The Bitcoin (BTC) neighborhood is celebrating the anniversary of cypherpunk and Bitcoin pioneer Hal Finney’s publish telling the world that he was operating the Bitcoin Node software program on January 10, 2009.
“We’re operating Bitcoin,” Finney mentioned on X (previously often known as Twitter). Finney was the recipient of the primary Bitcoin transaction on the community.
He was born on Might 4, 1956, pursued a profession in laptop science and cryptography, and was one of many first to reply to the publication of the Bitcoin whitepaper by Satoshi Nakamoto.
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Satoshi despatched Finney 10 BTC, value over $900,500 in at the moment’s costs, and was additionally one of many earliest contacts with Nakamoto, resulting in hypothesis that Finney is definitely Satoshi Nakamoto.
Sadly, Finney handed away in 2014 from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a degenerative neurological illness that step by step impairs motor operate. He was 58 years outdated.
Finney’s 2009 publish is now central to Bitcoin lore and marks the early phases of a decentralized peer-to-peer digital money community.
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Is Hal Finney Satoshi? hypothesis continues
In 2024, the media community HBO aired a documentary collection titled: Cash Electrical: The Thriller of Bitcoinclaimed to have found Nakamoto’s true id.
The documentary spurred debate over Satoshi’s true id, with some claiming that Finney was Satoshi attributable to his talent set, a number of revealed crypto analysis papers, and being the primary individual to obtain BTC from Satoshi.
Laszlo Hanec, a developer well-known for transferring 10,000 BTC for 2 pizzas and being the primary particular person to make use of BTC in business transactions, has beforehand mentioned that Satoshi isn’t aware of Mac OS, Apple’s working system for computer systems.
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In keeping with Finney’s 2010 on-line postings, he and his spouse each owned Mac OS computer systems.
Jameson Ropp, co-founder of crypto asset administration firm Casa, additionally offered proof in 2023 that solid doubt on Finney’s id as Satoshi.
Finney ran a marathon race throughout an e-mail trade between Satoshi and one other software program developer.
Ropp mentioned the ultimate e-mail, despatched about two minutes earlier than Finney crossed the end line, was definitive proof that Finney was not Satoshi.
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