The Mystery of John Dobbertin

In 2016, 6 computer scientists worked together to help launch Zcash. 5 are known. The 6th is the pseudonym John Dobbertin. Tomorrow, Dobbertin will unmask. I already know who it is.

Before getting too far into this, I want to clearly disclaim that I do not know with 100% certainty who John Dobbertin actually is. I am about 95% sure that I know who it is. I’ll explain why in a moment. But first, if you want to better understand the six scientist ceremony that took place when building the Zcash network, I’d encourage you to watch the video below:

Since that is out of the way, here is a list of the six computer scientists who participated in the Zcash ceremony:

1. Andrew Miller

2. Peter Van Valkenburgh

3. “John Dobbertin” (pseudonym)

4. Zooko Wilcox

5. “Moses Spears” (secretly Derek Hinch)

6. “Fabrice Renault” (secretly Peter Todd)

Peter Todd is a Bitcoin developer and Derek Hinch is a cybersecurity expert from NCC Group. Zooko is the CEO of Electric Coin Company, which is the lead developer of Zcash. Andrew Miller is a computer scientist and associate professor at UofI. Peter Van Valkenburgh is a research director for Coin Center.

Tomorrow, the world finds out who John Dobbertin is. The Zcash community has been having some fun with this for a while. And yesterday, we got a big set of clues.

The Clues

This is the exact message that was sent to some ZEC holders on-chain yesterday:

The sixth man in the Ceremony: He helped make Zcash safe. For no stake and no interest, But the benefit of the public. He is a man without a home, yet everywhere all at once. He taught himself so he could teach us all. The times begin to change when he is on Time. A hero to some, a villain to others. What a mystery we are in, to know John Dobbertin.

Analyzing these clues, there are three big points that jump out to me:

1. Time is capitalized even though it isn’t the first word in the sentence. Indicating proper noun. Certainly seems to be a reference to Time Magazine.

2. Hero to some, villain to others.

3. Man without a home, yet everywhere at once.

John Dobbertin is Edward Snowden

Let’s start with point number 1: has Edward Snowden ever been on the cover of Time? Yes. Is he a villain to some and a hero to others? Yes. Does he have a home? If you can consider exile a home, maybe. But he’s certainly everywhere on the internet. I think it fits.

Snowden has also spoken very highly of Zcash in the past publicly.

Zcash Warrior @ZKnowl3dg3

Privacy is a fundamental human right and is necessary for ensuring freedom on the internet. Here is a small summary why @Snowden's favourite cryptocurrency is Zcash. #ZEC $ZEC #ZCASH #CRPTO

And he was in the Zcash video that I shared with you guys over the weekend:

That’s a whole of circumstantial evidence. But to me all signs point to Snowden as being the true identity of John Dobbertin. What do you guys think?