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By Edgy - October 7, 2024

The Satoshi Mystery: Len, Hal or Someone Else?

Satoshi, the pseudonymous founder of Bitcoin, has a god-like status in crypto. Nobody knows his identity for sure. But now, you can make money by betting on his identity.

The age-old debate of “Who is Satoshi?” was stirred up by a new HBO documentary titled “Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery.” The documentary explores Bitcoin’s origins and delves into the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, claiming to reveal never-before-seen clues.

It’s caused such a stir that a betting market has popped up on Polymarket, with over $4.7 million in volume.

Screenshot — Source: Polymarket screenshot

Now, before you get too excited, let’s clear up what this market is really about: it isn’t trying to guess who Satoshi actually is. It’s simply betting on who HBO will identify as Satoshi. HBO will release the documentary tomorrow.

Sounds like an easy way for the filmmakers to make a quick buck, right? And if you assume that insiders will seize this chance, you can hop on the bandwagon and place some bets on the leading candidates yourself.

Let’s take a closer look at two top contenders for Satoshi’s identity.

Len Sassaman

Len Sassaman is a name that often comes up in Satoshi discussions, and for good reason. Here’s why many believe he could be the mysterious creator of Bitcoin:

A Cypherpunk at Heart: Bitcoin is a key product of the cypherpunk movement, and Len was a well-known cypherpunk.
The Right Skill Set: Bitcoin’s creation required knowledge of economics, cryptography, and P2P networks. Len had deep expertise in all these domains.
The Mysterious Disappearance: Satoshi vanished in 2011, leaving a final message saying, “I’ve moved on to other things and probably won’t be around in the future.” Len’s life ended two months later, with his death being ruled a suicide.
Unfinished Business: Len’s suicide coincides with several uncompleted Bitcoin features, ongoing debates about Bitcoin’s vision, and an untouched fortune of 1,125,150 BTC.
The Right Personality: Creating Bitcoin requires a certain level of ideological commitment and a hacker ethos. Len was known to embody these traits.

Determining whether someone could be Satoshi isn’t a simple task. It requires a deep dive into their technical skills, ideological commitments, personal influences, and more. I can’t cover it all here, but if you want a more detailed case for Len, this article is really good.

Whether Len was Satoshi or not, he undoubtedly helped lay the foundations of the crypto industry. After his death, a memorial was even embedded into the Bitcoin network in Block 138725.

Now, we can’t be 100% sure he was Satoshi. Even Len’s wife doesn’t think he was. She said so herself.

Hal Finney

Hal Finney is another name that often surfaces when discussing Satoshi’s identity. In fact, he was the earliest and most significant contributor to Bitcoin after Satoshi. Here’s what makes him a prime candidate:

Skills to Build It: Hal had the technical skills needed to create Bitcoin.
First Bitcoin Recipient: He was the first person to receive Bitcoin, sent directly from Satoshi.
Reusable Proofs of Work: Hal invented this concept. Bitcoin’s mining system is based on that.
Early Builder: He was the first person other than Satoshi to contribute to Bitcoin’s code and run a Bitcoin node.
Close Correspondence: Satoshi corresponded extensively with Hal even before Bitcoin’s release. In one of their last messages, Satoshi publicly expressed respect for him.
More evidence. More arguments can be read in this X thread that analyzes emails from Satoshi to make the case for Hal.

Others in the Line-Up

Len and Hal might be the front-runners, but they’re not the only suspects. Names like Adam Back and Nick Szabo also have significant credibility. If I covered everyone, we’d be here till next Thursday!

I’m not much of a gambler, but if I were on Polymarket I’d go with Len Sassaman shares. His story just feels the most convincing to me.

But here’s the thing: I don’t really want to know who Satoshi is. The person (or people) behind Bitcoin clearly wanted to remain anonymous. Unmasking Satoshi could have serious consequences, putting them and their families at risk of extortion or worse.

Sometimes, it’s better to let legends remain legends.

Sponsored By Kelp

One-Click Airdrop Farming: Gain by Kelp’s agETH Vaults

We’ve already talked about Gain several times here.

Gain is a vault program that streamlines your participation in airdrop strategies. When you deposit assets, you receive agETH (Gain’s receipt token) that allows you to participate in DeFi while automatically farming +7 layers of rewards.

Today, we’ll talk more about the benefits of agETH. First, you can earn agETH in several L2’s (Arbitrum, Linea & Scroll).

How?

Deposit rsETH and/or ETH on these L2s
Bridge your existing agETH from Ethereum mainnet to these L2s
Once inside the L2s, head to Kelp dApp and wrap your agETH.axl into agETH

But Edgy, what are the benefits of holding agETH?

3x Kelp Miles
EIGEN Tokens
Top Scroll Marks
3x Karak Network XP
15% boost on LXP-L from Linea
Scroll users are eligible for a 50k $USDC incentives pool.
Share of 300k $AXL if you’re bridging/natively minting $agETH on these L2s.
and much more

Yeah, you earn all this by just holding the asset. If you’re a more DeFi lover, there are several DeFi opportunities too.

On ETH: Pendle, Balancer, Yearn and Spectra
On L2s: Nuri (Scroll), Nile (Linea), Camelot (Arbitrum)

With more opportunities coming with Radiant, Zerolend and Rho Markets.

Maximize rewards with minimal effort. Hold agETH today →

Chart of the week

What’s Up With Aerodrome?

When a protocol doubles its TVL in just a month, you know it’s time to sit up and take notice. The protocol might as well be waving and shouting, “Hey, over here!”.

In the above chart, Aerodrome doubled its TVL in September.

What is Aerodrome? It’s the leading decentralized exchange on the Base chain. And imo, it’s got one of the best DEX designs out there. If you’re itching to dive deeper, you can check out their documentation here.

On September 26th, we called $AERO a solid bet while discussing some hot chains. Well, since then the token has pumped over 25%. This is despite the overall bearish market sentiment.

Why is $AERO Pumping?

Alright, let’s break this down. There are two big reasons for this pump.

1. The Fundamentals Are Stronger Than Ever
The project’s fundamentals are on fire. Let’s take a look at some numbers, shall we?

In September alone, they raked in a whopping $15.9 million in revenue. And October is already off to a great start with $5.3 million!
Last month, they facilitated a mind-blowing $9.67 billion in trading volume. This month, they’ve already hit around $2.5 billion in the first week alone. Not too shabby!
Weekly active addresses? Through the roof! We’re talking a jump from 27.8k on September 1st to 67.2k today.
Back in early September, Aerodrome’s Total Value Locked (TVL) was sitting at around $580 million. Fast forward to now, and that number has doubled to a staggering $1.19 billion.

New buyers are hopping on the $AERO train. In early September, it only had 172k tokenholders. Now, it has risen to 193.7k now.

You get the idea—the project is killing it. But wait, there’s more.

2. The Base Narrative

People are starting to become bullish on Base. Since Base chain doesn’t have its own native token, $AERO has become the go-to way to bet on Base. Here’s why:

More than 50% of Base’s TVL is on Aerodrome. That’s some serious market share!
As the default DEX on Base, any activity on the Base chain is bound to boost Aerodrome’s metrics.
It’s one of the OG projects exclusive to Base. So, it is heavily tied to the chain.

So, yeah, it’s all pretty bullish news for $AERO holders. But hold on! Things got a little dramatic last week…

The Andre x Aerodrome Drama

Andre Cronje, a controversial OG DeFi builder, took a not-so-subtle jab at Aerodrome.

So, what’s the tea? Aerodrome is “heavily inspired” (some say forked) by Solidly, an open-source project created by Andre under the GPL3 license.

Legally, any modified versions of that code need to be distributed under the same license. But Aerodrome released the code under the BUSL license. Why? To protect their business interests—it restricts the usage of Aerodrome’s code for a certain period.

Now, does Andre have a right to be a bit salty? Sure. He wasn’t even mentioned in the website or documentation.

But before you start grabbing the popcorn for a legal battle, hold on. From what we’re hearing, the Aerodrome team is in touch with Andre, and things seem to be cooling down.

So, for now, $AERO holders can breathe easy. No drama-induced panic selling needed!

🚀 DeFi Catalysts

EtherVista has released $VISTA staking. By hardstaking, users can earn a third of the trading fees from VISTA transactions and Boost fees.

EigenLayer and LayerZero introduced a new framework for Crypto-Economic Decentralized Verifier Networks (DVNs).

Axelar Network introduced the Axelar Mobius Development Stack (MDS). It is a new interoperability standard leveraging the AXL token utility.

Solayer “soft” introduced $sUSD. It’ll be a yield-bearing stablecoin powered by US Treasury Bill interest.

Synthetix has passed SR-2. The changes will include SNX token redesign, Operationalized SNAX Chain, and more.

🪂 Airdrop Alpha

Cosmos ecosystem is expecting some airdrops. Here’s a list of potential airdrops alongside some details.

Linea will distribute the LXP tokens collected during Culture Szn to users. Click here for more details.

Plena, a crypto super app powered by account abstraction, announced benefits for LunarKey NFT. It includes a guaranteed $PLENA airdrop.

Puffer Finance has announced the launch of season 2 of their incentive program. They’ve already taken the snapshot for the token launch.

🚀 New Launches

VOOI, a cross-chain perp DEX aggregator, launched a Telegram version of their trading application. Users can start paper trading with live market data.

Rujira released its landing page and docs. It’s a merger of ThorChain and Kujira that unites fragmented DeFi tools into a seamless experience.

Kinto, a safety-first L2 for finance, introduced Musabi. It’ll enable swapping assets across Ethereum with fingerprint without leaving the Kinto-insured wallet.

$EIGEN tokens that should’ve been locked were sold for ~$5.5 million. EigenLayer still hasn’t given a satisfactory explanation.

Shape, a new Ethereum L2 focusing on creators, is live. Creators on Shape can claim back 80% of sequencer fees

📰 Industry News

SWIFT will start live trials of digital asset transactions in 2025. This can lead to the integration of public blockchains with TradFi operations.

Ethereum is discussing a new proposal that will improve L1 performance. The primary aim is to reduce slot time from 12 seconds to 8 seconds.

Puffer Finance introduced L2 execution preconfirmations. It is a key technology that provides fast transactions for users of based rollups.

🐦‍⬛ X Hits

$EIGEN bull case.
A financial lens on top DeFi protocols
State of wallets in 2024
Three pillars for L1 token flywheels
Are crypto companies finding PMF?

😂 Meme

^{Source: @boldleonidas}

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Betting on Satoshi’s identity?