Hughes, we find, in summary, the beliefs shared by this group of programmers, cryptographers, scientists and journalists. Among his most iconic phrases we can highlight: “Privacy is the power to selectively reveal oneself to the world.”
4 Len Sassaman's relationship with Bitcoin technology
Len Sassaman was interested in the defense of digital privacy and in creating a fairer monetary system, values that coincide with the objectives of Bitcoin. In addition, he shared an interest in making cryptography enable a more secure, efficient and decentralized financial system. However, there is no evidence that he had any major participation in the development of Bitcoin technology, beyond the emails and knowledge shared with other members of the cypherpunk movement. Now, due to his somewhat mysterious and withdrawn personalityhis steadfast values, and the strange conditions of his death, it is believed that Sassaman was not only involved with Bitcoin, but was also its creator. Circumstantial evidence has also been found that could support those who support this theory.
5 Why is Len Sassaman believed to be Satoshi Nakamoto?
One of the reasons why it is believed that Sassaman could be Nakamoto is because his death in 2011 coincides with the time in which Satoshi stopped participating actively in the development of Bitcoin. In April of that same year, Nakamoto sent his last public message, in which he communicated, as usual, with Gavin Andresen. There he requested the following: “I wish you would not talk about me as a mysterious figure in the shadows. The press turns that angle into that of a pirate coin. Instead, try to explain it as an open source project and give more credit to the contributors; “That helps motivate them.” This raises the following question: What if Nakamoto did indeed disappear, but not for the reasons we think? Would this be some kind of final farewell? Saddened and worried about being discovered, would Sassaman have committed suicide to remain forever anonymous? It is known that Len Sassaman He did not like to express opinions about Bitcoin. No quote or opinion of his about this technology and its creator is preserved. This makes him one of the most discreet candidates for Satoshi Nakamoto's true identity.
6 What evidence is there to support the Sassaman-Nakamoto theory?
The evidence is inconclusive. If we look at the cryptographic evidence, Sassaman never used any private key or account belonging to Nakamoto. What he did do was contribute to the cypherpunks email list through which the Bitcoin whitepaper circulated. On the other hand, it is believed that the young cryptographer supposedly encrypted the entire contents of his computer, which makes it currently impossible to access his digital information. This would explain, according to those who support this theory, why Nakamoto's cryptocurrency wallet has remained unchanged all this time. It is also believed that Sassaman could have been Nakamoto thanks to his extensive knowledge of cryptographysince the young technologist certainly had the necessary skills to develop Bitcoin technology. In addition, he held several conferences and actively participated in the development of cryptographic tools focused on offering financial solutions.
Meredith L. Patterson's opinion on her husband's identity
Amid so much speculation, Len Sassaman's widow, Meredith L. Patterson, was not afraid to express her clear dissatisfaction with this theory; She categorically denied that her husband was Satoshi Nakamoto. His statements are not new, since similar statements circulated in 2022. At the time, Patterson was also adamant about Sassaman's identity.
Patterson claims that Sassamann was not Satoshi. Source: send Bitcoin to an IP addressa factor that Sassaman would not have overlooked. Meredith refers to the first versions of Bitcoin in which money could be sent directly to an IP address, which simplified the process but put privacy at risk; This detail violated users, since IP addresses could easily be linked to identities. Satoshi later deleted this feature so that transactions would be pseudonymous, not allowing payments to IP addresses. Despite Meredith's unwavering stance, not everyone close to Sassaman is ruling out the possibility that he is Satoshi Nakamoto. Bram Cohen, his former roommate, claims that Sassaman posted on the cypherpunks list under a pseudonym. In addition, Len also encouraged Cohen to publish BitTorrent under a pseudonym, which raised Cohen's suspicions at the time; Why did Sassaman have this inclination to keep everything hidden, from anonymity? Despite everything, Cohen also emphasizes that Sassaman was his best friend and that he does not feel very comfortable talking about the subject.
A documentary that aims to offer answers
The theory that Satoshi Nakamoto is the young and mysterious Len Sassaman It has been circulating for several years. However, the topic once again gained relevance and popularity thanks to the HBO documentary titled “The Mystery of Bitcoin.” As a result of this, speculation about Sassaman being Satoshi became relevant again. In Polymarket, for example, 46% of participants opted for Len. However, it should be noted that Meredith Patterson stated that HBO never contacted her to conduct the investigation. Regardless of Sassaman's relationship with Nakamoto and the speculation surrounding it, the important thing is to remember his contributions to the world of encryptionhis studies on applied cryptography and his interest in making programs take into account the human factor. Additionally, Sassaman was a renowned advocate for digital privacy and freedom of expression. Currently, his wife Meredith is responsible for promoting the importance of mental health and showing us different facets of Len, not only as a cryptographer, but as a human being.