Who Is Hal Finney?

Hal Finney was a cryptographer and programmer who pioneered Bitcoin’s development and was the recipient of the first-ever BTC transaction. In 2009, Hal Finney had tweeted “Running bitcoin” a day before creator Satoshi Nakamoto sent 10 BTC to his address. Additionally, Finney was the first developer to have used and made some improvements on the Bitcoin protocol besides Satoshi himself. 

There are theories, which some people in the crypto community support, claiming that Finney might be the real Satoshi Nakamoto since a certain Dorian Nakamoto living nearby his area could probably have been the inspiration for the pseudonym. Finney’s writing had also been found to have the closest resemblance to Satoshi’s, according to analyst firm Juola & Associates.

However, later on, after Finney revealed the email messages between him and Satoshi, as well as his BTC wallet, journalist Andy Greenberg accepted Finney’s denial of being the Bitcoin founder.

Additionally, Finney has also worked on the encryption software for PGP Corporation and the first “remailer” for Tor, a browser that offers multi-layered anonymity. Despite succumbing to ALS on Aug. 28, 2014, Finney’s works are still being praised to this day as he remains one of the most iconic and influential developers in the tech industry.