我的朋友，中本聰？

HBO 即將上映的一部紀錄片重新引發了人們對於 Len Sassaman 是比特幣創造者的猜測。我認識萊恩。這個理論是合理的。

An HBO documentary coming out Tuesday has reopened speculation that my late friend Len Sassaman was Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous inventor of Bitcoin. The filmmaker claims to have confronted the person he believes is Satoshi face-to-face, which would make it unlikely Len, who committed suicide in 2011, is his suspect. Nevertheless, others have written convincingly and at length about Len’s technical chops that made him a logical Satoshi candidate.

週二上映的 HBO 紀錄片重新引發了人們的猜測，即我已故的朋友 Len Sassaman 就是比特幣的化名發明者中本聰 (Satoshi Nakamoto)。這位電影製片人聲稱曾與他認為是中本聰的人面對面對峙，這使得 2011 年自殺的萊恩不太可能是他的嫌疑犯。儘管如此，其他人還是以令人信服且詳細的方式描述了 Len 的技術能力，這使他成為合乎邏輯的中本聰候選人。

Whatever the film claims, I’d like to share the Len that I knew, and why I, too, think it's plausible that he was Satoshi.

無論電影講述什麼，我都想分享我所認識的萊恩，以及為什麼我也認為他是中本聰。

When I met Len Sassaman, he was wearing a rumpled jacket and tie. We were in another history teacher's living room at the Hill School, a boarding school in Pottstown, Pa. Len was in his junior year, and I, an alumnus working in the data center business, was back from the San Francisco Bay Area to visit Tom for a long weekend.

當我見到萊恩·薩薩曼時，他穿著一件皺巴巴的夾克，打著領帶。我們當時在希爾學校（賓州波茲敦的一所寄宿學校）另一位歷史老師的客廳裡。參觀湯姆度過了一個長週末。

Another mentor of mine had pointed out to me how technology and history influenced each other in cycles, and how great inventions change society and change the world. I shared this eureka moment with Len: that great skill in tech could be the lever that, if pulled hard enough, can move the world in the direction we want it to go.

我的另一位導師曾向我指出科技與歷史如何循環相互影響，偉大的發明如何改變社會、改變世界。我與萊恩分享了這個靈光一現的時刻：偉大的科技技能可能成為槓桿，如果拉得夠用力，就可以讓世界朝著我們希望的方向發展。

This was the moment in the discussion when Len went from being passive, shy, and reserved, to passionate and deeply engaged. Until that point, he had lived in a world that was shaped by the popular kids; seeing a path where he could help shape the future, without having to be in the limelight, caused a striking and immediate change in his posture, from slouching to erect and leaning forward and his eyes from downcast to wide open and looking directly at me.

這是討論中萊恩從被動、害羞、矜持轉變為熱情、投入的時刻。在那之前，他一直生活在一個由受歡迎的孩子塑造的世界裡。看到一條可以幫助塑造未來的道路，而不必成為眾人矚目的焦點，他的姿勢立即發生了驚人的變化，從無精打彩變為直立並向前傾斜，他的眼睛從低垂變為睜大，直視著我。

At this point, Tom sat back in his chair with a knowing smile on his face, occasionally getting up to make sure Len and I both had full cups of his infamous rocket fuel to keep the conversation going. We spent the next several hours talking about the importance of freedom of communication, online anonymity, and democratization of information. The conversation included developing open source software and standards, expressing our values through code, and creating software that could change the world, and predicting some of those impacts.

此時，湯姆靠在椅子上，臉上掛著會意的微笑，偶爾站起來確保我和萊恩都喝滿了他那臭名昭著的火箭燃料，以讓談話繼續下去。在接下來的幾個小時裡，我們討論了溝通自由、網路匿名和資訊民主化的重要性。對話包括開發開源軟體和標準、透過程式碼表達我們的價值觀、創建可以改變世界的軟體，並預測其中的一些影響。

Shortly after I moved to Los Angeles to work at NetZero, an internet service provider, Len moved to San Francisco. I introduced him to my friends in the North American Network Operators' Group (NANOG) and Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) communities, connecting him to my tribe on the path to him finding his own.

在我搬到洛杉磯在網路服務供應商 NetZero 工作後不久，Len 搬到了舊金山。我把他介紹給北美網路營運商組織 (NANOG) 和網路工程任務小組 (IETF) 社群中的朋友，在他找到自己的道路上將他與我的部落聯繫起來。

We stayed in relatively close contact for about 10 years after that. We wouldn’t talk for a while, and then I’d get an email or a text message asking “Do you have time for a call?” with no context. Some of those calls were quick questions about career advice as he was considering job offers, or whether he should stay at a role that wasn’t fully engaging to him. Those were usually quick calls because he just needed someone he trusted in the field to validate what he was thinking or seeing.

此後我們保持了大約10年的相對密切的聯繫。我們有一段時間沒有說話，然後我會收到一封電子郵件或一條短信，詢問“你有時間打電話嗎？”沒有上下文。其中一些電話是關於職業建議的簡短問題，因為他正在考慮工作機會，或者他是否應該留在一個對他來說並不完全有吸引力的職位。這些通常都是快速的電話，因為他只需要他在該領域信任的人來驗證他的想法或所見。

The longer calls were similar to the conversations on Tom's couch. We spent hours talking about the value of open and permissionless innovation, and how important the networks were that allowed people to build without having to ask permission.

較長的通話類似於湯姆沙發上的對話。我們花了幾個小時討論開放和無需許可的創新的價值，以及允許人們無需徵求許可即可進行構建的網絡的重要性。

We talked for hours about the trade-offs of allowing bad actors to do bad things versus the benefit of letting good actors move quickly without waiting for slow, conservative institutions to say yes.

我們討論了幾個小時，討論了允許壞人做壞事與讓好人迅速採取行動而不等待緩慢的保守機構答應的好處之間的權衡。

Ultimately, we agreed that the networks themselves should be completely open, and that the controls should be built at other layers, either with technology, whenever possible, or with law when absolutely necessary.

最終，我們一致認為網路本身應該完全開放，並且控制措施應該建立在其他層，無論是在可能的情況下使用技術，還是在絕對必要時使用法律。

This principle sits at the core of Bitcoin, and is perhaps its most valuable and enduring characteristic.

這項原則是比特幣的核心，也許是其最有價值和最持久的特徵。

There are many people who give logical reasons that Len could not have been Satoshi, but in my view, those people don’t know who Len was. Here are my responses to their points:

有很多人給了合理的理由，認為 Len 不可能是中本聰，但在我看來，這些人不知道 Len 是誰。以下是我對他們觀點的回應：

To be clear: Len and I never discussed Bitcoin and if he was Satoshi I can readily see why he wouldn't want to discuss it with me or any of our friends. At the end of the day, I have no idea if he was Satoshi. He certainly could have been, considering both his skills and who he was as a person.

需要明確的是：Len 和我從未討論過比特幣，如果他是中本聰，我很容易理解為什麼他不想與我或我們的任何朋友討論比特幣。到最後，我不知道他是否是中本聰。考慮到他的技能和他的為人，他當然可以。

In any case, Len was a wonderful person who deserved better than the world treated him. His memory shines brightly in my heart.

無論如何，萊恩是一個很棒的人，他應該得到比世界更好的對待。他的記憶在我心裡閃閃發光。

Thanks to Carl Jay Pardini, one of Len's close high school friends, for reviewing and fact checking this article.

感謝卡爾·傑伊·帕迪尼 (Carl Jay Pardini)，Len 的高中好友之一，審查並核實了本文。