Bitcoin and me (Hal Finney)

[Andrew717]

Quite a nice little inheritance left for the kiddies!  About $1.2 million at todays prices.

https://blockchain.info/address/157i5gK7iN4bNAN39Ahuoiq6Tx5TaQukTE

[1713414497]

1713414497

[1713414497]

1713414497

[1713414497]

1713414497

[1713414497]

1713414497

[1713414497]

1713414497

[1713414497]

1713414497

[Phinnaeus Gage]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2014/03/25/satoshi-nakamotos-neighbor-the-bitcoin-ghostwriter-who-wasnt/

But in following the clues that led me to Finney, I found something equally significant: a dying man who had been something like a far-more-brilliant Forrest Gump of cryptographic history: a witness to and participant in practically every important moment in the recent history of secret-keeping technologies. From the development of the first widely used strong encryption software known as PGP, to early anonymity systems, to the first Bitcoin transaction, Finney was there.

[Bit_Happy]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2014/03/25/satoshi-nakamotos-neighbor-the-bitcoin-ghostwriter-who-wasnt/

But in following the clues that led me to Finney, I found something equally significant: a dying man who had been something like a far-more-brilliant Forrest Gump of cryptographic history: a witness to and participant in practically every important moment in the recent history of secret-keeping technologies. From the development of the first widely used strong encryption software known as PGP, to early anonymity systems, to the first Bitcoin transaction, Finney was there.

It pointed out that Hal Finney had lived for almost a decade in Temple City, the same 36,000 person town where Newsweek found Dorian Nakamoto. Finney’s address was only a few blocks away from the Nakamoto’s family home.

This was an uncanny link: Finney is known to be the second-ever user of Bitcoin after Satoshi Nakamoto himself. He had been one of the first supporters of the idea when Nakamoto floated it on a cryptography mail list, and even received the first Bitcoin test transaction from Nakamoto in early 2009, as Finney himself wrote in a post to the Bitcointalk forum.


The article is also suggesting Dorian really is Bitcoin Satoshi:
Nakamoto had even seemed to give Newsweek a tacit confirmation of its theory when he told the magazine’s reporter that he was “no longer involved in that,” a quote confirmed in essence by local police who witnessed the interaction.

...but later they mention Dorian's writing doesn't match.

[CryptoPanda]

Mr. Finney, I just read the forbes article about you. It literally made me cry! You are an amazing person and this messed up world needs more idealistic people like you.
I'm truly inspired by your personality and work! You have my deepest respect for ever!
This world is a better place because of you and your contributions!

[sbfree]

Mr. Finney, I just read the forbes article about you. It literally made me cry! You are an amazing person and this messed up world needs more idealistic people like you.
I'm truly inspired by your personality and work! You have my deepest respect for ever!
This world is a better place because of you and your contributions!

maybe this can help him and his family alittle.

http://redd.it/21eajg

hopefully it does reach him!

[BitOnyx]

With resent NSA related events, new kind of Cypherpunks might get popular again.

Thanks for sharing with us.

[pitchbend]

Your story and your contribution to cryptography in general and bitcoin in particular is really humbling and inspiring.

I'm really glad that despite your condition now, you keep moving forward, you've got to experience such an interesting times/interact with such an intereseting people, and the fact that your impressive legacy will live on.

Thanks Hal.

[capa]

Hi Hal,
You are an inspiration to us all. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

[Soomple_Pompler]

The best thing I took away from your tale was how you made mining and bitcoin a family activity.  When I first started with bitcoin I let it consume me, and I began neglect other things around me, including my family.  I was going through a pretty dark period and I lost sight of the important things in life.  I plan to now use bitcoin to teach my wife about internet security and identity protection, and my son about cryptology, philosophy, and technology as he gets older.  Thank you for this inspiration, I almost gave up on this activity because of what I went through.  Now I have a reason to enjoy it and make a stronger bond with my family.

Besides, my wife has always been better at managing money than myself!   

Dave

[googlemaster1]

Lookin' Good Hal http://newsbtc.com/2014/03/31/forbes-andy-greenberg-starts-bitcoin-fundraiser-hal-finney/

Wish we could have you back on the forums.  Be well.

[Bit_Happy]

Lookin' Good Hal http://newsbtc.com/2014/03/31/forbes-andy-greenberg-starts-bitcoin-fundraiser-hal-finney/

Wish we could have you back on the forums.  Be well.

Medical expenses must be huge for him.
I'm so glad to hear there is a fundraiser.

[CoinRocka]

Inspiring stuff.  Best wishes Hal !!

[casinocoin]

Lookin' Good Hal http://newsbtc.com/2014/03/31/forbes-andy-greenberg-starts-bitcoin-fundraiser-hal-finney/

Wish we could have you back on the forums.  Be well.

Medical expenses must be huge for him.
I'm so glad to hear there is a fundraiser.

Especially because hes residing in the US still,

from the als website

"ALS can strike anyone at anytime, regardless of age, gender, or ethnic origin. It does not affect the senses, and only rarely does it affect the mind. The equipment costs for each patient average $137,000, while nursing and home care costs can be up to 10 times this amount."

We need andreas on this campaign as well.

If you still are able to pop by,
want to say thanks Hal.

[BitCoinDream]

Your story let me have more confidence in bitcoin. Thank you for your sharing.

I also want to share you something. The whole database of bitcoin private key: http://key.btc123.com/1

You can find all of the bitcoin private key in the database.

Why r u spamming this link everywhere ? Those are already at directory.io and are repetitive after a certain page. Not even 10^(-100)% of total bitcoin addresses available.

[Vlad2Vlad]

Hal, I'm curious how come a real tech genius like you didn't launch a coin, just out of sheer intellectual curiosity, to see how you could twist the code for perhaps a better final outcome?

You had plenty of time and it wouldn't have taken too much effort; given a good design wouldn't need constant maintenance or updating and you could actually make that part of the proof, to show that you created a coin which could stand up to any test, even the test of time.

I hope you get to read this post and respond to it.


Good luck to you and God bless you and your family!


Regards,

Vlad

[pozmu]

Vlad, plenty of time?
He had to retire in 2011 because of ALS.
This was before the whole altcoin fever, he was focused on Bitcoin.
 

[Vlad2Vlad]

Vlad, plenty of time?
He had to retire in 2011 because of ALS.
This was before the whole altcoin fever, he was focused on Bitcoin.
 

It literally takes an hour to clone and launch an alt coin.

Given he would have launched a great coin means he would have done it in maybe 30 days.

From 2009 to 2011, that leaves plenty of time.

Last year when I first heard about Bitcoin there was no alt coin fever (there were maybe 12 alts) and I was actually first to say alts were gonna blow up, and we'd have 3,000+ by 2015. A notion which was crazy and which got me called insane.

I think the really smart people saw early one on big this was gonna get, so just like I launched a coin right away, even though I can't program a single line of code, I'm shocked these guys didn't launch one coin if nothing else, just to test out new ideas and theories, since Bitcoin is not perfect.

I'm saddened that we may never know what a Hal Finny coin may have looked like.  The coin devs we have today, for the most part, are blind, short sighted and lack any vision and on top of it, most are scammers too.

To lose a real genius with true talent and skill without him having launched his own coin, literally hurts me.

By next year we'll at least get corporate, hedge fund and celebrity devs coming in. Sad in a way but million dollar coins will at least be done right and will [overnight] kill all these ShitCoins and forever do away with their scammer devs.

[Mike Hearn]

Actually Hal did launch his own coin, which predated Bitcoin and was based on totally different technology:

http://cryptome.org/rpow.htm

[Vlad2Vlad]

Actually Hal did launch his own coin, which predated Bitcoin and was based on totally different technology:

http://cryptome.org/rpow.htm

There is no possible way this guy is Satoshi!

I did some research on Hal and I think he is a real genius which is why I'm bummed he never launched a coin. (Or did he?)

That said, there is a near ZERO probability Hal is Satoshi.

If you read up on the Bitcoin Protocol and all that was required to conceive it, build it, and TEST IT to get it working as well as it has, given so many unknown and unpredictable variables, it becomes clear that Bitcoin was not built and developed by one guy, and it would have taken at least 5+ years, unless you had a whole team and the best gear money could buy.

Whomever Satoshi is, it is not just one guy.  It is at least 3 different people (and they most likely all had nail-gun "accidents" by now).  Haha!

And do you guys think the message hidden inside the name Satoshi Nakamoto was an accident?

Do we have any statisticians here?

What are the odds Satoshi Nakamoto has, by sheer accident, the hidden message of:  Clearly Thinking inside the Foundation?

And, if that is a hidden message, what could that possibly mean?

Off the top of my head, I put the odds at tens of millions to 1.  

[Vlad2Vlad]

Being part of the project could be possible.  It would make sense.

His getting a terminal disease after the project was done makes sense too, but I don't know Hal's family history.  There could be a good explanation to his sudden diagnosis, like a family history with the same disease.

There's reason to be paranoid.  Odd deaths and suicides surrounding cryptos.

The NameCoin Dev recently died and not a single word in the media.

Why is that weird?

He was only 27.  And he died of a heart attack.

If you're a dev in the crypto space you should be careful what you say and don't own any nail-guns.

Speaking of which:  I say way too much.  Like right now for instance.