American computer scientist Nick Szabo has emerged as the top Satoshi candidate on Polymarket ahead of HBO's big reveal.
At press time, 26% of Polymarket bettors believe that Szabo will be identified as Satoshi in the much-anticipated documentary, which is set to debut on Tuesday.
As reported by U.Today, the late cryptographer Len Sassaman initially emerged as the overwhelming favorite. Sassaman, an accomplished academic, tragically committed suicide shortly after Satoshi's disappearance.
Szabo, of course, has long been among the top Satoshi candidates. He is best known for developing the "bit gold" digital currency in the late 1990s. Szabo also came up with the idea of smart contracts around the same time. All the way back in 2013, researcher Skye Grey told TechCrunch that Szabo is the creator of Bitcoin based on text analysis and other facts such as the lack of citation of the cryptographer's work by the Satoshi persona.
Notably, Tesla CEO Elon Musk himself has floated the idea that Szabo might be Satoshi. During a Lex Fridman podcast in 2021, Musk said that Szabo was the one "more responsible" for the creation of Bitcoin than anyone else.
Despite some compelling evidence, the computer scientist has explicitly denied that he is Satoshi on numerous occasions.
Musk also acknowledged this fact during the aforementioned podcast appearance, which is why the billionaire stated that he did not know who Satoshi was.
The Tesla CEO, of course, is also on the list of Satoshi candidates. As reported by U.Today, former SpaceX intern Sahil Gupta claimed that Musk was responsible for creating Bitcoin.
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