Bitcoin and me (Hal Finney)

[itsthakinghomie]

Happy Anniversary.  RIP  Hal Finney.

[fillippone]

The bitcointalk community stands on the shoulders of giants like Satoshi and Hal.
We are lucky to be part of this incredible community, and we have the responsibility to take on what they started.
Thank you Hal, for inspiring me, everyday.

[forward_habit_9365]

9th anniversary of this life-changing thread.
Rest in peace to the husband, father, and cypherpunk who contributed to Bitcoin in ways we'll never forget.

[verita1]

Rest in Peace, Hal Finney! 🌹
Legend! ⭐
Thanks to Satoshi, Hal and the team!
The legacy that you have left to humanity is invaluable.
Now that we know that bitcoin is something very precious, not thinking of it in greed but in how useful it is to have it, as it is to break the chains.

Thank you for creating Bitcoin for us.

[carpatian_turtle]

RIP, dear friend!

We will never forget you!

✌️

[Libyanrav9]

Absolute legend! Rest in peace, Hal Finney.
BTC

[testerx]

Saw that it’s been 9 years since this post…I remember reading it way back when Hal first posted it.

Even though we never met IRL, you are missed Hal.

[macson]

Bitcoin is the most beautiful gift on earth right now, with satoshi and you ^{(hal finney)} have made the world better and more beautiful.  This is a legendary topic and will be remembered throughout March 19th every year ^{(it's a form of appreciation for great people who contributed to Bitcoin)}.  RIP hal

[yangxin325]

Epic story, life worth it.God bless you.

[heartbeat_]

thanks for everything Hal!
Rest in Peace!
Allah rahmet eylesin. God bless you.

[Fivestar4everMVP]

Am ashamed to say that this is my first time on this thread, and I want to appreciate @jack (former Twitter CEO) for bringing me here.

And am saddened to learn that this legend^Hal is gone to be with his creator, but I find solace in the fact that legend like this are never forgotten, for they have written their names in the sands of time, and their good deeds will always speak for them as long as the earth continue to exist.

You are a million men in one man Hal, you are an inspiration, a motivator, and may you continue to rest in the blossom of the lord... Amen.

[bitbollo]

https://cointelegraph.com/news/happy-birthday-hal-finney-crypto-community-honors-world-s-first-known-bitcoiner

Yesterday (04 May) it was the birthday of Hal Finney. First bitcoiner, true legend...

The initial post written by Hal, let me tell you, is the most exciting of the whole forum.
His message, his story, is touching, something human, out of the ordinary, prophetic, brilliant and unique. As if describing the flame of a candle, in its colors, in its strength ... and how a candle cannot last forever.

He has dedicated his last thoughts to this creation essentially give importance to the utopian value of such a creation and not the economic implications.
We should do this too. We can all be better people beyond our role in modern society.

[fillippone]

He has dedicated his last thoughts to this creation essentially give importance to the utopian value of such a creation and not the economic implications.
We should do this too. We can all be better people beyond our role in modern society.

I have a special relationship with this thread.
I read it many times, and every time I have a thrill down my spine.
I posted a few rows above to celebrate the 9th anniversary of this piece of writing, so beautifully crafted

Happy birthday Hal, the greatest bit coiner the world known.

[Wind_FURY]

https://cointelegraph.com/news/happy-birthday-hal-finney-crypto-community-honors-world-s-first-known-bitcoiner

Yesterday (04 May) it was the birthday of Hal Finney. First bitcoiner, true legend...

The initial post written by Hal, let me tell you, is the most exciting of the whole forum.
His message, his story, is touching, something human, out of the ordinary, prophetic, brilliant and unique. As if describing the flame of a candle, in its colors, in its strength ... and how a candle cannot last forever.

He has dedicated his last thoughts to this creation essentially give importance to the utopian value of such a creation and not the economic implications.
We should do this too. We can all be better people beyond our role in modern society.

It's too bad that Bitcoiners like him, people who are most knowlegeable and who has the most invaluable insights in cryptocurrency networks as a whole are gone, or have left the forum. It would have been very nice to be guided by them.

Plus the first pictures I saw of Hal Finney was him already wheelchair-bound, sick with ALS. I believe many people did too, and were probably also truly surprised to learn that he ran marathons, and that he was very active before the sickness.

[BDK95]

Hi Mr. hal finney its so sad seeing you not alive here among us but i m happy to read that you passed your body to a alcor life to freeze your body so you can see the world using bitcoin i wanna say to you that now we are in the mid or almost not the mid we are in the beginning of that infact el Salvador its the first country to adopt bitcoin as a legal tender and central Africa republic its just the beginning.
but my goal of writing my reply is that when i was reading about you i was feeling that you are a true bitcoiner like you can sell the most expensive thing you have and exchange it in bitcoin. And besides that you was suffering from that disease and you till happy and thankful for life that's amazing.
again nice to meet you sir HALL FINNEY

[development.bitcoin.org]

Hi Mr. hal finney its so sad seeing you not alive here among us but i m happy to read that you passed your body to a alcor life to freeze your body so you can see the world using bitcoin i wanna say to you that now we are in the mid or almost not the mid we are in the beginning of that infact el Salvador its the first country to adopt bitcoin as a legal tender and central Africa republic its just the beginning.
but my goal of writing my reply is that when i was reading about you i was feeling that you are a true bitcoiner like you can sell the most expensive thing you have and exchange it in bitcoin. And besides that you was suffering from that disease and you till happy and thankful for life that's amazing.
again nice to meet you sir HALL FINNEY

Absolute legend! Rest in peace, Hal Finney.
BTC

[madbit1000]

I remember most of the early days when bitcoin was just a getting started myself. I remember someone telling me bitcoin was going to be huge in 2009. It caught my eye, but I failed to really understand So didn't get involved or make my first purchase back in the days of buying from the forum in 27$ batches until around 2011 when i started mining using usb Asics. Which was a good 2 years after you were first involved in minting the first blocks and the lives of the many people it touched. Whilst there are people that still doubt bitcoin and many others like Cardano and Ethereum, I can see a day when everyone will look back and thank you guys for the work you put in to really change people's lives forever and for the good. Rest in peace, my friend.

May Satoshi shine through when we need their presence most.

I may be a small part of this journey but will be here until the days pass.

Legend, R.I.P

[DeathAngel]

RIP Hal, thanks for everything you did in the early days. Your legacy will never be forgotten, people will read about you in decades to come. What a legend, your family will forever be proud.

[Esther C]

I thought I'd write about the last four years, an eventful time for Bitcoin and me.

For those who don't know me, I'm Hal Finney. I got my start in crypto working on an early version of PGP, working closely with Phil Zimmermann. When Phil decided to start PGP Corporation, I was one of the first hires. I would work on PGP until my retirement. At the same time, I got involved with the Cypherpunks. I ran the first cryptographically based anonymous remailer, among other activities.

Fast forward to late 2008 and the announcement of Bitcoin. I've noticed that cryptographic graybeards (I was in my mid 50's) tend to get cynical. I was more idealistic; I have always loved crypto, the mystery and the paradox of it.

When Satoshi announced Bitcoin on the cryptography mailing list, he got a skeptical reception at best. Cryptographers have seen too many grand schemes by clueless noobs. They tend to have a knee jerk reaction.

I was more positive. I had long been interested in cryptographic payment schemes. Plus I was lucky enough to meet and extensively correspond with both Wei Dai and Nick Szabo, generally acknowledged to have created ideas that would be realized with Bitcoin. I had made an attempt to create my own proof of work based currency, called RPOW. So I found Bitcoin facinating.

When Satoshi announced the first release of the software, I grabbed it right away. I think I was the first person besides Satoshi to run bitcoin. I mined block 70-something, and I was the recipient of the first bitcoin transaction, when Satoshi sent ten coins to me as a test. I carried on an email conversation with Satoshi over the next few days, mostly me reporting bugs and him fixing them.

Today, Satoshi's true identity has become a mystery. But at the time, I thought I was dealing with a young man of Japanese ancestry who was very smart and sincere. I've had the good fortune to know many brilliant people over the course of my life, so I recognize the signs.

After a few days, bitcoin was running pretty stably, so I left it running. Those were the days when difficulty was 1, and you could find blocks with a CPU, not even a GPU. I mined several blocks over the next days. But I turned it off because it made my computer run hot, and the fan noise bothered me. In retrospect, I wish I had kept it up longer, but on the other hand I was extraordinarily lucky to be there at the beginning. It's one of those glass half full half empty things.

The next I heard of Bitcoin was late 2010, when I was surprised to find that it was not only still going, bitcoins actually had monetary value. I dusted off my old wallet, and was relieved to discover that my bitcoins were still there. As the price climbed up to real money, I transferred the coins into an offline wallet, where hopefully they'll be worth something to my heirs.

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.

My body began to fail. I slurred my speech, lost strength in my hands, and my legs were slow to recover. In August, 2009, I was given the diagnosis of ALS, also called Lou Gehrig's disease, after the famous baseball player who got it.

ALS is a disease that kills moter neurons, which carry signals from the brain to the muscles. It causes first weakness, then gradually increasing paralysis. It is usually fatal in 2 to 5 years. My symptoms were mild at first and I continued to work, but fatigue and voice problems forced me to retire in early 2011. Since then the disease has continued its inexorable progression.

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.
[edited slightly]

No words but I’m happy for you total stranger that you kept up your optimism through it all. It’s also good to know that you’re doing what you love and doing what you’ve always done.
I hope you get well soon. And one more thing, you mentioned the documentation of your release, if you need help with that, you can reach out to me. estheradamuchris@gmail.com

[hZti]

The account was revived by his wife and launched a fundraising marathon to find a cure for the illness that Hal died from. Donations are accepted in bitcoins.

That is a very good opportunity to raise money, since there are still so many illnesses that can not be cured, simply because there is not to much profit to be made with inventing the medicine. Lets see if this is a success and lets hope that bitcoiners will support this cause.