1/1

28056 x 15348 pixels, 300 ppi, 79.8 MB

Office Void

John Thurman

1/1

Mixed digital: edited AI, digital painting, collage, glitch

8895 x 14835 pixels, 300 pixels per inch, 41.9 MB, jpeg, 2024

Entropy in a Pixelated System

By 2008, when Satoshi released the Bitcoin white paper, the cypherpunk and cryptographer Len Sassaman had already been mentored by David Chaum, the "father of digital currency," whose own academic work led directly to the development of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. Chaum's creation Digicash allowed electronic cash payments between pseudonymous actors, though it failed according to Satoshi because of its centralized architecture.

Satoshi had a very rare set of skills including expertise in cryptography, economics, and P2P network engineering, and was also interested in privacy and cypherpunk philosophy. These aligned with Sassaman's own areas of expertise, which are all foundational to Bitcoin. 


Specifically, Sassaman developed remailers, which are specialized servers designed to send information packets anonymously, or pseudonymously. He was the primary dev on the Mixmaster remailer protocol, which used decentralized nodes to relay "fixed-sized blocks of encypted info across a P2P network" -- a direct precursor to Bitcoin's architecture. 

Alongside remailer dev Hal Finney, Sassaman also made important advances in PGP (public key) encryption, another technology central to Bitcoin's operation. And Finney was the first person after Satoshi to receive BTC, to write code for it, and to operate a BTC node. 

Sassaman's academic work under Chaum focused on solving the Byzantine General's Problem, which would allow for the operation of a distributed network even if some nodes were faulty or unreliable. Solving the problem would allow the secure operation of a decentralized cryptocurrency without relying on trusted third parties, while also solving the so-called "double spend problem". Satoshi solved this with his triple-entry accounting, built on Chaum's blockchain.
Another remailer dev associate of Sassaman's was Adam Back, whose Hash Cash proof-of-work system was designed to impose a non-trivial cost to sending emails, thereby counteracting spam and DDOS attacks on remailers. It is the basis for BTC's mining. Back was the first person with whom Satoshi communicated, and Satoshi cites him in his white paper.

Other circumstantial evidence also suggests a connection between Satoshi and Sassaman. The time stamps of their posting activiites correspond closely. Due to his idiosyncratic coding and use of MLA citation formatting in the BTC white paper, Satoshi is thought to have been an academic. Satoshi's pattern suggests a European night owl who took breaks during the busiest times of the student academic calendar, and was most active during summer and winter breaks. This is the period when Sassaman was a PhD candidate under Chaum in Belgium.

Also, Satoshi and Sassaman both employed British usages of English. And Sassaman was known to use pseudonyms to post to the same cypherpunk board where Satoshi's white paper was published.

One of the greatest mysteries surrounding Satoshi is why his horde of Bitcoin, estimated to be now be worth approximately $37 billion, has not been touched since 2011. In May of that year, Satoshi wrote "I’ve moved on to other things and probably won’t be around in the future." Two months later, Sassaman killed himself.

Two weeks later, a tribute to Sassaman, in the form of an ASCII portrait captioned "Len was our friend.  A brilliant mind.  A kind soul, and a devious schemer" was placed on-chain in the Bitcoin transaction data, and now appears on every node.

References:


Champagne, Phil. "The Book of Satoshi: The Collected Writings of Bitcoin Creator Satashi Nakamoto." e53 Publishing. 2014


evnanhatch.eth. "Len Sassaman and Satoshi: A Cypherpunk History". Medium. February 21, 2021. <<https://evanhatch.medium.com/len-sassaman-and-satoshi-e483c85c2b10>>

My portait is glitched and otherwise edited AI.


PS #1 Len Sassaman

1/1

digital painting with glitch

15,350 x 20,470 pixels, 300 pixels per inch, 85.0 MB, jpeg, 2024

Long Way From Home

1/1

AI; dithering; multiple glitching methods; collage, recoloring, and limited repainting in Photoshop

8736 x 4896 pixels (16:9), 300 pixels per inch, 21.9 MB, jpeg, 2025

Range

This ERC-7160 token contains at least 12 different 1/1 pieces in tribute to the film classic "Chinatown," commemorating its release 50 years ago.   

"Whores, politicians, and ugly buildings" depicts the great director John Huston as Noah Cross.  Having read several books about the making of various Huston films, and his checkered associations, let it suffice to say that I believe he was perfectly cast.

1/1

10,235 x 12,800 pixels, 300 pixels per inch,  67. 5 MB, jpeg, 2024

AI, glitch, digital painting, collage, and some polishing by selective repainting with AI generative infill.

Whores, politicians, and ugly buildings

1/1

deployed on Transient ERC-7160 token

16,380 x 20,480 pixels, 300 pixels per inch, 64.6 MB, jpeg, 2024

AI, glitch, collage, digital painting, and selective repainting with AI generative infill

Cracked

10752 x 5376 pxls, 300 ppi, 13.7 MB, jpeg

Fuzzy Dice (For Luck)

John Thurman's Pictures from Life's Other Side

In observance of the 15th anniversary of the October 31, 2008 publication of Satoshi Nakamoto's Bitcoin white paper, I have created a series of portraits of those generally considered likeliest to be or have been Satoshi.

Possible Satoshis

1/1

digital painting with AI, collage, and glitch

13312 x 13312 pixels, 300 pixels per inch, 43.5 MB, jpeg, 2023

A Portrait of the Artist as an Ambitious Young Cow

Paintings and Suchlike

1/1

Minted on ERC-7160

AI, glitch, collage, digital painting

5,824 x 3,264 pixels, 300 pixels per inch. 41.5 MB, png, 2024

Blandscape #1

Glitchscapes

0x837337F1a88FB83865f7a4c5c122Df976D278aF1crkc8bj

1/1

Minted on Transient ERC-7160

Mixed digital:  AI, glitch, collage

2936 x 3900 pixels (3:4), 150 ppi, 33.4 MB, PNG, 2024

Doxxed

Glitch Portraits

A landscape by Perry Ellis.

1/1

Minted on Transient Labs ERC-7160 token.

AI, collage, glitch

11,648 x 6,528 pixels (16:9), 300 pixels per inch, 92.6 MB, jpeg, 2024

The third piece from the collection "Glitches Get Stitches".

The Silken Mountains

1/1

Minted on Transient Labs ERC-7160 token

AI, collage, glitch

11,648 x 6,528 pixels (16:9), 300 pixels per inch, 74.4 MB, jpeg, 2024

The Visionary (Sam Who Empties the Garbage)

Glitches get Stitches

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The Mysteries part VI.

I always knew I'd end up this way.

1/1

Exhibited at Art Basel Miami by A2 Accelerate Art/Scope, December 2024

Mixed digital:  AI, glitch, collage, digital painting

19,200 x 10,740 pixels (16:9), 300 pixels per inch, 64.5 MB, jpeg, 2024

VI.  Institutionalized

Mysteries

The Mysteries part I

The observing of the observer.

Minted on Transient ERC-7160.

Featured as part of Artcrush Gallery's Artist Spotlight of the Month, June 2024.

Mixed digital: AI, glitch, collage, digital painting

8,000 x 16,000 pixels (1:2), 300 pixels per inch, 36.9 MB, JPEG, 2024

I.  The Voyeur

The Mysteries part III.

I'd made an enemy that day.

Minted on Transient ERC-7160.

Featured on the main stage of NFC Lisbon, May 2024.
Featured at Forbidden Fruit's "Not NFTNYC" at WTC's Oculus, NYC, April 2024

Mixed digital: AI, glitch, collage, digital painting

4,500 x 9,588 pixels (1:2), 300 pixels per inch, 20.1 MB, JPEG, 2024

III.  What are you looking at?

The Mysteries

Minted on Transient ERC-7160

1/1

AI, glitch, collage, digital painting

4080 x 7280 pixels, 150 pixels per inch, 44.7 MB, png, 2025

Wildflowers 22

1/1

mixed digital:  AI, glitch, digital painting, collage

4640 x  6160 pixels, 300 pixels per inch, 39.8 MB, png, 2024

Wildflowers 17

Wildflowers

Is this the story of the Johnny Rotten?

minted on ERC-7160

1/1

digital painting with AI "polish", glitch, and collage

3,200 x 3,200 pixels, 300 pixels per inch, 43 . 6 MB, png, 2025

NP 1:  Out of the Blue

0xdb184372c6486f6E79FDd05Fd1197FF87760fe6c98crf9x

Minted on ERC-7160 token

1/1

Mixed digital:  AI, glitch, collage, digital painting

5064 x 5208 pixels, 150 pixels per inch,  46.1 MB, png, 2025

Young Curtis' s Dream

1/1

digital painting, animated with Midjourney, stock audio

Square aspect ratio, 10800p, 12.8 MB, 9 seconds, MP4, 2025

Red, White, and Teal

The Life and Times of...

Minted on ERC-7160

1/1

AI, glitch, collage, digital painting 

7280 x 4080 pixels, 150 pixels per inch, 42 MB, jpeg, 2024

Riding in the Whirlwind, a Fresco

Minted on ERC-7160

1/1

AI, glitch, collage

2788 x 3344 pixels, 150 pixels per inch, 39.4 MB, png, 2024

The Paradox of Matter

Minted on ERC-7160

1/1

AI, glitch, collage, digital painting

7280 x 4080 pixels, 150 pixels per inch, 41.9 MB, png, 2025

Normal MF'ers

Minted on ERC-7160

1/1

AI, glitch, collage, digital painting

3264 x 5824 pixels,  150 pixels per inch,  40.6 MB, png, 2025

Murder Police

Poses

Minted on ERC-721

1/1

Glitched by the synthesized repainting of AI elements; multiple AI processes

6396 x 3570 pixels, 150 pixels per inch, 40.3 MB, png, 2025

That Lonesome Prairie Wind

Minted on ERC-721

1/1

Glitched by the synthesized repainting of AI elements

5824 x 3264 pixels, 150 pixels per inch, 35.7 MB, png, 2025

Wild Horses

Synth Glitch

Minted on ERC-721
1/1

Each frame is glitched through the synthetic repainting of AI elements.  Animated in Photoshop.

1632 x 2912 pixels, 150 pixels per inch, 6 frames, 16.7 MB, GIF, 2025

Still Life No. 1:  Sardines

Still Lifes

Edition of 25

AI, glitch, collage, digital painting

3640 x 2040 pixels (16:9), 150 ppi, 41.3 MB, png, 2025

In the MT5

Edition of 25

AI, glitch, collage, digital painting

3640 x 2040 pixels (16:9), 150 ppi, 36.9 MB, png, 2025

Escalator to Nowhere

A Drab Life Shot Through With Color

1/1

digital painting

640 x 640 pixels, GIF, 2025

Too Much Sun

1/1

digital painting with animation, sound
animated in Midjourney, sound created with elevenlabs

1080 x 1920, 25.9 MB, mp4, 2025

Truth Soundings

0x600F980CFeF17a3ce12d00d04466A19Fb4efd9027x7crbv

1/1

AI; textures added in Transient's Juno; glitching; some recoloring, collage, and repainting in Photoshop

6264 x 8436 pixels, 300 pixels per inch, 20.7 MB, jpeg, 2025

Something Like a Man

1/1

AI; multiple glitching methods; collage

6000 x 7997 pixels, 300 pixels per inch, 20 MB, jpeg, 2025

John Thurman (john-thurman)

John Thurman (john-thurman)

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