In the week before the documentary was released, the online gambling markets had Len Sassaman, a cryptographer who moved in similar online circles as 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 case for Sassaman was first outlined in 2021 by Evan Hatch, founder of crypto gaming platform Worlds. Whenever speculation about Sassaman periodically surfaces, the spotlight is turned on his widow, software developer Meredith Patterson, who believes the theory is baseless.
“People used to be very curious and entitled. I had people write to me with a two-page list of dates and locations, asking where I was at such and such a time or place,” says Patterson. “Where do you get off? A complete stranger who approaches a widow and tries to question her. It's like, screw Sergeant Joe Friday.'
When Patterson learned that the documentary might mention her former husband's name, her first thought was her parents, who she feared would be targeted as a way to threaten her into turning over Satoshi's bitcoin stash. “I called my dad and said, something strange happened and it's not our fault,” she says. A friend who works in law enforcement in Belgium, where Patterson now lives, advised her to seek refuge in her local police station if she felt unsafe.
Ultimately, the problem wasn't hers to solve. “I was relieved for myself and my family that they named Peter Todd,” says Patterson. “But I feel sorry for Peter Todd. Frankly, no one deserves to have a target painted on their back.”
The position of many Bitcoin proponents, 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 through community voting, they say. In the meantime, there is plenty to lose for anyone accused of being Satoshi, whether justified or not.
After the documentary aired, emails flooded Todd's inbox. “Until now, [it’s] a group of people asking for money,” says Todd. In a conversation seen by WIRED, someone sent twenty-five emails over two days asking Todd to help pay back a loan.
