New Documentary Claims Two Cryptographers Built Bitcoin Together

A Fresh Theory on Bitcoin's Origins

A newly released documentary is shaking up the long-standing mystery of Bitcoin's creator, arguing that Satoshi Nakamoto was not a single pseudonymous genius but a two-person collaboration. The film, directed by Tucker Tooley and Matthew Miele, premiered globally on 22 April following a four-year investigation led by author William D. Cohan and private investigator Tyler Maroney. It lands just two weeks after a major newspaper investigation named Blockstream CEO Adam Back as a leading suspect, a claim Back firmly denies.

Narrowing the Suspects

The investigation whittled a list of candidates down to six: Adam Back, Nick Szabo, Hal Finney, Len Sassaman, Paul Le Roux, and Wei Dai. A central piece of the analysis came from data scientist Alyssa Blackburn, who studied Satoshi's early mining and communication patterns. She found the creator was predominantly active between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. Pacific Time, a rhythm she says only matched Finney and Sassaman.

Division of Labour

The film theorises that Finney handled the code while Sassaman authored the nine-page whitepaper. Will Price, a PGP Corp. co-founder who worked with Finney for fifteen years, recalled that Finney made no commits to his day job in the two months preceding Bitcoin's genesis block in January 2009. Finney's widow, Fran Finney, offered qualified support, saying she believed her husband helped build Bitcoin, though she doubted he wrote the whitepaper himself.

The Sassaman Connection

Len Sassaman was a student of David Chaum, a foundational figure in cryptography. He died by suicide in July 2011, about six months after Satoshi's final public communication. Bram Cohen, the creator of BitTorrent and a friend of both men, told filmmakers their interests perfectly matched what is known about the mysterious creator. Cohen even suggested that Sassaman's public criticism of Bitcoin was a deliberate smokescreen.

An Enduring Mystery

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong praised the documentary as the most thoughtful treatment of the subject yet. Security researcher Jameson Lopp called it a plausible conclusion that may finally end the chase. Yet neither widow is believed to have access to Satoshi's private keys, and the estimated 1.1 million Bitcoin linked to the creator have never moved, keeping the ultimate proof tantalisingly out of reach.