A private investigator’s report lands on a dual-man theory to solve Bitcoin’s foundational mystery. Bill Cohan and Tyler Maroney’s "Finding Satoshi" investigation concludes Hal Finney built the code while Len Sassaman authored the white paper. They argue the only logical explanation for a $50 billion fortune lying dormant for 15 years is that both men are dead.
The investigation relies on witness testimony, not AI linguistics. The team spoke to the widows, Fran Finney and Meredith Patterson, and colleagues including BitTorrent creator Bram Cohen. They found Finney’s peers described him as a brilliant C++ coder who lacked the specific academic writing style of the Bitcoin paper. Sassaman, known for his pseudonym-prone behavior, filled that gap.
"This isn’t based on linguistic AI models, but on testimony from the widows… and colleagues like BitTorrent creator Bram Cohen."
- Bill Cohan & Tyler Maroney, Bankless
Bitcoin’s launch as a challenge to central banks now carries deep irony. JP Morgan Chase recently posted a $16 billion quarterly profit. The asset Satoshi created to humble Wall Street is now a high-yield vehicle on its balance sheets. The report argues institutional capture transformed Bitcoin from a medium of exchange into a speculative asset.
The choice of a pseudonym was strategic defense, not criminal secrecy. Investigators link it to the Cypherpunk era, where Phil Zimmerman faced federal investigation for treating encryption code as a weapon. Using the Satoshi alias was standard procedure to let the technology mature without its creators becoming targets for prosecution.
By the time Bitcoin accrued major value in 2011, both Finney and Sassaman were facing terminal crises. Their permanent silence cemented the myth and eliminated a single point of failure. The $50 billion wallet remains a monument to their partnership and a shield that ultimately worked.
"The pseudonym provided a defensive layer that allowed the technology to mature before the creators could be targeted."
- Bill Cohan & Tyler Maroney, Bankless
The idealism of anonymous digital cash persists, but its original architects are gone. The fortune they built is frozen, and the system they designed now serves the institutions it was meant to escape.
