Nakamoto ResearchLen Sassaman |
Version | v0.3.0 | |
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| Author | obxium | License | BY-NC-ND |
Leonard Harris Sassaman (April 9, 1980–July 3, 2011) was a prominent figure in the field of computer security and privacy. He was an OG cypherpunk, PhD student, entrepreneur, and startup founder. Sassaman contributed to projects like the Mixmaster anonymous remailer, and involved in the development of technologies that enhance user privacy online. He was also an advocate for digital rights and privacy issues.
He was pursuing a PhD at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium, and known for his work on cryptography, particularly in relation to anonymous communication systems. He was a researcher with the Computer Security and Industrial Cryptography (COSIC) research group, led by Bart Preneel. David Chaum and Bart Preneel were his advisors.
| Detail | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Leonard Harris Sassaman | |
| Birth date | April 9, 1980 | |
| Birthplace | Pottstown, Pennsylvania, USA | |
| Family: parents | Jim and Dana Hartshorn | (from Bitcoin tribute) |
| Family: siblings | Calvin | (from Bitcoin tribute) |
| Family: spouse | Meredith L. Patterson | m. 2006 |
| Family: children | ||
| Education | Katholieke Universiteit Leuven | |
| Fields | Computer science, anonymous remailers | |
| Employment | COSIC, Network Associates, KnownSafe, Inc. | |
| Affiliations | Cypherpunks mailing list, Shmoo Group | |
| Residence | Leuven, Belgium | |
| Website | ||
| Social | ICQ:10735603, LiveJournal |
Privacy was a key theme in Sassaman’s research:
My research is centered around the topic of privacy enhancing technologies. In particular, I am focused on both attacking and defending anonymous communication systems, exploring the applicability of information-theoretic secure systems for privacy solutions, and designing protocols which satisfy the specific needs of the use case for which they are applied. I have a very strong interest in the real-world applicability of my work; while some of what I do is pure theory, I have always held the believe that if a system cannot be implemented easily or be easily understood by the implementors, its utility is limited. Similarly, I believe that usability is a security concern; systems that do not pay close attention to the human interaction factors involved risk failing to provide security by failing to attract users. Thus, I follow closely the fields of HCI and Applied Programming as well as Information Theory, Cryptography, and Anonymity.
Publications authored or co-authored by Sassaman:
This was a shared server situation hosting many subdomains and user homes.
http://quickie.net
(offline)http://sion.quickie.net
(offline)lhs@quickie.netrabbi@quickie.netsysadmin@quickie.netOddly, Wayback Machine scans of the same IP on November 30, 2001 show a different website about gaming titled GAME and WEB HOSTINGS : TVO PRODUCTIONS with the following footer content:
Best viewed with Microsoft Internet Explorer over Netscape at 800 x 400 and not 1024 x 768 pixels
TVO PRODUCTIONS © 2001 since 1997 / v2.3 / / tho@thovo.comPerhaps this is explainable by Quickie.Net taking over a recently active IP address, but whatever the case, the next scan to occur on January 21, 2002 reveals the Quickie.Net page content:
Quickie.Net
Site under construction, offline until further notice.
If you are looking for the homepage of L.
Sassaman , follow this link.
For Andrew
Schaefer follow that.
For Sankin, go here.
And for Mycroft, go there.
len.sassaman@esat.kuleuven.behttps://securehomes.esat.kuleuven.be/~lsassama/
(offline)rabbi@anonymizer.comrabbi@cryptorights.orglen@deor.org (“I can be reached at len at deor
dot org.”)
rabbi@deor.org(www.inetu.net)
An Allentown, Pennsylvania based managed hosting company
lhs@inetu.nethttp://www.melontraffickers.com
(offline)rabbi@melontraffickers.comLen_Sassaman@nai.com(“Hidden Name Services”)
http://www.abditum.com (offline)http://www.abditum.com/~rabbi
(offline)rabbi@abditum.com
len@pgp.comlhs@talon.netrabbi@talon.netLSassaman@unconundrum.com| uid | fingerprint | key | packets |
|---|---|---|---|
| L. Sassaman (Archival Key – not for email use) | 566b5ca8a73334aaa482586f38d9dba83af92bd0 | key | packets |
| L. Sassaman rabbi@quickie.net | ba48e94bfc3c6ed6e5458e299fdd29eef05144c9 | key | packets |
| L. Sassaman rabbi@quickie.net | 7a1a407fb1ca7e4eae85e7303d8af1b209ac0a6a | key | packets |
| L. Sassaman len@pgp.com |
Some of the forums and mailing lists that Sassaman participated in or subscribed to:
List of some newsgroups that Sassaman participated in:
Dan Kaminsky presented at Black Hat USA 2011, and shared a testimonial to Sassaman written to the Bitcoin blockchain in block 138725 with transaction hash 930a2114cdaa86e1fac46d15c74e81c09eee1d4150ff9d48e76cb0697d8e1d72:
---BEGIN TRIBUTE---
#./BitLen
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=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
LEN "rabbi" SASSAMA
1980-2011
Len was our friend.
A brilliant mind,
a kind soul, and
a devious schemer;
husband to Meredith
brother to Calvin,
son to Jim and
Dana Hartshorn,
coauthor and
cofounder and
Shmoo and so much
more. We dedicate
this silly hack to
Len, who would have
found it absolutely
hilarious.
--Dan Kaminsky,
Travis Goodspeed
P.S. My apologies,
BitCoin people. He
also would have
LOL'd at BitCoin's
new dependency upon
ASCII BERNANKE
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----END TRIBUTE----Related: Len Sassaman Project
Articles and research about Sassaman as Nakamoto:
SNNO minted by obxium in 2022 on a custom Ethereum ERC-1155 contract restricted to one token.
“Also I have a vague memory - mostly because Len told me about it and I wasn’t paying close attention - that there was a nym called Product Cipher which pseudonymously posted the first ring signatures implementation to cypherpunks and then disappeared.”
“The implication with that one seemed to be that it was Hal or Len or some combination of the two, very unsure though, and don’t know if it got clarified later.”
“Len also tried to get me to publish BitTorrent pseudonymously which seems indicative of something”
A few points which cast doubt on the possibility that Sassaman was Nakamoto do exist.
Len Sassaman’s widow Meredith Patterson doesn’t think Sassaman was Nakamoto. Commenting on the article Len Sassaman and Satoshi: a Cypherpunk History published by Evan Hatch in 2021, she Tweeted:
“It’s a very well-researched and respectful article, but to the best of my knowledge, Len was not Satoshi.”
Given their close personal and professional relationship, it’s difficult to imagine that Sassaman withheld knowledge about the creation of Bitcoin from Patterson, but not impossible.
After all Bram Cohen was close friends with Sassaman, and tweeted this on March 3, 2021:
“It’s a bit emotional for me to talk about this, but I will say that Len posted pseudonymously on the cypherpunks list constantly, including at least one fleshed-out and long-lived handle, and even I didn’t know what it was”
Sassaman spoke publicly about Bitcoin, posting dozens of Tweets on the topic, like:
“Personally I think bitcoin is overhyped, but the hype itself is interesting.”
and showing pessimism about Bitcoin learning from prior art:
“I’d be more optimistic about BitCoin if I had the impression that they were acting on lessons learned from prior attempts.”
and engaging with Zooko Wilcox, the Zcash cryptocurrency founder:
“You have the choice to avoid using Internet banking entirely. What’s the equivalent choice with bitcoin?”
His last Tweet about Bitcoin:
“… and The Economist runs a story on Bitcoin.”
Sassaman’s public words on Bitcoin undoubtedly leave the impression that he didn’t really like Bitcoin, but one can’t wonder if all this was just a ruse.
Since Sassaman died in 2011, some believe that he couldn’t possibly be Nakamoto, because of this lone P2P Foundation’s forum post allegedly made by Nakamoto in 2014:
From:
Satoshi Nakamoto
Subject:
Bitcoin open source implementation of P2P currency
Date:
March 7, 2014 at 01:17:00 UTC
I am not Dorian Nakamoto.In a wild turn of events, P2P Foundation itself revealed on September 9, 2014 that the GMX email account, which Nakamoto originally used to announce Bitcoin in the P2P Foundation’s Ning forum got hacked.
This seriously calls into question the validity of the March 7, 2014 post because that email account could have reset the password to the forum account, so whomever was controlling it at the time could have posted to appear as Nakamoto.
This author doesn’t accept the 2014 post as a true communication by the entity associated with the Satoshi Nakamoto persona.
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│ ⚠ THIS CONTENT MAKES NO CLAIMS ABOUT THE IDENTITY OF SATOSHI NAKAMOTO │
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