- Hal Finney has been remembered by the Bitcoin community seven years after his death
- Finney was instrumental in developing Bitcoin and received the first ever Bitcoin transfer
- Finney is cryogenically frozen at a facility in Arizona
Hal Finney was remembered by the Bitcoin community over the weekend as they marked the seventh anniversary of his passing. The cypherpunk and cryptocurrency pioneer was pivotal in the creation of Bitcoin and was the recipient of the first Bitcoin transfer, from Satoshi Nakamoto on January 12, 2009, a day after Finney’s now infamous ‘Running bitcoin’ tweet. Finney is cryopreserved in Arizona, raising the prospect that Bitcoiners in the future might one day meet the man who helped create their beloved cryptocurrency.
Finney Created Reusable Proof-of-work Algorithm
Hal Finney was 58 years old when he died on August 28, 2014, after a five-year battle with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Having qualified from Caltec as an engineer in 1979 he worked as a computer coder and developer for his entire career until his retirement in 2011, including for the PGP Corporation, a technology critical to Bitcoin.
Finney was one of the few who saw the Bitcoin whitepaper in 2008 and realized its potential. Bitcoin utilized his reusable proof-of-work consensus algorithm, and he helped Satoshi Nakamoto develop the protocol, being instrumental in its state leading up to its launch in 2009. Finney published a famous tweet just a few days after the launch of the Bitcoin blockchain:
Running bitcoin
— halfin (@halfin) January 11, 2009
Just a day after this, Finney received the first transfer of bitcoin.
Satoshi Nakamoto Candidate?
Finney’s development of Bitcoin from its earliest stages led to him being considered as a candidate for the title of its creator, but he always denied this. Following his death in 2014, Finney’s body was taken to a cryonics facility in Scottsdale, Arizona and frozen, with the company stating that it will wait “until such time as we have technologies to repair the problems he had such as ALS and the aging process.”
Finney’s role in the creation of Bitcoin is well documented, and it is a great pity that he is no longer alive to see the fruition of his efforts. Hopefully one day he will get the chance to see it for himself.
Seven years ago today, Hal Finney left us.
Rest in peace to the husband, father, and cypherpunk who contributed to #Bitcoin in ways we’ll all never forget. 🙏 pic.twitter.com/beXhCkPFH4
— Documenting Bitcoin 📄 (@DocumentingBTC) August 28, 2021
Hal Finney was a Cypherpunk and the recipient of the first Bitcoin transaction, from Satoshi.
He helped launch PGP and pioneered the last major innovation in digital cash before Bitcoin, RPoW in 2004.
He passed away 7 years ago, and is now cryopreserved.
Keep running, Hal ✌️🙏 https://t.co/mVRhZd057Y
— Alex Gladstein 🌋 ⚡ (@gladstein) August 29, 2021
R.I.P. Hal Finney 🧡
It would be so nice if you were here when #Bitcoin breaks the $100k wall. ✌️😌🃏 pic.twitter.com/Kp7pKCzBqd— BitcoinJoker 🃏🟩∞/21M (@BitcoinJoker42) August 28, 2021
