In the week before this documentary was released, online betting markets had suggested that cryptographer Len Sassaman, who was active in online circles similar to Satoshi, was the most likely candidate to be revealed as Bitcoin's founder. He was emerging as a person. Sasaman took his own life at the age of 31 in 2011, shortly after Satoshi disappeared.
Sassaman's case was first outlined in 2021 by Evan Hatch, founder of the crypto gaming platform Worlds. Whenever speculation about Sassaman surfaces on a regular basis, the spotlight shines on Meredith Patterson, the widow of a software developer who believes the theory is unsubstantiated.
“People in the old days were really nosy and entitled. They would have people write letters with a two-page list of dates and places and ask where I was at such-and-such a time or place. ” says Patterson. “Where do you get off? A complete stranger approaches the widow and tries to interrogate her, like, “Sergeant Joe Friday is a piece of shit.''
When Patterson heard rumors that her ex-husband's name might be mentioned in the documentary, her first thought was about her parents. He feared his parents would be targeted as a means of blackmailing him into handing over Satoshi's Bitcoin stash. “I called my dad and said, “Something weird happened and it's not our fault,'' she says. A friend who works in law enforcement in Belgium, where Patterson now lives, advised him to seek refuge at a local police station if he felt unsafe.
In the end, the problem was not something she could deal with. “My family and I were relieved that they named him Peter Todd,” Patterson said. “But I feel sorry for Peter Todd. Frankly, no one deserves to have a target drawn on their back.”
The position of many Bitcoin supporters, including Todd, is that there is nothing to be gained by looking for Satoshi. They say Bitcoin evolves in the absence of its creators and under a meritocracy of ideas, with changes proposed and decided upon by community votes. On the other hand, anyone accused of being Satoshi, accurately or not, has a lot to lose.
After the documentary aired, emails started flooding into Todd's inbox. “so far, [it’s] There are a lot of people asking for money,” Todd says. In one exchange seen by WIRED, an individual sent Todd 25 emails over two days asking for help repaying a loan.
