One of the most debated topics when it comes to Bitcoin is the identity of who hides behind the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto. Craig Steven Wright recently won a lawsuit against the heirs of his former collaborator David Kleiman, over ownership of a 1.1 million packet of Bitcoin, among the very first Bitcoins ever mined. Wright had previously stated that if he prevailed in the process, he would prove he was the creator of the cryptocurrency by accessing those Bitcoins and making transactions. The events of Craig Wright these days have rekindled the spotlight on the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto.
Every time the debate has opened up in recent years, everyone has made a name. Some have argued it was Gavin Andresen, who Nick Szabo, who Adam Back. But the first user of the network to ever receive #bitcoin from Satoshi was Hal Finney.
Within months of starting the bitcoin project, Finney was diagnosed with SLA. He died on August 28, 2014, at the age of 58. But he had withdrawn from the scene as early as 2011. It is since then that Satoshi stopped writing in the forums, in the mailing lists without leaving any trace, if not a message dating back to 2014, believed to be false.
What is believed to be the last message he left us online, speaks of his legacy, in bitcoin:
“Speaking of heirs, I got a surprise in 2009, when I was suddenly diagnosed with a fatal disease. I was in the best shape of my life at the start of that year, I’d lost a lot of weight and taken up distance running. I’d run several half marathons, and I was starting to train for a full marathon. I worked my way up to 20+ mile runs, and I thought I was all set. That’s when everything went wrong […] Today, I am essentially paralyzed. I am fed through a tube, and my breathing is assisted through another tube. I operate the computer using a commercial eyetracker system. It also has a speech synthesizer, so this is my voice now. I spend all day in my power wheelchair. I worked up an interface using an arduino so that I can adjust my wheelchair’s position using my eyes.
It has been an adjustment, but my life is not too bad. I can still read, listen to music, and watch TV and movies. I recently discovered that I can even write code. It’s very slow, probably 50 times slower than I was before. But I still love programming and it gives me goals. Currently I’m working on something Mike Hearn suggested, using the security features of modern processors, designed to support “Trusted Computing”, to harden Bitcoin wallets. It’s almost ready to release. I just have to do the documentation.
And of course the price gyrations of bitcoins are entertaining to me. I have skin in the game. But I came by my bitcoins through luck, with little credit to me. I lived through the crash of 2011. So I’ve seen it before. Easy come, easy go.
That’s my story. I’m pretty lucky overall. Even with the ALS, my life is very satisfying. But my life expectancy is limited. Those discussions about inheriting your bitcoins are of more than academic interest. My bitcoins are stored in our safe deposit box, and my son and daughter are tech savvy. I think they’re safe enough. I’m comfortable with my legacy.”
ALS is a disease that kills motor neurons, which carry signals from the brain to the muscles. It causes weakness first, then gradually paralysis. It is usually fatal in 2-5 years. Finney continued to work at first, but fatigue and voice problems forced him to retire in early 2011. Since then, the disease has continued its inexorable progression. Finney’s body lies in Arizona, hibernating, hoping that one day new treatments for ALS will bring him back to life. As mentioned, he was the first user of the network to have received bitcoin from Satoshi Nakamoto. Nakamoto had the task of testing a system in which trust was no longer placed in man but in code, ask yourself this question: who could I ever send the first bitcoins to and verify that everything is in order, works and that the transactions are at place, if not to himself? Who is the only person I can trust in the world if not me? Initially, everyone believed that he was Dorian Nakamoto, a Japanese-Japanese with glasses and graying hair. Which he denied. Hal Finney lived in the very same neighborhood as Dorian, on a parallel street, a stone’s throw from his house.
Finney put his programming skills at the service of his ideals, especially his desire to see the privacy of individuals protected. He was a cypherpunk and wrote in 1992 that cryptographic technology attracted him because he was concerned about the ability of companies and governments to spy on citizens. He built the first reusable proof-of-work system in 2004. Hal Finney wrote on LessWrong, a blog and forum focused on discussing cognitive biases, philosophy, psychology, economics, rationality and artificial intelligence, along with Wei Dai. There are many phrases attributed to him but we cannot confirm their veracity. Among these is a 1993 statement on CompuServe, in which he allegedly thought of “crypto-cards” for cryptographic art enthusiasts, anticipating NFTs.
