What ever happened to Hal Finney's bitcoin?

[southafricadude]

Hal Finney must have accumulated a ton of bitcoin.
What ever happened to them?
After his death, have they been sold?

[1714761255]

1714761255

[1714761255]

1714761255

[gentlemand]

The man himself has the answer.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=155054.msg1643833#msg1643833

He mined a bit but soon stopped. They were a worthless curiosity when he mined them though from reading his exchanges with Satoshi he was clearly thinking about future value.

At the bottom of the post he mentions he's left the coins stored in a safe deposit box.

[alyssa85]

Hal Finney must have accumulated a ton of bitcoin.
What ever happened to them?
After his death, have they been sold?

They sold a lot of it to pay for his medical treatment in the years before his death, plus teh costs of cryonicly freezing him:

https://www.wired.com/2014/08/hal-finney/

Finney never quite got rich from his early bitcoin involvement, according to Fran. Much of their savings went toward his health care as his condition deteriorated. They traded the majority of his bitcoins for dollars long before the currency's spike in value late last year.

After my story on Finney's life and work, bitcoiners donated 25 bitcoins to Finney and his family, a sum that's worth close to $12,500 today. Initially, Fran Finney tells me, the family intended to spend that money to buy Finney a new computer interface that would use an electromyographic (EMG) switch to read electric signals from surface muscle, allowing him to better control his voice and writing software. But the interface was incompatible with the few muscles Finney still controlled, leaving him locked in a body that increasingly prevented him from communicating at all.

So instead, the bitcoin donations will now go toward Finney's cryonic procedures, along with a life insurance policy the Finneys have maintained for years to prepare for Alcor's substantial fee. "Once we realized that Hal wasn’t going to be able to use the EMG switch, this was our next choice," says Fran. "The bitcoins will cover a large fraction of the cost."

He died in 2014, so they sold back then (way before bitcoin started to surge in price). They got about $12,000 for the lot.

[Yatsan]

The man himself has the answer.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=155054.msg1643833#msg1643833

He mined a bit but soon stopped. They were a worthless curiosity when he mined them though from reading his exchanges with Satoshi he was clearly thinking about future value.

The OP missed to read that thread where Hal Finney posted his story 5 months before he totally got inactive, more likely the start of his last year since he died in August 2014 and the last post he did was also in August of the past year. Regarding his mining stuffs, I must say they are just mining because the mail told them to mine and they were clueless of the potential of it coz he is not surprised when he saw the project getting real monetary value.

At the bottom of the post he mentions he's left the coins stored in a safe deposit box.

I'm pretty sure he really did this, I would too if I were him, but I'm just slightly skeptical on what his heirs do to the safe box. Did they already move it?

[gentlemand]

I'm pretty sure he really did this, I would too if I were him, but I'm just slightly skeptical on what his heirs do to the safe box. Did they already move it?

Not sure. I do seem to remember that they were tracked down and threatened with 'swatting' if they didn't give in to the extortion attempt.

As above I wonder how much of it was eaten in medical costs.

[bitmover]

As above I wonder how much of it was eaten in medical costs.

Probably a lot, but their heirs got some

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.

Did they already move it?

I believe those btc addresses are not public.  He probably worried about his privacy and his heirs.

[dothebeats]

Hal Finney must have accumulated a ton of bitcoin.
What ever happened to them?
After his death, have they been sold?

They sold a lot of it to pay for his medical treatment in the years before his death, plus teh costs of cryonicly freezing him:

Considering that the price range for cryonics range from $28000-$200k depending on whether you only want your brain or whole body to be frozen, it's possible that they really sold those bitcoins when Hal was still alive. ALS is no joke expensive to treat--or lessen the effects and help the affected individual comfortable since there really is no medically-proven method that cures it--and it might be that the Finney estate exhausted their money over time.

He died in 2014, so they sold back then (way before bitcoin started to surge in price). They got about $12,000 for the lot.

If Hal was mining ever since the start of the network, this will put him to the hundred thousands of bitcoin on the safe, if not million/s IMO, so I don't think $12000 is the right valuation for what he has in store for his heir. What the $12000 stands for, perhaps, is the donation they received when Hal was still alive.

[gentlemand]

If Hal was mining ever since the start of the network, this will put him to the hundred thousands of bitcoin on the safe, if not million/s IMO, so I don't think $12000 is the right valuation for what he has in store for his heir. What the $12000 stands for, perhaps, is the donation they received when Hal was still alive.

In the linked post he talks about mining for a few days and then stopping, not liking the effect it had on his computer. He then writes about forgetting about Bitcoin until over a year later.

I'm surprised at that as I remember him saying he'd been waiting for many, many years for something like it to arrive.

At the time it would've been just another project popping up, albeit an extremely interesting one.

[hv_]

Hal Finney must have accumulated a ton of bitcoin.
What ever happened to them?
After his death, have they been sold?

They sold a lot of it to pay for his medical treatment in the years before his death, plus teh costs of cryonicly freezing him:

https://www.wired.com/2014/08/hal-finney/

Finney never quite got rich from his early bitcoin involvement, according to Fran. Much of their savings went toward his health care as his condition deteriorated. They traded the majority of his bitcoins for dollars long before the currency's spike in value late last year.

After my story on Finney's life and work, bitcoiners donated 25 bitcoins to Finney and his family, a sum that's worth close to $12,500 today. Initially, Fran Finney tells me, the family intended to spend that money to buy Finney a new computer interface that would use an electromyographic (EMG) switch to read electric signals from surface muscle, allowing him to better control his voice and writing software. But the interface was incompatible with the few muscles Finney still controlled, leaving him locked in a body that increasingly prevented him from communicating at all.

So instead, the bitcoin donations will now go toward Finney's cryonic procedures, along with a life insurance policy the Finneys have maintained for years to prepare for Alcor's substantial fee. "Once we realized that Hal wasn’t going to be able to use the EMG switch, this was our next choice," says Fran. "The bitcoins will cover a large fraction of the cost."

He died in 2014, so they sold back then (way before bitcoin started to surge in price). They got about $12,000 for the lot.

Yep. Heard he had to pay lots for medication.
Guess he sold all

[DooMAD]

I don't get why anyone thinks it's their business.  It's not your bitcoin, so surely the most reasonable argument to make is that it's of no concern to you where it ended up. 

[KieranG]

I don't get why anyone thinks it's their business.  It's not your bitcoin, so surely the most reasonable argument to make is that it's of no concern to you where it ended up. 

I agree with this so much and it's one of the reasons that I like the fact that a BTC address is just a random assortment of numbers and letters and has nothing defining it for privacy's sake.

Why does it matter to any of us?

[amacar2]

Why does it matter to any of us?

The one and only natural reason is the money involved in the story 
People are curious about bitcoin he might had before he died and may be someone thinking of pinning it down from some kind of word puzzle he might have ever made LOL

[joniboini]

Why does it matter to any of us?

I can only think that some users must be afraid that his bitcoin will somehow got dumped on the market (assuming he has that 'ton of bitcoin'). Other than that, who knows.

[gentlemand]

I don't get why anyone thinks it's their business.  It's not your bitcoin, so surely the most reasonable argument to make is that it's of no concern to you where it ended up. 

Because some think he was right behind Satoshi in having a mountain of it. That's clearly not the case but it's an easy thing to assume. Everyone seems to believe that if you were there at the start you instantly knew it would be where it is today and stuck at it through thick and thin.

[piebeyb]

I quote Hal Finney statement that it seems like his bitcoin has been passed on to his children, if I look at the threads see below that his sons and daughters understand technology and he feels comfortable with his inheritance, I don't know many of his bitcoins have been sold or not by his children I am not his heir so I don't want to know the many bitcoins he has and that is also none of our business here  

[hv_]

I don't get why anyone thinks it's their business.  It's not your bitcoin, so surely the most reasonable argument to make is that it's of no concern to you where it ended up. 

This is true. Not our business